What Are They Looking For...

calipharius
Sun, 17 Apr 2005 22:19:12 +0000

_42,

These adcoms are looking at a very competative, but small applicant pools. I would guess that there is not a huge discrepency between the credentials for the transfer applicants to these top schools. Almost everyone is going to have decent SAT scores, above a 3.5, and good recommendations. The distinguishing characterstic thus seems to me, whether or not your interest in the school is based on laudable reasons. If a student has not taken the time to propound such reasons, he or she has not done his or her job as an applicant. If one’s reasons are generic and not peculiar to the school, one’s interest in the school does not appear to be that ardent - if an applicant doesn’t take the time to research something as consequential as their college career, what do they take the time to research? I am not contending that one’s reason for transferring is the sole determinent factor in the process, but rather that it is in someway a litmus test. I think above all, these committees want to take not only the best kids, but the kids they think will fit the best in their classes. This is your oppurtunity to argue that school X is right for you, and that your decision to apply is an informed decision. The admissions statistics for transfers are also not heavily published, so there is not an overwhelming movement to take the people with the highest scores so their schools will do well in some stupid rankings.