I am a US citizen from out of state. Currently at UChicago. I am first gen. I can major in history at Columbia.
My GPA at UChicago is going to be a 3.84. UChicago runs on the trimester system and I’m currently a second year, but I’m planning to take off the second and third trimesters of this year, so I would like to transfer into Columbia to arrive with 2nd year standing. I got a 1540 SAT (1560 superscored.) Unweighted high school GPA was 4.0. I took as many APs as possible in high school, a couple 5s.
I’m good at writing essays. My extracurriculars have been pretty detailed and can tell a great story. My letters of recommendation from my professors are going to be just okay, as everyone at my school is really smart and it’s hard to stand out in class.
ty but the purpose of this post is for chancing so I’m looking for informed perspectives on if I’d get in transfer for Columbia and as for LOR I’m not really sure why that’s relevant but yeah if I was transferring out of Columbia (which I’m not) I’d encounter the same issue with LOR
I can’t chance you but I expect you would be competitive. You might look at planning out your semesters at Columbia, I expect you will need to attend three years/six semesters because of the core requirements (which sounds like you are aware.)
You don’t have to share this here, but will need to share with Columbia why you want to transfer, why Columbia is a better fit, and cover what you do between Dec and May during your schooling hiatus.
If you are certain you want to transfer, you would need to apply to some schools with higher acceptance rates including at least one affordable highly likely option.
okay thanks but again please do not respond to this post unless you have some actual expertise or insight here lol —the chance me category is for students trying to figure out whether X university application is a useful investment of one’s time or not and answers like this only crowd out helpful input
Out of state doesn’t matter for most private schools. Your chances of a successful transfer will largely depend on how convincing your essays can be on why you want to transfer.
Per the common data set, Columbia accepted about 10% of those applying to transfer into the university. Nobody here works for Columbia admissions and IMO nobody can reasonably give you more meaningful odds of admittance. I’m not sure what type of answer you expect to get on this forum.
A transfer from Chicago? First thing I’d want to know if I were a Columbia adcom would be what it is you don’t like about Chicago. Big city? Too many Core requirements? Not enough school spirit? Too politically active? Not active enough? Can you reasonably argue that there’s a course at Columbia that Chicago doesn’t have? Lots of potential minefields here.
Transferring to Columbia is a very high reach. I would put your chances in the low single digit percentages. If you take two quarters off at Chicago and apply to transfer to Columbia, the most likely scenario by far is that you will be rejected by Columbia. What would be your plan then? Would you then return to Chicago after having taken two semesters off? Taking a gap can be valuable for some students, but this plan, at least in my opinion, is not likely to result in anything other than a gap plus a return to Chicago (unless you also apply to other schools where admissions is way more likely compared to Columbia).
Letters of recommendation are very important when applying to high level universities. They get a LOT of applications from students who are academically qualified to be there. They have to differentiate somehow from among the long list of qualified students. LOR’s are one way to do this.
I have to wonder why you want to transfer. Both are excellent universities. Both have very strong reputations. Both are in large cities. Both will be full of very strong students. Both will be academically very challenging. It will be very difficult to stand out in class at either school. It might be equally difficult, or might be even harder to stand out in class at Columbia just because it is bigger. Frankly between Chicago and Columbia I would be hard pressed to know which is higher ranked overall or for your major without looking it up online, the rankings could switch between this year and next, but I would expect both to be very highly ranked and very academically demanding for a wide range of majors.
Generally in order to transfer to a highly ranked university you should show some compelling academic reason to transfer. Can you explain to us what this academic reason would be?
I have noticed that both Columbia and Chicago actually have more graduate students than undergraduate students. Completing your bachelor’s degree at Chicago and then applying for a graduate program at Columbia is an entirely reasonable thing to do. Most of the people who I know who have a graduate degree, or who are currently studying for a graduate degree, either got or will be getting their last degree at a different university compared to where they got their bachelor’s degree.
But the big question is: Why do you want to do this?
Edit to add: IF you can explain a compelling academic reason to transfer then I might guess that your chances of transferring might get up into the low double digit range, like 10%. This however is a very important “IF”. Certainly a 3.84 at Chicago makes the point that you are academically qualified to handle the course load at Columbia. This point will matter if you ever get to the point of applying to a graduate program at Columbia and if your Chicago GPA is still that good.
The other thing to consider is that Columbia core / GE requirements are different from those at Chicago, so you may have to catch up on them if you transfer.
In addition, transferring after 1+1/3 academic years (4 quarters or 2+2/3 semesters) of college may be awkward in terms of credits and course sequencing at a semester school like Columbia.
Since your academic credentials are very strong, it will probably come down to the elements of your application that the people on this forum do not know about, specifically, the holistic articulation of why Columbia is the right fit for you and vice versa.
Your profile is terrific but, based on what you have posted so far, I think your chances are lower than most transfer applicants to Columbia. Why? Usually, successful transfer applicants are able to clearly articulate a compelling academic need behind the transfer.
No, although my hunch is that if you go on reddit, you will eventually find someone who will tell you what you want to hear. In fact, I think that’s how reddit works.
I don’t think anyone has what you are looking for. Much will depend on things that cannot or should not be shared on a public forum such as essays, LORs, reason for wanting to transfer, etc.
IMO all you can do is develop the strongest application possible and see what happens. Be sure to have a back-up plan in case a transfer to Columbia doesn’t work out.