Hi! I am freaking out a bit. I am interested in transferring to Williams and only Williams, for a variety of reasons. Unfortunately, Williams has an extremely low transfer rate. Williams was far less so on my radar and I got rejected last application cycle.
My main concern is that I’m not a veteran or cc student and therefore I believe my chances are extremely unlikely if at all possible. This brings me to my main point, if I am truly dedicated to transferring to Williams should I drop out of my current institution to go to my local cc? I know it’s a big decision for potentially no pay off. But if I decide to only want Williams, then that could be the only way I attain it unfortunately…I’m not saying I’m fully dedicated to Williams yet, but I want to have a clearer picture of what I should do/what’s possible.
In terms of stats, I want to go in as a Comp Lit major—something not offered at my current institution. I got a 4.0 all throughout high school and have okay extracurricular with a few leadership positions. My SAT was a 1470 but I’m planning on retaking it just in case.
Also, I’m fully aware of the insanity and vague nature of this post, however to me, this is multiple years of my life and if there’s a chance to feel better about those years I think it’s worth taking.
You were already denied admission to Williams. I’m not sure applying as a transfer (where the rates are extremely low in terms of acceptance) is worth your time. As a transfer after only one year of college, your high school record will again be used to review your admission application. But perhaps others will weigh in.
If you are not willing to give your current college a chance, perhaps you can look at some less selective colleges that have similar qualities to Williams.
Do not drop out of your current college to go to a community college. Do the very best you can at this school…and try to seek out reasons to stay there and get your degree. Get involved in some clubs and activities.
A quick Google search shows the transfer admit rate to Williams at about 3%. The odds are ridiculously low regardless of what institution you apply from. Do not transfer to a CC.
If you want to throw in a transfer application nobody here can or should stop you – but don’t count on it working out. You were rejected by Williams once, so it may be best to move on. There are tons of amazing colleges out there so don’t obsess over one.
Adding if you are a college student I would not retake the SAT. The SAT and ACT are exams meant for HS students and no admission officer will be impressed by any score achieved by a college student.
The odds are very, very high that if you apply again as a transfer student, then you will get the same result.
1470 is pretty good.
The SAT is intended for high school students. If you take it as a university / college student, admissions staff at Williams and other schools will not consider your retake. Of course a university student should be better at taking tests. This will not impress anyone.
And the GRE is harder than the SAT. Why? Because older students are typically stronger students who have had time to learn more.
Of course the answer is a very big NO (I am wondering if this web site would allow me to use a 50 point font). Your chances of getting accepted to Williams is just not high enough to do this. You can’t spend your life thinking about something that is not going to happen.
Really, commit yourself to doing as well as you can at your current school.
Williams does not regard standardized test scores as an important criterion for admission. Your 1470 SAT score is not the reason why you didn’t get in the first time, and getting a higher score won’t improve your chances as a transfer.
Transferring from a four year school to a community college for second year is mainly done by those who are dissatisfied enough with their current four year school that community college would be preferable to them, and they have a range of other four year schools to apply to as a junior transfer (which would greatly reduce the importance of high school record).
In your case, doing so to apply to one reach school for transfer does not make much sense. However, if your current four year school is unsuitable (e.g. has nothing close to your major, is now unaffordable, etc.), then you may want to do so, but you need to find other four year schools to apply for transfer admission to so that you will have a place to transfer to after exhausting the offerings at community college.
Why did you choose your current four year school, and why is it unsuitable now?
1/ even if your current college doesn’t offer a Comp Lit major, you can double major in English and in a foreign language&culture with a literature concentration at many colleges (even if most colleges now focus on cultural aspects such as film and history there’s usually some literature courses), or major/minor or major+2 minors etc. Plan a hefty amount of Literature, Languages, Classics, and History courses throughout Freshman and Sophomore years.
2/ As you said, you’re neither a veteran nor a CC student who attended it due to life circumstances (dropping out of a solid college to attend a CC would go against you.) If you were rejected by Williams, your odds are virtually nil. They’re not going to think “OMG we made a mistake, we should have admitted this applicant last time” but “we turned this applicant down already last year: in the past 6 months they didn’t win a gold medal in any Olympics so, bottom of the pile, let’s look at new applicants.”
In short, your choice really is your current college or your state flagship.
For now, make the best of your current college.
What appeals to you at Williams?
What makes your current college similar enough that you chose it?
When did you start classes and what makes you want to transfer?
Another issue has popped into my head which might be obvious, or might be worth mentioning. If you drop out of your current very good LAC and instead go to community college, it might look to some people as if you just could not handle the tough course load at your current school. Williams is one of the very top ranked LACs in the USA. Why would they want to accept a student who could not handle the course load at a slightly lower ranked LAC?
Of course this is not your actual reason, but it might be something that admissions at Williams would wonder about.
Again, do as well as you can at your current school. If you have to transfer, then apply directly to schools that you would intend to stay at for a full four years until they hand you a bachelor’s degree.
@Collegeponder : No one can offer a near-definitive response to your inquiry because you have elected to leave out the most important factors in assessing your transfer chances–the precise reason or reasons that you want to transfer to this, and only this, particular college.
Your chances, although slight, might be better if you applied as a successful Carleton College student with compelling reasons rather than as a CC student.
Boy, I can think of at least ten colleges which could offer the OP a similar experience to Williams, so the “I was already rejected, but I’m trying again and it’s Williams or bust” seems like someone is pulling our legs.
OP- as everyone has pointed out- there is zero advantage to transferring to community college as a next step towards Williams. They keep records. So if your narrative is “I’m a low income kid who never heard of Williams but started at Community College but now that I’ve heard of it, I want to be part of the campus community in the worst way” isn’t going to fly- they already have your application from last time.
Two suggestions for you- make a list of the “Williams and only Williams” qualities that you perceive to be there, and let the experienced posters here help you figure out where else you can get those. And give us more insight into what’s going on now so we can help you transform your year from “I’ve got to get out of here” to “I really like it here”.