I am a first year math major at GMU, considering transfering somewhere considerably better. I had financial constraints in HS,so only applied to UVA and GMU. Bc of said constraints didn’t really take school too seriously, got decent grades, but far from stellar Had only state swimming for ec, something like 4.1 GPA, would drop by .2-.4 every second semester, and 1500 SAT from 10th grade. I want to apply to UVA, and maybe an IVY league or too for transfer. I took the GRE for fun recently, albeit unofficially, and scored a 320, if i study and retake in the winter can probably get 330+. Taking a bunch of hard math classes, 1 grad class and 2 high 400 level classes this semester, and 2-3 grad classes next semester + 1-2 400 level classes. I think near 4.0 GPA would be achievable if I actually apply myself, and am working with a PHD student on research. Am also planning on doing 3-5 clubs and will get half way to ASA from July- November passing FAM(actuary exam).Would I have a shot at any decent colleges?And any suggestions?
What has happened to improve your financial constraints and by how much?
Transfers typically get significantly less money than freshmen do. Why not continue where you are, knock the cover off the ball, and then figure out where to apply for grad school?
Why did you take the GRE ? Are you a grad student ?
What’s considerably better than GMU ? You mean ranked higher - right? You don’t know if there is better than GMU, certainly a fine school.
Do you enjoy the school ? Math is a great major. Work hard, do your best, and see what happens.
Transferring can have both financial and social issues. Besides UVA just turned you down. Perhaps you need an expanded list if you really don’t like GMU.
I was a math major in university, and got a master’s degree in a subfield of applied math (specifically operations research) at Stanford. The other students in the same master’s degree program had gotten their bachelor’s degrees at a huge range of universities.
I am not particularly familiar with GMU. However, there are a LOT of universities that are quite good at teaching in general, and at teaching mathematics. There are not a lot of mathematical secrets that MIT or Stanford are going to teach an undergraduate student that you could not also learn at 200 other universities.
If you do very well at GMU, then getting a master’s degree at a higher ranked university is quite realistic. Having related work or internship or research experience can also be helpful. Master’s degrees are however usually not funded so you would need to be able to pay for it. When you apply for a master’s degree, or any other graduate degree, they will not care what you did in high school. They will care a lot about what you are doing now as a university student. Also what you do as a university student will be way more important than where you do it.
I would be cautious about jumping ahead in mathematics. You want to understand the prerequisites very well before you take any particular class. Most things in math are based on a lot of other math that you need to learn first.
Are you in-state in Virginia? If so, and if you are doing very well at GMU, and if you can afford to pay for your studies at UVA, then you could apply to transfer after a year or two and see how it goes. However, transferring universities as an undergraduate student is in general relatively difficult, particularly when you are mostly looking to get to a higher ranked school. You also would be transferring into a university where you do not know people, which could put your behind in terms of getting research or internship opportunities.
However, getting your bachelor’s degree at one university and then getting a master’s degree at a different university, and possibly a higher ranked university, is relatively common. Of the people I know who have graduate degrees, most of them got their last degree at a different university compared to where they got their bachelor’s degree.
That was originally the plan, but I was talking to employers and other people I knew, and they said that there is a significant difference between GMU which is ranked 100 and UVA 24 when it comes to job application standouts. Financial constraints didn’t really change, but after learning about this I am more willing to take out a student loan. I would have gotten little money, because of specific family circumstances.
Thank you for the opinion! I am thinking about staying, don’t really like the school or campus, but I dont really care about that its more about school prestige. George Mason is ranked around 100, and so UVA, UMich, etc are considerably higher ranked. I am just starting school, but have taken an absurd amount of AP/DE classes in highschool, which allowed me to transfer at least 60 credits to GMU so I am already thinking of grad school, which is why i took the GRE. I think i will have a way better chance for transfer if for no other reason than my application for freshman was very half hearted, did not put much effort because I did not think it was worth the time, mistake but still happened. I also feel like my college stats would just look a lot better.
Thank you!Main reason I want to transfer is for presitege, very little alum at GMU that really go anywere which I hear is bad for hedgefund/quant an industry I am considering going into. I am in Virginia, but I would have to take out loans to pay for UVA which is why i wasn’t keen on going there earlier.I have taken an absurd amount of AP/DE classes in highschool, which allowed me to transfer at least 60 credits to GMU which I thought was good, but did not realize that 1.5-2 years would not be enough for undergrad as I didn’t consider all the nuances such as research or internships. I have already taken through calc 3 and linear algebra in hs, and have learned stocastic calculus and some part of dif eq on my own, I am still worreid that I missed out on something. I really appriciate your suggestions and insight!