Somewhat generic questions about transfering

Xeer12
Fri, 29 Nov 2013 00:38:39 +0000

Hi all,

I’m a freshman at the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor. I’m enrolled in both the Honors Program (theoretically the top 10% of U of M students. I’m not sure if this is actually the case) and the Residential College (smaller liberal arts college within the LSA). I don’t feel as though the people here are quite intellectual enough for me. It’s not that they aren’t intelligent per se but I feel as thought few people are very engaged on a deep intellectual level. I have a couple questions about transferring and if y’all would be kind enough to answer them that would be awesome.

I had a ~91.5 average in high school, took 8 APs (got 4s and 5s on all of them except for one which I received a 3). I received a 2200 on my SATs (750 CR, 750 M, 700 W) and finished top 50% of my class (hooray for grade inflation). How much will my stats from HS matter? Also, my school has since stopped reporting class rank. Do I still need to mention that I graduated top 50%? I may take the SATs again and try to pick up another 100 points. I was able to score 800s in the CR section with some regularity and I can definitely improve my writing score a bit.

Secondly, I’m looking at a 4.0 first semester of college. However, 8 of my 17 credits are pass/fail. (as part of the Residential College, everyone takes an intensive language course pass/fail.) Do y’all know if this will affect my admission chances? Will schools look at my grades for the second semester? Not that I’m planning on slacking off, just curious.

Lastly, any suggestions on where to apply? Currently I’m thinking: Haverford, Wesleyan, Swarthmore, Oberlin and Northwestern. Maybe Brown or Columbia? Any other ideas?

Thanks in advance!