Which school will fit to me?(transfer)

Transfer Students
1

My spec is.
International student (Korean)
High school GPA: 3.35 (graduated at Korea)
2 AP (one 4 and one 5)
Korean Physics Olympiad : Bronze medal
Freshman GPA : 3.74(30 credit)
Major: Mechanical engineering
Finance: 250k dollars to use until graduation.

Hi, I am considering of transfer. I went to ISU, and finished freshman.
Currently, I am serving army in my home country, and planning to be back at 2020 Fall.
The problem is, I want to go school with bigger cities. ISU is good school, but what I could see was just a corn field. Since I am an international student, I had to pass through at one city (usually two) to get my hometown. Also I want to go school with higher rank. I also don’t want to go hot places.
Problem is, I don’t have EC. I was new to US, and didn’t know what to do. What I did was just getting GPA (not great though)
What I am planning to do is Going back to ISU, and take sophomore with doing some EC, then transfer at 2021 fall.
I am thinking of Michigan ann arbor, GIT, Cornell, NYU Tandon, UMD, UW, NE, USC, UIUC and VT.
Will it be possible to get into these schools? or is there any other schools to apply?

2

ECs don’t matter for transfer students, especially for transfers who have taken time off from their studies to work for a while or to complete military service obligations. Your GPA from ISU is very good for an international student. Apply to the places that interest you. See if you are accepted. If you aren’t, you can always return to ISU.

But do spend some more time checking out the places on your list. Cornell is in the boonies too. It is all cornfields and dairy farms once you get out of Ithaca. VT is not in a big city either. If you want a city environment with decent air service, check out U of MN in Minneapolis-St Paul.

3

Thanks a lot! I was worrying about EC, and I am glad it doesn’t matter. Still, shouldn’t I do something while I am at ISU sophomore? Like volunteering. Does GPA only matter for transferring?

Cornell was attractive to me cause it’s top grade. Though it’s at Ithaca.
Thanks for recommending U of MN, I’ll add it to list.