Simple State to Prestigious Private

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Hey Everyone,

I am currently enrolled in a State School in Pennsylvania. I messed up in HS and that followed me into my Freshman year. I had then taken some time off from school to work and come up with a “plan” in terms of my educational goals. I’m currently a Professional Writing major. I’m declaring a minor this upcoming semester and I’m trying to figure out what to go with (International Studies, Political Science, Public Relations or Culture and Media Studies). My plan is full of contingencies and fallbacks. Which I feel is important given the current state of the job market, American education and the economy. Bottom Line: I want to transfer out to a better school my junior year. (I’m also fully aware that there are prestigious public schools as well, I’ve included a few. I know not every credit will transfer. I know some of the schools I’m looking at are difficult to get into.)

Job Prospects with my major as a stand alone B.A: Editing (Line/Private), Correspondence Work, Journalism, Publishing, Communication or Content Managing, Grant Writing, Community/Public Relations, Marketing, Advertising, Technical Writing, Research & Development, Writing (Creative/Linear), Screenplay Writer, Typist, Linguistics, Teaching, etc…

My “current” plan is getting my BA in Professional Writing> moving onto a Master’s Degree in ENG/Literature> receiving a research doctorate> and becoming a professor. A fall back would be Law School. I know what you’re thinking. Law School? Absolutely. My major requires a lot of research, reading and well writing. ONet as well as many forums are suggesting not to go Pre-Law, but rather go into a research field such as Professional Writing and Philosophy. Some of the best majors for law school also include STEM majors such as Biology, Chemistry, Medical Sciences, Physics and the Engineering Fields (but I’m awful at math), as being a lawyer relies heavily on research, reading, writing and communication.

After speaking to a few professors about my plan, they told me to get the hell out of dodge. They can’t land tenure track jobs. One of them told me she went to all listed “top 10 schools” which were Wellesley, Duke and UNC. Having a beefy degree is the most important aspect, obviously. However, getting the prospective employer interested in you based on the school name will open up some doors. I also feel the education will be better for the most part due to excellent funding, top notch professors, research departments, academic clubs and an academia heavy/rich environment. The school name alone may land me better opportunities with just the bachelors, help me get into a better graduate/law school than my state school name could and looks better for future employment prospects.

(About Me)
Sex: M
Race/ Nationality: White/ Ukrainian Mutt
HS: Private Catholic HS
Current College: PASSHE State School
Current Extra Curricular’s: President of Writing Club, English Club member and creating a campus Writers Workshop.
Possibilities: London, England Study Abroad (Winter Session)
Current Credit total: 42
Credits When Transferring: 75-78
2015 Spring Semester GPA: 3.33
Overall Transfer GPA Goal: 3.5+
Financial Aid: I Qualify

The universities/colleges that I’m looking at:
Villanova University
Temple University
Hofstra University
Ithaca College
Swarthmore College
Haverford College
Sarah Lawrence College
Fordham University
University of Pittsburgh
Bucknell University
The New School
Pratt Institute
Syracuse University
Vassar University
Franklin & Marshall College
Hunter College
Brandeis University
Amherst College
Tufts University
NYU
Boston University
Boston College
Penn State University
Drexel University
Barnard College
Reed College
Emory University
Amherst College
College of William and Mary
Loyola University

I understand I wasn’t amazing academically, especially in high school. However, I am going to have a 3.5+ GPA, I am President of a Club and I might have a study abroad. So what do you think my chances are of getting into some of these schools. If you can or want to, make a top 10 easiest/hardest list of them. Tell me what you think. What should I do to improve my chances of transferring to one of these schools. Is transferring in more difficult than initially right out of school. Be blunt. Be honest. Be fair.

Thanks in advance to those of you who contribute to this conversation. By answering you are not only helping me, you are helping people with a similar issue. Sorry if the post is too long, I just wanted to be thorough.
Thanks, ~J

2

Transferring in is much harder- even just on the numbers: in first year they have a whole class to fill. Most people who don’t settle in the first year transfer pretty quickly, so there is bit of movement then. By third year, there are only spaces from people who left after second year. For many of the colleges on your list that will be a very very small number.

I generally disagree with this. The name itself won’t make much of a difference. For any specific grad school any one of the schools you have listed could make a difference- in that random way that life works, of people knowing people. For English Lit masters, “professional writing” won’t do you as much good as majoring in, well, English Lit.

For law school, which is very much a numbers game, it won’t make any difference at all what school you go to (*except that H&Y do take a lot of students from name schools).

Which is good…but there is also a real lack of focus. Your major isn’t a great fit for your proposed Master, and your proposed minors don’t relate to anything you have mentioned in your post.

IMO, you need to keep working on what it is you want to do. I suspect that you can get there from your current school, but I am pretty sure that your best chance of getting in to any of the schools you listed as a junior will be your ability to make the case that that particular school has something about it that makes it just right for your plans.

3

First of all, congratulations on getting serious about your academic career and for taking the time off to work and figure out what you really want to do. I’m sure you realize there are a whole bunch of students out there putting out mediocre academic performance with no clue on their future who are using college as something to do for the time being. Well done on a more intelligent, mature approach. It bodes very well for your future.

Now, your goals are commendable and it will be harder to transfer into some of those schools but your chances will improve with knowledge of the process and a good strategy. You have a very broad range of schools there with various levels of selectivity - you should not apply to ALL of them of course. You SHOULD read their websites very carefully on the requirements for a transfer student and you should try to get hold of some stats on percentage acceptance or #'s enrolled to give you an idea of difficulty. You might have a better shot with a school that accepts large numbers transferring in from community college or feeder schools because they are used to transfers-in. Or schools that happen to have a higher transfer-in/transfer-out %. Make sure to include at least a couple of those as your back-ups (assuming they aren’t your first choice). Have a couple of “reaches”, and one or two “sure bets” and you should be in good shape for a transfer somewhere.

For a transfer student it’s all about performance at the previous school as opposed to high school GPA or standardized scores. So keep up the good work, make sure to get good recommendations if they are needed, and have a good insightful essay explaining your journey to maturity if one is needed. Good luck!