<p>I am a freshman in a relatively good public school. however, things don’t work out well for me and I really want to transfer out to a good private school for fall 2010.</p>
<p>My major is computer engineering and I can manage to get around 3.8 GPA this semester.
However, my SAT scores weren’t really that good= </p>
<p>SAT 1 : 2010 (780 M, 620 W, 610 CR)
SAT 2 : 800 Math I, 800 Math II, 700 Physics</p>
<p>I think I can get recommendations from my english teacher (she’s a TA) and my math professor. I’m involved in many clubs,activities, and volunteers here in my college although I’m not the president of any of them.</p>
<p>My transfer targets are:
Cornell
Northwestern
UPenn
Yale
Duke
Brown
Rice</p>
<p>My questions are:
Is it okay to apply to those many schools? If it’s not okay, could you narrow it down?
will my recommendation from my english TA be acceptable?</p>
<p>7 is at the high end for transfers, but not unheard of. The negatives are the cost and the time it takes to produce quality applications while you are taking classes. I agree with w_t, that if you’re set on transferring as a soph, you should have a safety.</p>
<p>w_t is also correct that as a soph transfer, your HS record (gpa and course rigor) and test scores will stil be very important since you’ve only completed 1 sem of college work.</p>
<p>i may add Vandy to the list, making it 8 colleges lol. The reason is that Vandy has a slightly bigger percentage of admitted transfers, around 50ish%, making that my ‘safety’. I know that I am only applying to top-private schools, the reason is if I am not admitted anywhere, might as well I wait for another year and try to apply once more for the junior year.</p>
<p>My high school grades were decent, but not great. Though my activities are WAY cooler when I was in high school. </p>
<p>anyway, I am taking 4 classes now: math, physics, english writing, and chinese.
I am pretty sure my writing teacher could write me a recommendation.</p>
<p>However, I still need one more rec from one of:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>from math professor: My grade is currently A. I go to his office hours sometime, but I also skip some lectures. He does not recognize me, I know it because he always asks for my name every time I go to his office. I always sit at the far back in lectures too. I think I can ace my final test and get A. (i’m goin to his office hour today to ask some math questions… wish me luck! =P)</p></li>
<li><p>from physics professor: My grade is currently around A or A-. I always go to lectures, but I have never gone to his office hours. He definitely does not recognize me (oh well, public school is HUGE! lol). I do not know if he would write me a letter if I ask him right away lol.</p></li>
<li><p>from chinese teacher: She is a graduate student from China. My grade is currently A+. I am certain that it is also my final grade. Since I am gonna transfer as an engineering major, I won’t probably need one more rec from a non-science teacher. However, if situation persists, she is my last hope lol. My chinese class is a small class from monday to thursday so she knows me well. The downsides are she may not know how to write a good recommendation letter and she is a graduate student that teaches a non-science course!</p></li>
</ol>
<p>The problem is: whom should I ask for the rec? is it better to ask before of after the finals, when the official grades are posted?</p>