I’ll be a freshman at Penn State this fall as a bio major. I know it’s not ideal to think about transferring, but I have some questions if I decide to transfer. I’m interested in elite schools I loved but didn’t get into or got waitlisted for, like NYU, Boston University, and Columbia. Should I transfer after my first year or wait until after my sophomore year to show two years of college success? In high school, I didn’t do super well, but also not badly, and I have solid extracurriculars. My counselor suggests waiting until after sophomore year, but I’m worried about even finishing my first year here. The school isn’t my top choice, and I feel other universities offer more opportunities.
I got waitlisted at NYU, rejected from BU, and didn’t apply Columbia.
If you wait until spring of soph year to complete transfer apps, your HS record will be of less, if any, importance. You will need strong academic performance and strong ECs in college to transfer to the schools you mention. Will those schools be affordable for you?
I agree.
You make your own opportunities. No matter what school you are attending. I know that might sound trite, but it’s true. Penn State is overflowing with opportunities…so many that one student will never be able to take advantage of them all. PSU also has a very strong alumni network (Personally I would say stronger than NYU or BU.) @myos1634?
Good luck to you this Fall!
All of these will be a reach even as a transfer. If you were rejected from BU, I personally think you shouldn’t apply there again.
If you apply for admission your sophomore year of college, your HS record will be used…again. Since nothing will have changed, it’s very possible the outcomes won’t change either.
What “opportunities” do you think you are missing if you attend Penn State.
What will you do with your bio major, which is typically low paying?
Penn State is a huge name (if that’s what you are seeking) - it’s also different in geography than urban Columbia, BU, and NYU.
There are other urban schools if that’s what you seek - from a Pitt, UMN, College of Charleston, etc.
I honestly think you’re missing little academically, if anything. Rankings are to sell magazines.
How about excel at Penn State, have a great experience, and forget about leaving. If you already have one foot out the door, how can your experience be optimal - and that includes academically.
SUNY Buffalo…check that one out but not to transfer after freshman year. @aunt_bea
I agree…make the most of Penn State. We know a number of very happy students and grads from that school…and successful also.
@haerinn
What AP and Honors courses had you taken in HS? What was your unweighted GPA?
What do you want to do with a biology major?
What makes PSU a less than ideal choice for you? How did you choose it among your other acceptances and what were those?
A way for you to have a more “exclusive” experience would be to switch your major to Anthropological Science and request to join Paterno Scholars Aspirants. You’d be among top students in small groups (with a better shot at personalized advising and letters of recommendation) and if later on you’d still want to transfer it’d indicate higher than average rigor.
Anthropological science with the biology option is very open- basically you can complete a biology major depending on the choices you make for the “open” course. choices.
You can also do research in applied biological sciences (facilitated by Paterno Scholars), take courses in biostatistics, etc.
As for transferring, yes you’d need to send the application Spring 2027 to have a shot - NYU is unlikely to disregard their previous decision after just one semester of grades at Penn State. Same with BU.
At the Paterno Fellow Aspirant website, they explain how you can join.
Not convinced that this is a reason to transfer–especially for a biology major from such a highly respected school as Penn State University.
Obvious differences are rural to urban and public to private.
Since you need financial aid, this is another issue to investigate.
IMO it is a mistake to think about transferring before you even start college. This mindset will stand in the way of your developing meaningful friendships, creating relationships with professors, getting involved in ECs, etc.
Be aware that s successful transfer can absolutely be done but it is not easy. You will he starting in a new environment when the vast majority of your peers will have established routines, friendships, awareness of professor expectations, etc. while much will be new to you.
I’d recommend you start Penn State (a school so many students love and thrive at) with the intent of staying four years. It is fine to throw in some transfer applications (I’d recommend after sophomore year) but I would not count on them working out.
As a side note, Columbia has a huge core curriculum and it may be difficult to complete all the courses required for graduation (the core plus your major) and graduate on time.
Some of these elite schools will want to know the reason you wish to transfer. And “I want to go to a more elite school” won’t suffice.
Usually it’s things like:
- Current college doesn’t offer your major area of interest (that’s not you).
- You need to be closer to home for family reasons (that’s not you).
Things like that. What will you put for your reason for transferring to an elite college/university?
What do you intend to do with a degree in biology? Biology is a field where some form of graduate degree is relatively likely.
If you intend to be premed and go on to medical school, Penn State is a great university to be premed. In terms of your chances to go to medical school, it is dubious that you would gain anything by transferring to NYU, BU, or Columbia.
If you intend to go on to get a master’s degree or a PhD, then a bachelor’s degree from Penn State can set you up to do very well in graduate school admissions.
A close family member got their bachelor’s degree from a school that is ranked lower than Penn State (but was close to home and gave good merit aid, implying it was affordable). Then they got two closely related master’s degrees from Columbia. All of this was in a biology / health care related field. They have done very well since in their career.
Another close family member got a bachelor’s degree in biology from a school that would probably be ranked about the same as Penn State, in the unlikely event that they ever showed up in the same ranking, and is currently getting a PhD in a biomedical field from a very good program (well ranked, and a very good fit for the particular research that they want to do).
Some things that will help you a lot in terms of getting accepted to a good graduate program (whether medical school or something else): Great grades in university. Getting to know your professors (and getting good letters of reference). Good experience (whether medical or research). You can get all of these at Penn State.
Some things that will not matter much or at all when applying to graduate programs: High school grades. Whether you get your bachelor’s degree at Penn State, BU, or NYU, or somewhere else.
As a biology major, you will have lots of classes that overlap with premed classes. Some of these are going to be tough. There will be lots of very strong students in these classes regardless of whether you are at Penn State or somewhere else. You are going to need to put in a huge effort to keep ahead in your class work. Attend every class. Pay attention. Keep way ahead in all of your class work. Expect to spend some Saturday afternoons and Sunday afternoons studying (hopefully you can mostly take Saturday evenings off, most of the time).
Have you even started yet at Penn State? You are going to find a lot of opportunities there.
Penn State is really a very good university. You can do really well starting with a bachelor’s degree from Penn State. This includes the opportunity to get accepted to graduate programs (whether medical or something else) pretty much anywhere. There will be lots of opportunities to participate in research and/or medical shadowing at Penn State.
Exactly.
Again exactly right.
I agree with others that if you wait to transfer after two years then your high school results will be way less important. I also agree that transferring to Columbia is a very high reach regardless of how you do at Penn State.
However, I think that your best plan by far is to work very hard at Penn State, stay way ahead in all of your course work, do very well there, and then look for other schools if and when you get around to thinking about graduate programs. Do not underestimate how academically demanding Penn State will be. Do not underestimate how strong the professors and the students there will be. This will be a challenge, but a challenge that the admissions staff at Penn State feel you can handle. It will not be easy.
Also, congratulations on your acceptance to Penn State! This really is an excellent opportunity. You should do your best to make the best of it. Congratulations, and best wishes.
Thinking about transferring to a higher ranked school before you even begin is not a good idea, imo. It will take time away from making friends, getting to know your profs, volunteering, internships etc. You will need these experiences not only for your own happiness, but also for medical school or any type of graduate program.
Transferring is hard. It is harder to make friends, gain leadership positions, relationships etc.
Penn State will provide you with an excellent education and will help set you up for whatever comes next..as long as you take advantage of opportunities. It’s on you, not the school.
So I agree you really should just stop at the thought it doesn’t make sense to be thinking about transferring, and just resolve to make the most of Penn State. Transferring somewhere else could be an option, but very likely you won’t.
Briefly, here are four scenarios:
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You start at a very good College, you thrive at College, you realize College has far more opportunities than you as an individual could ever make use of, and you happily stay at College to make use of those opportunities;
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Things don’t go so well at College, you realize a different college that is probably no more selective, and maybe less selective, than College would be a better fit for you, and you transfer;
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Things go well for you at College but there is some specific thing that you want to do that College doesn’t have, and so you transfer to another college, possibly one that was more selective than College, possibly not (e.g., see the kid recently considering transferring from Georgetown to Case because they wanted to do Engineering); and
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Things go well for you at College, it has all the opportunities you want, but you decide you want to go to a more selective college anyway just because it is more “elite”, and then they accept your transfer application and you go.
(1) is by far the most common scenario at selective four-year residential colleges. Meaning most people at such colleges end up happy where they start.
In terms of transfer scenarios, (2) and (3) both do happen sometimes. I note lots of people do start at community colleges or non-residential (aka commuter) four-year colleges, then transfer to selective four-year colleges, and that could be seen as a variation on (3).
But (4) is very, very rare. In part, that is because if things go well, most kids end up just choosing (1). But also, selective colleges are way more likely to be interested in applicants who fit into category (3) than category (4), particularly once you include community college and commuter college transfers in category (3).
OK, so the negative observation is if you try to transfer from Penn State to a more selective college only because you want to go to a more “elite” college, they probably won’t want you under those conditions.
But the positive observation is if you give Penn State a fair chance, it is very likely you will realize that transferring doesn’t even make sense, that if you are thriving at Penn State you will actually want to stay at Penn State.
But if for some reason you really can’t thrive at Penn State, OK, transferring is an option. But it probably won’t be to a more selective college, it will probably just be to a different type of college. Which is fine if you need it, just not something I would actually hope to happen going in.
IMO this is the key issue you face, not better opportunities if you could transfer. The same person who got those grades is going to be the one at PSU.
Assuming you want top grades in case you apply to transfer, have you thought about what you’ll do differently? Have you looked into the known ways to improve schoolwork such as self-testing and distributed practice? And have you worked thru how to ensure the changes will stick? Giving up new-years resolutions is practically a truism, probably the same is true of HS kids vowing to turn over a new leaf in college.
As a biology major you may go to med school, grad school etc. It is important to consider costs, as these degrees are expensive and there are big changes coming to student loans.
Closing at the OP’s request as they have gotten enough feedback.