Transfer With Disparate Interests/Majors

Transfer Students
1

Hi, so I’m looking to transfer out of my current school (public, ~65 USNWR) to a couple schools including Columbia, Penn, or maybe Yale. The primary driver for wanting to transfer is the research in a particular subfield (OCD) that is being done at these schools. I would likely major in Cognitive Science/Neuroscience. I have worked with three labs on campus in linguistics, developmental psychology, and neuroscience, but cannot demonstrate interest in OCD at my current school very well, due to the lack of research going on.

However, I am also very interested in Persian. I took the language in high school and want to continue learning it to high levels. I have demonstrated interest in Persian in a number of ways.

My eventual goal is to work in a Persian-speaking country (Tajikistan, Afghanistan, etc) and help improve the medical systems, but I find OCD really fascinating in itself.

How do I approach this duality in my essays without pigeonholing my essays into one interest or the other? Does having two distinct majors decrease my chances of admission? I feel that my lack of involvement with OCD-related ECs/Research hurts my application.

Stats for reference: College GPA: 4.0, HS GPA: 3.83, ACT: 35, No URM/Hooks/APs. Middle class.

Thanks for the help!

2

Have you also considered JHU, UMi, UPitt, UCSD or URochester, is this an Ivy-only exercise?

3

I’m also applying to JHU (actually one of my top choices). My goal isn’t prestige, so much as it is the research that I’d like to do. It just so happens that a number of the schools that make a difference in the field (and have good financial aid) are Ivys.

The other schools on your list are public (and don’t give much aid to OOS students), and I do need a lot of aid (which the schools I mentioned and JHU are willing to give).

4

URochester is private but it’s max scholarship for transfers is (iirc) ~$20K