Transfer chances for some Top 50 colleges?

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Hey guys!

I’m looking to apply as a sophomore transfer to quite a few top 50 schools, more specifically (major listed next to college):
Boston College - Islamic Civilizations and Societies
Columbia - Religion / Ancient Studies / French
Cornell - Hotel Administration
Duke - Global Health / Markets & Management Studies / Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Emory - French / Religion
Harvard - Folklore & Mythology
NYU - Steinhardt: Global Public Health - Media, Culture, and Communication
Northwestern - Radio, Television, & Film
Stanford - Religious Studies / French / Ethics in Society
UChicago - Religion & Humanities / Islamic & Modern Middle Eastern Studies / Public Policy Studies
UMich - Sports Management
UPenn - Religious Studies
USC (Southern California) - International Relations (Global Business) / French
Vanderbilt - Public Policy / Religious Studies
Yale - Religious Studies / Global Affairs / French

Stats:
Ethnicity: African (Sudanese) but US Citizen
Gender: Male
ACT: 27 (only took once)
HS GPA: 3.75 (not sure if weighted or unweighted…this is what’s on my transcript)
Anticipated first year college GPA: 3.8 - 4.0

I understand that transfer acceptance rates to a lot of these colleges are sub 10%, but I want to let you guys know some vital information about me before you guys all jump on the “your stats are too low” train.

Information:
First, I am attending a top 100 college currently (more towards the 90’s area), and I am not happy to be here. You guys may be wondering why I decided to attend/apply to this school, but there’s a reason for that, which I’ll explain. In November of last year (2014) my girlfriend gave birth to our daughter, who was a stillborn. Before we found out that our child had passed away in the womb, I had only applied to one college (my safety where I am currently), and due to the grief/shock of everything, I didn’t apply to any other colleges during the 2014-2015 college app season. Luckily, I received enough financial aid from my safety to attend. However, I did not want really want to attend this college, but it was either my safety or CC, and my parents would never let me attend CC, so my safety it was! That being said, and almost a year later, things are finally returning to normal. My original plan was to apply to all of these colleges (plus a few more) last year during my senior year, but I just couldn’t. I couldn’t focus in school, at home, on apps, or on anything or anywhere. I just wanted to be left along with my grief. I don’t regret anything though, as I’d rather let everything out at once rather than hold on to it for the rest of my life. But now I am looking forward, and that’s why I am posting this (as cliche as this sounds). What are my chances?

Academic Rigor:
Freshman and Sophomore Year: I took all honors level courses, and one AP (my school only offered one AP during sophomore year and none during freshman year). It should also be noted that I was diagnosed with depression during freshman and sophomore year of high school, because in addition to taking the most rigorous courses available to me, I was also studying religion at home with a tutor in Sudan, which took up a tremendous amount of my time out of school. Thus, I was wedged between school work and religious work with no time for myself. I couldn’t handle the stress of doing two full time studies side by side, but continued to do so because my parents wanted me to. Eventually the stress caught up to me, and I had a nervous breakdown. Regardless, I passed Freshman and Sophomore year with about a B+ average (personally think this is terrible!!).

Junior Year: I took two AP’s, a few honors, and a few regular level courses. My counselor, parents, and I decided to take a mediocre course load so I wouldn’t get too stressed. I personally wanted to take all AP’s/Honors, but I couldn’t convince them otherwise. Passed Junior year with an A- average.

Senior Year: Original schedule was a full load of AP and honors courses, but after the incident, my counselor and parents decided that I should take a lighter course load, so I took two AP’s and the rest were regular level courses. Graduated with a 3.75 cumulative GPA.

Misc:
I partook only in a handful of clubs, and focused on two core clubs of interest to me; the Muslim Student Association where I was president from Sophomore year to Senior year, and my schools Fashion Club where I was president from Sophomore to Senior year as well. I’ve also held a prestigious internship with Zac Posen during summer of 2013, and Wes Gordon during summer 2014. My career goal is to launch my own menswear and womenswear line. I know you all must be wondering why I haven’t applied to FIT, Parsons, RISD, or other fashion schools, and that’s because I believe that you don’t have to attend fashion school to launch a career in Fashion. All it takes is perseverance, the right attitude, and knowing the right people. However, I still want to attend and graduate from college. Attending college is an experience that I personally think everyone should experience, so I do not want to give up on it. My intended majors may not have anything to do with Fashion, but that’s because I want to learn something new and unique in college, not something I already know (I am pretty experienced in the fashion field).

Any other info I should include?

Questions:
Should I retake the ACT? I feel like at this point there is no point in retaking it, as I’m already in college?
Should I include that I was diagnosed with depression on my app’s, or will it be viewed negatively?
Could being African help in the admissions process (since I’m a URM)?
I plan on including my incident that occurred last November. I’m not trying to use it as a sympathy card to get into a good college, but I do want to include this to let them know more about me personally, in addition to explaining why I am applying as a transfer.
I plan on submitting some fashion sketches as an art supplement, how much will this help?
Will applying to non-art majors hurt me, since my extra curricula’s are so fashion centered, and I specified on the common app that my career goal is to be the Creative Director of a fashion house/my own line? I plan on explaining that I want to learn something new and unique in college to increase my general knowledge (I absolutely love learning about all sorts of things from Sports to CPU’s, types of herbs, etc. I love learning!!)

What do you guys think? What are my chances at the above listed colleges?

Thank you for taking the time to read this and reply! I appreciate it.

2

I’ll just speak to the very top schools on your list. Here is what you should know-- the seats at Ivy-plus schools that are available for transfers is largely tied to attrition. Since attrition is almost non-existent in the top Ivy schools, so are the seats available. By way of example, recently, Harvard had over 1500 applicants and admitted about 15, and Yale had over a 1000 applicants in which about 2 dozen were offered seats. So, while being qualified is certainly a criteria, the other portion must convey why these schools; typical reasons are that these schools offer programs and/or degrees not offered at your existing institution.

Second, that you could have obtained admission as a freshmen applicant. Third, that you have perfect scores at your current institution. Long story short…it is much more difficult to obtain admission as a transfer than as applying for a freshmen seat…

Cal and Cornell reserve the majority of their transfer spots for state residents already in their respective systems. But, it will be very very uphill in any event…

3

@boolaHI I’m aware, which make it so much more stressful! The majors I’m applying to are actually not available at my current institution, so I have that part down. Any other info or advice?

4

Hmmmn, some of the decision making is out of your hands, and transfer to Ivy-plus schools are going to be a hard-row. That said, of the schools you have listed, USC, BC and Emory are probably your best bets.

5

@boolaHI thank you! Bump for anyone else who might want to chance me or add anything.

6

First, can you afford USC at $60+K - $70k per year?

Transfers don’t get much in the way of funding. Lots of loans in their FA packages.

Also, once you begin at a university, the colleges look at what you’ve done at your current university. You’re bringing up high school information which doesn’t really count now.
Rehashing your high school accomplishments won’t really help unless you’ve continued an internship or similar. Put all of that HS stuff on the back burner. You should list what you’ve done at your college.
Dont retake your ACT, it’s really intended as a high school test.

I don’t see much in the way of your current school activities, or current GPA, so your chances are like everyone else’s-a reach.

7

Sorry, but IMHO, you don't stand a chance. In a recent survey of Harvard freshman, the average composite SAT score was 2228 or about a 34 ACT. If that's the average ACT of freshman applicants, successful transfer applicants need that score or better!

In the same survey, Harvard freshman reported the average unweighted GPA in high school was a 3.9, with more than 54% of freshman reporting a perfect 4.0. Again, if that's the average of freshman applicants, successful transfer applicants need that score or better. So, if you have a 3.9 or better, your chances will be better, but . . . .

Do you? Last year Harvard accepted about 18 transfer student's -- out of over 1500 applicants, for an acceptance rate of about 1%. And I'm 99.99999% positive not one of those successful transfer students had an ACT of 27 -- not even the recruited athletes, or URM's.

Y - E - S!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! One of the highest costs on college campuses these days is health care. If you mention your diagnosis of depression, Admissions will just find some other reason to reject you: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/03/18/mental-health-breakdown-when-harvard-fails-its-students.html

[quote] Paul Barreira is a psychiatrist and director of Harvard Health Services. He says it’s not Harvard’s job to provide long-term mental health care, but rather, to treat students so they can be productive and happy, and get the most out of their four years. “This is not a social service agency,” says Barreira. And though Harvard has a $30.7 billion endowment, “there is no endowment dedicated to providing mental health services.”

[/quote]

Not unless you have competitive SAT/ACT scores or GPA -- and right now your ACT is far below Harvard's 25th percentile ACT score of 31.

Maybe you should try FIT. Harvard doesn’t offer a concentration in fashion design, so it won’t help. If you are interested in Harvard’s Folklore & Mythology concentration, you need to demonstrate that you’ve exhausted Folklore & Mythology classes at your current college, thereby showing an academic need to transfer" https://college.harvard.edu/admissions/application-process/transferring-harvard-college

Once again, while Harvard offers a concentration in studio art -- painting, drawing, sculpting -- no degree's are offered in fashion design. So, you really need to apply elsewhere. Why do you want Harvard?

You are one of the very few applicant’s that I can easily predict will be rejected, as fashion design is not something Harvard offers – academically or extracurricularly (although you might want to frame it as theatrical costume design to increase your chances), BUT more importantly you don’t have the necessary test scores or GPA to be a competitive transfer applicant regardless of your race.

8

@gibby thanks for the reply! I understand where you’re coming from - I anticipate a rejection from all of the top 10 colleges I’m applying to, but it doesn’t hurt to try! In regards to your question, I’m not applying to FIT or Parsons or any other fashion school primarily because I don’t want to spend the next four years learning information I already know. I’m one of those people who loves learning about all sorts of subjects; I love knowledge. That’s why I’m applying to all of these different schools & majors. These are all majors I’m genuinely interested in. Once again thanks for the reply! Any other information you think I should know?

9

@aunt bea first, thanks for the reply! I plan on continuing my HS extra curricula’s into college - I’m going to focus on the Muslim Student Association & Fashion related activities. I wasn’t aware of USC’s FA for transfers, so thank you for that, as I would need FA to attend. Should I cross is off my list? I would need significant FA from all of these colleges in order to attend because I come from a low-income family. Any other advice or information?