Other special factors: (first generation to college, legacy, recruitable athlete, etc.)
URM? Cost Constraints / Budget
~150k parent income, support from rest of family
Intended Major(s)
Biomedical Engineering/Chemical/Enviromental (not 100% sure of which)
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
Unweighted HS GPA: ~3.9 (school doesn’t provide)
Weighted HS GPA: N/A
College GPA: 3.98
ACT/SAT Scores: 1520 (780 Math, 740 English)
List your HS coursework
Canadian HS
School did not offer AP, IB or Honors level courses.
Attended a French immersion school
English: 4 years
Math: 4 years including calculus 1
Science: 2 years general science, 2 years of chemistry and 2 years of physics
History and social studies: 4 years social studies incl 1 year native american centered class
Language other than English: 4 years of French lang, grd 9, 10 science in French, grd 9/10/11 social studies in French.
Other academic courses: Marketing and Computer studies
College Coursework (Transfer Applicants)
First Semester: Calc 1, Chem I + lab, Micro Econ, Engineering design
Second Semester: Calc II, Chem II + lab, Physics I, English Composition
Awards
Double Dogwood (completition of high school in both french and English)
HS graduation with Honors
Extracurriculars
College: Senator in Student Gov
Part of the Sustainability comitee
general member of a couple clubs
Hoping to get involved with sustainability research in spring
HS: Pretty abysmal for top schools
Involved with volunteering with blood services, donation centers, clean energy orgs
Did some free online tutoring for students in other countries
Wharton global youth summer program
Baseball for a couple years and some martial arts
Took part in country wide project/competition and did interviews with a womens shelter and create a presentation to advocate for more funding (didn’t win)
Helped with emails/correspondence last summer at politcal office for local congressperson
Reasons for transfer
My current school PSU abington doesn’t offer any of my 3 top majors, you have to transfer to the main PSU campus after 2 years to complete them.
It is a commuter school with over 90% of people commuting so there is only 1 dorm building which isn’t even on the campus. There is very little sense of community and social life is non existent. We have to take a shuttle from the dorm to campus.
Dining room isn’t even a dining room it’s just a little cafeteria which closes at 5:00 PM and hot food closes at like 4:00pm, not open on weekends or in afternnon Friday
There are not many opportunities at all. There are only a couple research projects for engineering/science happening in the entire school and none of them really have to do with my major or interests.
Essays/LORs/Other
Common App essay about my journey through middle school with ADHD and how it impacted my life and how I’ve grown from it
Supps: Gonna really hammer home my background- I have some carribean ancestry but was adopted by a Sikh and Jewish family at birth
Schools
Open to more suggestions
Safety: UBC (Canada) Stay here for one more year and transfer to main campus (GPA guarantee)
Reach: USC, Notre dame, Northwestern
Big reach: Brown, Upenn, Dartmouth
Congratulations on a good first semester of college.
Why? You can mention this, but the focus should be on why you are transferring…major, other opportunities, etc and why the new school is a good fit and how you will engage if there.
I can’t remember if you applied to any of these schools last year. If so, what were those decisions?
Are you ok spending two years at Abingdon and then going to UBC? If you would rather not do that and want to be somewhere else next fall you will need to add some schools with higher acceptance rates.
Well I meant UBC after this year. The only reason I’d stay another year is to go to main campus or transfer to publics Umich, UW Seattle or UCLA etc. The only school on the list I applied to before was USC but I applied TO at Marshall and didn’t get in. The reason I haven’t added higher AR schools is cause I don’t wanna apply anywhere that I think is on par or only slightly better than PSU main campus cause then it’s not worth transferring imo.
That seems reasonable, but the most important issue for you is budget and whether PSU will be affordable or any of the transfer schools you are looking at. Have you run their NPCs?
Well to be honest I don’t really know 100%. I have quite a few plans though, I’m gonna get more support from my family and if I get into somewhere like really really good it seems like people will be more generous this time. I think If worst comes to worst I can take out loans from a relative (very very well off) and pay little to no interest on it. I’m not super focused on the NPC right now.
I did run the NPC using rough estimates and i did notice some differences. Notre Dame appears to be pretty affordable in comparison to places like USC using the same exact numbers. I did also realize the reason for the high costs was cause of home equity I think. At brown (doesn’t consider HE) my NPC is 27k but at USC it’s 65k with the same info.
Well, that’s really the question, isn’t it? What does “really good” mean?
You don’t have to go to a big name college to get a really good education in engineering. Biomedical research and manufacturing are really big in New Jersey. And biomedical engineering is the first of the possible majors you listed. New Jersey Institute of Technology, for example, is a big feeder to the biomedical engineering industry in that state. The cost of tuition, fees, room & board at NJIT for an out of state student before any financial aid is about $50,000. NJIT is a really good schoo in a really good location for what you’re interested in.
In contrast, at least half of the colleges you listed don’t have all 3 of the engineering majors you expressed interest in. Brown and Dartmouth both have smaller engineering schools and aren’t going to offer the same range of courses and majors as a bigger engineering school will.
In addition to NJ, Boston and the San Francisco Bay Area are both prime locations for biomedical engineering research & development. Worcester Polytech (WPI) in Massachusetts is a really good engineering school with relatively easy access to Boston. University of Massachusetts Medical School is also in Worcester. WPI is a really good engineering school in a great area for biomedical engineering. It also might be worth taking a look at. Unlike NJIT, WPI is a private college but Scholarships and financial aid are available to transfer students, which is not the case at all colleges. Check out the available scholarships on their website, especially the Phi Theta Kappa scholarship.
It’s a standard 4.0 scale where A is a 93% + the reason I can have 3.98 is cause I got all As and one A- in my lab class which is only 1 credit so it barely moved my GPA down.
No one here can answer you definitively, but with only 1 semester of college in the books, most schools will look at your high school record and test scores. If you have previously applied to any of these schools, you can expect the same results.
Yeah I meant like do I at least pass the first screening? Like the basic grades/test scores check so my application isn’t immediately thrown away. The only school on my list I previously applied to was USC and it was for Marshall not Viterbi. I tried to avoid applying at schools I previously applied to.
I’m sure your application will be thoroughly considered but the list of schools is very reachy and the odds are not in your favor. If you’d really like to transfer, I’d suggest adding some other schools to your list. Good luck to you!
If you are a nonresident to these schools, you won’t be able to afford them if you were to even get in. Priority for Transfer admission and scholarships goes to instate residents and especially their community college transfers. They are funded by their state’s taxpayers and don’t have extra monies to provide for nonresidents. Plus, schools like the UCs expect 2 years of coursework so just having one year may be a disadvantage. USC is private but they save their dollars for NMS, athletes, and artists/musicians that they need.
Why did you go to your current school if they didn’t have your majors?
Why would an engineering degree from UCLA or UW or USC give you any advantage over say UMN or U Arizona where you got in last time when you wanted ChemE and UMN is top 10?
You are too top ranked focus in my opinion, willing to take hundreds of thousands in loans, for a name that likely leads you to a similar outcome. You even tried schools that didn’t have your major like BC - just because if the name.
It’s engineering - budget is 1,2, and 3. If you want a big name that’s less expensive, where is Purdue - half the price of Michigan without aid.
No idea who would pay for engineering at Notre Dame (not known for it) over many other schools but you can see transfer rates in section D1 of the CDS. 232 of 842 got in. What we don’t know is how many of those were at an assured transfer school. Others like Cornell have inflated stats because they have guaranteed transfers. So the #s May look good but not be good for your similar type of student.
Dartmouth - need a 5th year in engineering so why on the list ? . UPenn - two years ago 185 of 3513 got in. So 5% ish. Probably many are two years in school.
So you are, with one year, highly unlikely but unless you try you’ll never know.
But for your sake I wish you’d get off pedigree. You had great acceptances, had to settle for Loyola because it was $22k you thought but it wasn’t - and now you are at a Penn State branch that you state is not like a real collegiate experience.
USC is $95k a year. Michigan $80k plus. Are these really worth your time in applying vs a school you can afford and will give you a great outcome- in many cases, the same outcome even if the name isn’t as fancy ?
Please learn from your past. Also, find out residency requirements for PA. Maybe you can qualify in state. Penn State and Pitt would both be outstanding options. Temple too.
Thoughts on Boston U, UNC (for bio med engineering joint with NC state), and UT Austin? Maybe U miami as well. For some schools that may be more hard targets than big reaches.