Transfer!! from Art to Veterinary (RISD to Cornell) Chance please!

Transfer Students
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<p>I put this in the Chance Me thread originally, but this is probably a better place, haha.
Well, here goes…</p>

<p>Hi! I’m actually doing a transfer from the Rhode Island School of the Design, to hopefully Cornell’s College of Arts and Sciences or College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. If you haven’t laughed yourself to death at this weird switch, please keep reading! I assure you I’m not joking about this.</p>

<p>I am an Asian-American, Chinese and English are both interchangeably spoken at home, but I am very, very fluent in English…not so much Chinese. I recently completed freshman year at the Rhode Island School of Design, to be an Illustration major next year (to make my way into the video game industry, believe it or not). I then realized for a few reasons that art school was probably not right for me, given that my favorite classes were not actually my art classes but my liberal arts classes, and I was feeling extremely bored and unchallenged. Long story short, I want to go into Pre-veterinary, complete the required credits for Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences transfer for juniors during Spring 2010, and do an internal transfer into that. Yup. When I was originally applying for colleges (man, that was a while ago…), my common app essay was actually all about how much I love animals/cats. So this isn’t really coming out of nowhere, haha.</p>

<p>Previous to going to RISD, I was accepted into Northwestern University, NYU School of Nursing, and Carnegie Mellon (for art, though). I never applied to Cornell for some reason (I think I was under the impression it was a desolate and dead place…not anymore), but was seriously torn between RISD and Northwestern when deciding where to go. It was a war between if I should go into art or academics.</p>

<p>Now, stats:
High School GPA, unweighted: 3.76/4.0 (I think…been a while…), weighted: 3.9/4.0
SATS: Cumulative? Math: 680, Reading: 750, Writing: 800
SAT IIs: Biology M: 750, Math I: 680, US Hist: 650 (Lol…well, I didn’t really like the SAT IIs xD)
AP tests:
Art - 5
Chem - 5
Macroecon - 4
Eng Lit/Comp - 5
Calculus BC - 4, Calc AB Subgrade - 4
Physics C (Mechanics) - 4
Physics C (Electricity and Magnetism) - 2 (heh)
US History - 4
Biology - 5
Eng Lang/Comp - 5
Euro History - 4</p>

<p>Honors and Whatnot:
AP Scholar with Distinction, Nat’l AP Scholar, National Merit Scholarship - Commended, some art awards/exhibitions/scholarships
Extracurriculars:
Secretary of Asian American Cultural Club in high school, National Art Honor Society in high school, resident artist of the Dance Theatre Club, some school leadership thing where you help freshmen adjust, the NYU Steinhardt Summer Art Intensive…basically, much of my extracurriculars were art-related, a testament to my focus on art in high school.</p>

<p>Work Experience:
Tour guide at RISD, and I was a private tutor for biology/chemistry in high school.</p>

<p>Explanations…Well, RISD basically has very few extracurricular opportunities, as well as the highest freshman work hours/sleep hours…This gives you very few opportunities to go out and pretty much do anything outside of work/eat/sleep. So sadly, didn’t do much in college. Also, as a freshman it’s pretty much impossible to take the offered shared classes at Brown, and RISD liberal arts are laughable…
So I didn’t do very well first semester =x <em>shame</em>:
GPA: 3.4, I got A’s in my favorite studio classes (2D and Drawing) and B’s in 3D Design/the liberal arts classes they chose for us upon acceptance (for me, Intro to African American Lit/Art History)
Then there’s this thing called Wintersession, basically a mini semester. I took a Graphic Novel class and Ethnography (art history), and got a 4.0 for that semester.
2nd semester I got straight A’s except for 3D…C+ lol but 3.660 GPA. I took Ecology at RISD that semester under a professor from Brown University. It was her class that made me realize how much I really wanted to do veterinary or something animal-related. She told me she would love to write me a letter of recommendation, so this will probably be the letter of rec I am going to use =).</p>

<p>All in all, I do realize that it is very bizarre for an art student to suddenly want to become a veterinarian, but I DESPERATELY want this to happen. The reason I am transferring to Arts and Sciences first is because to do Pre-vet at Agri and Life Sci, you have to have Bio 1/2, orgo chem 1/2, Writing 1/2, and Calc or Physics 1/2 credits when you transfer in with 3 or 4 completed semesters of college behind you. My APs cover most of this, but I’d like to get comfortable with the level of work at Cornell/get more credits for a semester before I transfer in.</p>

<p>I’ve read that for CAS, transferring in is actually more difficult than normal admittance, and for CALS, it’s a bit easier…</p>

<p>Please let me know how you think I’ll do! Thank you =) Best of luck to you guys as well!</p>

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<p>Oh yeah, also, my class rank in high school was #17 out of…forgot, but it was top 5% (just barely). Yup.</p>

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<p>I think you should directly apply to CALS with your major declared as animal science or biological sciences. If you’re worried about pre-reqs, then take the appropriate science courses at Brown next semester; I don’t think applying to CAS with the intention of doing an IT later is a good idea.</p>

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<p>Thanks! I was wondering if this was a good idea. As it turns out, if I want to get into CALS as a junior with an animal science major, I need: Biology 1,2, Writing 1,2, Chem 1,2, with Orgo 1,2 strongly recommended. My APs cover Bio 1,2, part? or all of the writing courses, half of Chem, and half of physics, and none of orgo…Which means I would have to take Orgo 1,2, or a semester of Physics, and maybe more at Brown, when I’m only allowed to take (or rather, it’s only possible to take) up to two liberal arts in a RISD curriculum. I think I’ll try to apply to CALS since they have a higher transfer acceptance rate, but it might be best for me to just complete the rest in CAS, since I will be transferring into CALS as a junior whether I have 3 or 4 semesters of college completed.</p>

<p>This credits transfer is tricky business =( Do you think they’d accept me even if I didn’t have the right credits just yet?</p>

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<p>If you don’t want to be at RISD any longer, and you are in-state for NY, you may be better off to enroll at a community college for the coming year or at one of the SUNYs that still has space. This way, you can start the pre-vet sequence immediately. If you want to continue at CALS, apply for a transfer for the spring term, or for next fall. Since your long-term goal is Vet school, a biology major with pre-vet sequence from one of the SUNYs would do. You don’t absolutely need to get to Cornell right now.</p>

<p>Another possibility at Cornell would be Human Ecology. You could do a major in nutrition with a focus on biochemistry rather than dietetics, and take an animal science class or two along the way.</p>

<p>Wishing you all the best.</p>

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<p>Thanks! The thing is, RISD is actually a great school, if anything for putting its name on your resume and snatching up jobs post graduation (or earlier). I do feel suffocated there due to the VERY small student body (lots of social mismatches there…), and really unchallenged. Nevertheless, if Cornell falls through, I don’t think I’m ready to give up RISD. Otherwise, I’d probably run away to a SUNY school immediately and see where to go from there, haha.</p>

<p>The human ecology suggestion sounds interesting, I think you can put an alternate major on your transfer app if you don’t get into your primary one.</p>

<p>Umm…I did hear that for all applications (undergrad), Cornell will consider you for another school if they think you don’t fit in the one you applied for. Is that true?</p>

<p>Once again, thank you for all the comments =)</p>

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<p>I don’t know the specifics of undergrad admission at Cornell. You may want to ask some of your questions at the Cornell sub-forum. Here’s a link to it: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/cornell-university/[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/cornell-university/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Since you are planning to stay at RISD for now, why not get in touch with the department(s) you would want to transfer into at Cornell? They may be able to give you more specific advice on planning your coursework for a successful transfer.</p>

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<p>So I contacted CALS admissions office, and though I’m pretty sure the lady was just being nice to me, the fact I’m missing their required preparatory credits won’t look very good “but they’ll still look at your application.” She did say, however, that if I provide an explanation in the “Additional information” section as to why I’m missing these courses, they will definitely take that into consideration.</p>

<p>Funnily enough, if not enough of my RISD courses translate into Cornell courses for credit, I might transfer in as a sophomore, in which case I do have enough credits for CALS in terms of prereqs.</p>

<p>I’ll definitely get in touch with the departments, though. Thanks for all your replies, I’m really glad someone hasn’t said “your transfer is totally weird and can’t happen,” yet. =) I probably just jinxed myself.</p>