Transfer chances and advise

gibby
Sun, 02 Aug 2015 13:16:44 +0000

No matter what college you apply to as a transfer applicant, Admissions is going to value your college transcript and professor’s recommendations over your high school GPA or AP scores or SAT/ACT scores. So, forget about everything you have done in high school. What matters now is everything you are about to do at Carnegie Mellon.

You need to pick demanding courses at Carnegie Mellon. You need to ace every class with a grade not less than an A-. You need to take small classes, where a professor can personally get to know you so they can write you a stellar letter of recommendation. You need to involve yourself in extracurricular life at Carnegie Mellon so that you can prove that as a transfer student you would be a valuable asset to campus life.

And you need to think about what Harvard, Stanford, Yale and Cornell would offer you that you cannot get from Carnegie Mellon. I happen to like Yale’s wording on their transfer page.

Transfer candidates should also have particularly compelling and well-defined academic reasons for wishing to attend Yale.

Wanting to leave one’s current school is not a sufficient argument for admission to Yale. Transfer candidates should explain in their application essays how studying at Yale would give them an educational opportunity particular to their interests that could be experienced nowhere else.

And this from Harvard

We welcome a very small number of transfer students to Harvard College. We look for:

A clearly defined academic need to transfer

A proven record of achievement at your current college level

Strong faculty recommendations.

Given that Carnegie Mellon is a world-class institution, all of the above will be tremendously difficult to do if you don’t enjoy your experience there. So, my suggestion is to embrace Carnegie Mellon – it’s a wonderful college. Be open to the possibility that Carnegie Mellon graduates do well in life. And you will to by graduating from CMU!

Lastly, a true story that I’ve written about before

Three kids from New York City go to the same elementary school together. All three go to different middle schools, high schools, and colleges. One goes to UMich, one goes to Vanderbilt and one goes to Harvard. All three graduate last year and go to work for Bloomberg LP in the SAME department. Now, after a year of working at Bloomberg, which kid gets the promotion and the top job?

Answer: The kid from UMich got the promotion because she was more personable, friendly and clients liked dealing with her better. So, in the end, I think it matters LESS where you graduate from and MORE about your people skills and what your life experience (as a 22 year old) brings to a job.