Where do I go on from here?

Applying to College
1

Okay so, most of my results from colleges ended up being waitlists (Its killing me).

I have been accepted to my safety (Virginia Tech Engineering) and so I was wondering what I need to do in case NONE of the schools that waitlisted me have space for me.

I still want to try out for some Ivy Leagues / Princeton / MIT / Stanford even when I go into college, as engineering is my passion. I have a lot of regrets and I don’t want to repeat those mistake. I now know what I need to do in order to stand out as a candidate etc etc.

But anyways, heres my main point. If I do not get accepted into any of my wait-list:

  1. What should I be doing to increase my chance of being accepted as a transfer? Is the probability of me being accepted as a transfer generally higher?
  2. Is it worth applying to transfer to other schools?
  3. Generally, when do people apply to transfer? after 1st year? 1st semester? 2 yr?
  4. Would I still need to take SATs and ACTs? :/

My plan was pretty much racking up some EC’s at college (Internship, research, other activities, etc) while I attend my safety if my waitlists do not accept me. However, I have no clue from here on out.

And just in case someone says “Stop worrying about the future”, I would really like to continue trying in hopes of going to my dream schools (Stanford, MIT, etc) as I know I will have a lot of opportunities there. No, I am not trying to go just for prestige. Would appreciate some info, thank you!

2

You can research transfer acceptance rates at the colleges that interest you. You will not need to submit high school transcripts or test scores, in most cases, if you are applying for junior year. Before that, you probably will, but you can use your existing scores. I suspect that there is not a lot of advantage to re-taking the SAT/ACT once you are in college; you would be expected to perform better than a high school student, and a modest score improvement would not impress admissions committees.

3