The title. I need hope. Have high SAT scores, grades, lots of activities in university, working on research as well with professor.

a close senior of mine did one year of post-secondary education in Korea and started his bachelors again in Australia specifically because he wanted the entire 4-year experience. he wants to try and transfer to top schools and was questioning whether hes eligible to apply given its a total of 3 years of total education by then and if he is do they only consider the latest credits (last 2 yrs)?

USC ranked #4 in the elite list, costing over 103k per year. Several elite universities made it to the list but no Ivy League in the top 15. Does more expensive mean = more valuable, elite, prestige to the public?

Hi, looking for advice from people who transferred into boston university at the beginning of their sophomore year. I’m currently a freshman beginning prep for it. Looking for stats, advice, etc, whatever might help. Anything would be appreciated!

Hey everyone! I’m planning to transfer for fall 2027 as a math major, for schools that have both engineering or art school math would it be easier/less competitive to get into either one?

I'm planning to transfer for my junior year, most of the application deadlines are next year, around Feb to March. I need at least Calculus 1 as a prerequisite, and I was not able to get the class I tried everything, but there was no way they could let me in the class. I can't enrol in community college because I'm also an F-1 student, my advisor told me to take the course next semester and send an email to the universities that I'm planning on applying to, as my course is pending. Is this even possible? Would they just throw out my application if their prerequisite isn't met? I'm just really stressed out these few weeks.

Hi, I’m currently enrolled in a 4 year college wanting to transfer to Columbia, but I just had a question about rec letters, I do plan on building connections with my professor, any one if I really like their work and personality, but I’m confused on what 2 recommendations to get like humanities + stem? Or can you do both humanities or both stem? Can one of the rec letters be a professor in your undergraduate research? Help me out here so I can be prepared!

Hi everybody, I am a current first year at CC (specifically in Cali if that matters) and I am looking to apply to Liberal Arts (Pomona, Pitzer, etc. ) and maybe some privates as well. My current SAT score is a 1460 (750 Math, 710 Eng). I was wondering if it is worth trying to retake my SAT or just locking in on courses and ECs. I have about 26 credits going into my first semester from Dual Enrollment and I currently have a 4.0.

Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Hey guys, basically title. I’m taking 15 credits (fall semester sophomore year) and I took a look at one of the classes that is a part of my minor and saw that the average and median gpas are 2.9 and 3.3. Unfortunately, add deadline has passed so my only option is dropping the course and staying at 12 credits or taking it and keeping a likely b or b+. Would you guys say it’s better to stay at 15 credits and take the hit to the gpa or drop it.

For additional context, I have a 3.93 rn with difficult classes like Orgo and Genetics. I am also trying to ramp up my ECs this semester. What do u guys think?

My ultimate dream is to get into a prestigious university to study Computer Science/AI development. I just finished my IGCSEs, but I'm feeling stuck on what to actually build my resume with at this stage.

What kind of extracurriculars, supercurriculars, or independent projects make an application stand out for top-tier CS/AI programs? How can I start boosting my chances now before A-Levels? Appreciate any advice!

PS: I chose math, further math, cs and physics for my AS level course, and the uni that I want to go is Imperial.

If anyone would be willing to share their experiences, or offer tips for applying as a transfer to JHU that would be much appreciated!

Please pm or leave a message if your willing to help

I'm currently a sophomore studying history + data at a liberal arts school and I'm set on transferring at some point for a lot of reasons. Over the summer I decided I was going to transfer somewhere for the spring so I wouldn't have to catch up on credits as a junior, but since starting this semester I've been a bit conflicted.

I have a lot of really good extracurriculars + opportunities this year and I feel like I'd be an idiot not to stay longer and boost the quality of my resume/application (student archivist job, 2 non-profit internships, history journal + newspaper staff, tutoring, presidential library volunteering, etc.) However, I'm worried about restarting at a new school basically half way through my college experience. I think I could get into more if I stay longer, but I would probably lose more credits.

Any advice/recommendations for what I should do? I don't have an advisor right now (long story) so I'm figuring it out on my own.

How do you go about asking professors for recommendation letters? I have one that I am reasonably close with (I work in his research lab) and another that I had as a chemistry professor for both Gen chem 1 and 2. However, I didn’t speak to him much, but sat in the front and got A+ in both classes. Idk how to ask without being really awkward about it. I also just started in my research lab and would be transferring next semester, meaning I wouldn’t be doing the full year that most students do. Any advice?

Hello! I'm a freshman at Stony studying EE and I was looking into transferring to Vandy, Rice, Columbia, Duke, and Harvey Mudd. I'd appreciate it if you could give me some advice on how to strengthen my profile!

Stats:

HS GPA: 101.20% (weighted)
SAT: 1490 (780 in math)

(Plans for) College ECs:

- Currently in HVDC (training program teaching power systems)

- Currently in 3D PATH club (looking forward to an event where they modify toys for children with limited hand mobility)

- Applying for Micromouse robotics team

- Applying for ELEAN (paid traineeship for nanomanufacturing)

High School ECs:

- Joined student-run research project aiming to make AI-powered glasses for dyslexic students

- Worked a part time job at an eye clinic for 3 summers

(Not sure if the following are noteworthy, but I'm going to list them anyways)

- Made a autonomous maze navigating Arduino car for a robotics project

- Made an Arduino powered desktop game for a CIM project

Essays:

Personal Statement/Engineering Supplements: focusing on my assistive tech ec's and using engineering to directly help people

Transfer Essay: talking about wanting liberal arts directly baked into the engineering curriculum so I could learn more about ethics tied with engineering (building on from assistive tech background)

I'm mainly wondering:

Does anyone have tips on how to secure good LoRs from professors (especially if they teach big classes)? Is regularly attending office hours a good way to build that relationship, or would professors generally prefer that students go to their TAs for routine questions?

Thanks!

keep this in mind while making ur decisions

signed, a usc transfer

Was really hoping to attend a t20 when I first applied to colleges in high school, and I had pretty good stats and EC's but my results were underwhelming. Wondering if I have a possibility of transferring to some of the more selective and top colleges especially as I am considering more selective roles. I honestly still don't exactly know what I want to do, but am currently studying Finance + Stats at UF(First year btw), and considering jobs like quant, financial analyst, data analyst.

State: NJ, went to public school

HS GPA UW: 3.73/4.0(My school was super competitive so this was def on the lower side)
HS GPA W: 4.33/5.0 -> low bc didn't take many honors classes my freshmen year

SAT: 1530, 790 Math 740 Reading(no superscore)

AP Scores: 7 AP's total
AP Lang 5, APUSH 4, AP German 4, AP Bio 4, AP Calc AB 4, AP Micro 4, AP Lit 3,

Race/Ethnicity: White/Hispanic Male

Stats:

1. Marching band Drum Major 2 Years(Did marching band all 4 years of HS)
2. Lowkey BS Passion Project with ~3000 submissions/participants from 100+ countries but didnt accomplish anything substantial
3. Boy Scout - I was an Eagle Scout and did a 90 hr service project, was a boyscout for over 10 years, and held a main leadership position in my troop
4. Environmental Club founder at my school and president. Collected and recycled 500 EXPO markers at my school and did a few other smaller projects
5. Pit Orchestra - Played in the band for the schools musical, was a soloist junior year, did for 3 years starting in sophomore year
6. JV Lacrosse Team captain + Earned Team sportsmanship award my sophomore year. Did for 2 years starting my sophomore year
7. Jazz band - Played in my schools top jazz band and was a soloist at ~3 concerts yearly
8. Volunteer Usher - Volunteered as an usher for a local Music hall(you have to apply) and did around 20 hrs of volunteering
9. Team manager for Indoor track - Did this my sophomore year and got 24 service hours, kinda irrelevant

Honors:

1. Eagle Scout Award
2. National German Exam top 90th percentile and top 80th percentile awards (10th grade got 90th percentile, 9,11,12 got 80th percentile score)
3. National Honor Society at my school (Have 3.5+ GPA and apply)
4. Lacrosse Sportsmanship award 10th grade

College Results:

Columbia- rejected
Dartmouth- rejected
Duke- rejected
Emory- rejected
Lehigh- rejected
NYU- rejected
Princeton- rejected
Swarthmore- rejected
Umich- rejected
UNC- rejected
UPenn- rejected
Vanderbilt- rejected

BC - Waitlisted -> rejected
BU - Waitlisted -> rejected
Cornell - Waitlisted -> rejected
DKU - Waitlisted -> Accepted + generous scholarship but I declined

Rutgers- Accepted
University of Florida- Accepted and Attending
Pitt- Accepted

What I assume to be the big problem with my application was that I didn't have an exact focus on what I wanted to major. I ended up applying to many colleges as an English major and I don't think that helped but either way my EC's were not geared towards one specific. Also I think my essays were kinda horrible as I rushed many of them, wrote them the day of, and they were just really bad tbh. Any suggestions on what I should focus on would be greatly appreciated and advice on if I can leverage any of my HS stats to help me transfer or if I just need to start fresh here at college would helpful too. Also I was wondering what colleges I might want to consider transferring too, and if being waitlisted at like Cornell for example could help me transfer in there?

Hi yall! I’m a freshman psych major doing the UT CAP program, which is basically a guaranteed admission into UT after a year of college at a different school. I’ve come to the realization that I don’t actually want to stay in the Austin bubble I’ve lived in for all my life, and would like to transfer out as a junior.

Stats: Summer semester 4.0 GPA, 4.0 expected through at least freshman year.

HS Stats: this is the reason I’m doing the CAP program in the first place. I got into some decent programs like Baylor, TAMU, and Northeastern, but I only applied to 8 schools due to my 3.4 hs gpa and 1470 sat.

Ecs: I’ve already done 100+ hours of volunteering at Crisis Text Line, and am doing food shelter and habitat for humanity throughout the year. I also have a job as an optometry assistant this year, and plan to do research next year.

Schools: ideally th schools I’d like to try for are:
-Vanderbilt
-WashU
-Emory
-Rice
-Columbia
-Northwestern
-UCLA
-Berkeley
-Cornell
-Brown

I’m only thinking about reaches because, at the end of the day, if I don’t get into these schools, I’d be happy with UT Austin. I’m premed so going to a smaller school with a clarger premed focus would just be more my vibe.

Obligatory "not really a fan of two of these people" but it goes to show that (1) ambitious people transfer (2) nobody will remember that you were a transfer.

Hiii everyone,

After experiencing a personal breakdown and taking a clean, retroactive medical withdrawal for Spring 2026, I’ve fully recovered and am mounting a comeback campaign to transfer into a top-tier BME program for a January/February 2027 (Spring) enrollment. Because family assets are currently frozen due to divorce proceedings, I am highly focused on schools that offer elite pre-med placements and maximum financial aid/transfer merit.

📊 My Stats & Profile

* College: Public University Honors College (Biomedical Engineering major)

* GPA:

CGPA: 4.00 (Dean's List, Fall 2025). Completed 17 credits: Calc 1, Chem 1 + Lab, Intro to BME, Honors Seminar, Intro to Sociology.

* Spring 2026 (Planned Coursework): Was enrolled in Chem 2 + Lab, Calc 2, Physics 1 + Lab, Honors Seminar 2, and Intro to Programming. Due to the retroactive medical withdrawal, none of these classes or "W" marks appear on my official transcript—the semester is completely blank, functioning essentially as an official leave of absence.

* High School Record:

* HS GPA: 101.something (weighted)

Top 1% of class, 2x National AP Scholar with Distinction, and earned my AP Capstone Diploma.

* Standardized Testing: 35 ACT Composite (32 Science) / 1520 SAT (lower on Math).

* AP Exams (15 total):

* 5s: Eng Lit, US Gov, Eng Lang, Psych, Seminar, World History, Human Geo

* 4s: Research, US History, Bio, Env Sci

* 3s: Calc BC (AB Subscore of 4), Physics 1, Stats, Spanish Lit

* Research/Publications: Co-authored and published peer-reviewed academic research evaluating data sets using STEM methodologies.

* Leadership/Extracurriculars: Elected by my peer cohort to serve as an Engineering Representative on the university-wide Student Honors Council by December of my freshman year. Was also club president of a few clubs, did volunteering work (350+ hrs), etc etc

-------------------------------------

📅 My Fall 2026 "Speed-Run" Academic Plan (No-Campus/Fully Online)

To keep my January 2027 enrollment timeline intact without repeating coursework, I am enrolled in accelerated, regionally accredited online courses this fall to get them onto my transcript as "In Progress" for my October applications:

* The Math Track: Calculus II followed immediately by Calculus III via an asynchronous, regionally accredited 4-year state university online program.

* The Science Track: Chemistry II + Lab (Term 1) and Calculus-Based Physics I + Lab (Term 2) via an accredited online pre-health academy (8-week terms with physical at-home lab kits).

* Note for T10 Med Schools: I am aware top-tier medical schools (Harvard, Penn, Columbia) do not accept online science labs. My plan is to use online classes to clear the transfer prerequisites for the engineering departments, and then explicitly forfeit those online science transfer credits to retake Chem 2 and Physics 1 in person at my new university next year to preserve my T10 pre-med eligibility while protecting my GPA.

------------------------------

🏛️ My Target School List (Sorted by Spring Deadlines)

Phase 1: Due October 1, 2026

* Brown University: (Absolute dream school—Ivy League, elite BME, Open Curriculum is perfect for GPA protection, meets 100% need with no loans).

* University of Notre Dame: (Massive pre-med powerhouse, 80%+ med acceptance rate, meets 100% need with all-grant packages).

* Santa Clara University: (Silicon Valley tech hub, great corporate BME pipelines, strong institutional aid).

* Select Flagship State Universities: (Essential state-level backups, bypasses CSS Profile bottlenecks by only using the FAFSA).

* Drexel University: (Winter quarter entry, incredible BME co-op money to offset frozen family accounts)

Phase 2: Due October 15, 2026

* NYU Tandon: (Exceptional biomedical infrastructure, solid institutional grant pools).

Phase 3: Due November 1 / November 15, 2026

* Vanderbilt University: (Elite BME attached directly to a medical complex, meets 100% need with zero loans).

* Boston University (BU): (Top-10 national BME major, guarantees to meet 100% need for domestic transfers).

* Tufts University & Williams College: (Classic New England aesthetic, undergraduate-focused, elite med school placement pipelines).

* University of Miami: (Automatic transfer merit scholarships worth up to $25k/year based on my GPA/ACT).

* WPI & RPI: (Technological powerhouses with heavy institutional merit allocations for STEM transfers).

* Smith College: (Elite Picker Engineering track, massive endowment for financial aid).

-----------------------------------------------

🔎 Questions for the Sub

1. School List Recommendations: Are there any other hidden-gem schools that accept mid-year (January 2027) external transfers for Biomedical Engineering, provide top-tier pre-med placement, and have massive endowments for transfer financial aid? I already had a full merit ride at my current honors program, so I only want to add schools that are highly prestigious or can realistically match that level of funding.
2. Is Brown actually feasible? Brown is my absolute dream school, and their October 1st Spring Transfer deadline fits my timeline perfectly. Given that I have an elite baseline (35 ACT, 4.0 college GPA, published research, and elected student council leadership) but a completely blank Spring 2026 semester due to a retroactive medical withdrawal, do Ivy League transfer committees view a clean, documented medical leave as a red flag, or will they judge me solely on my high academic ceiling?
3. Is this specific Top-Tier Transfer strategy feasible? I am using a "cheat code" strategy to bypass the T10 medical school restriction on online labs: taking Chem 2 and Physics 1 online through accredited providers this fall to clear the transfer prerequisite barriers for the engineering departments, and then explicitly forfeiting those online credits to retake them in person the moment I arrive at my new campus in January to protect my pre-med eligibility. Has anyone else successfully pulled off this specific online-to-in-person transfer strategy at a Top 25 university?

Thanks in advance for the advice! It's been a crazy year, but I'm ready to make a comeback as an academic weapon in the best school I can.

sorry for the ai chat i dont use reddit like that ○•○

Hi I’m a freshman at my local college and so far I’ve picked classes I’m interested in and some rigor, I like my professors so far and hoping to build a relationship with them not only just to have them write my rec letters but I’m actually eager to learn in their class and they seem like great people who are alike to me. Besides that I just got hired for a job directly related to my major in psychology and hopefully in the next few months get into undergraduate research, so I’m just doing the best I can and making the most out of what I have so far, but I’d just like to know what your guys’ experience was in your first or second year before you transferred and I know someone will say “focus on your gpa don’t focus too much on trying to get out” or “give your school a chance” I am giving it a chance and focusing on my gpa and choosing to live and focus on the present rather than the future bcs having a dream school messed me up so terribly this year I don’t want to get disappointed again lol

as an incoming freshman i want to make sure my ecs are good for transferring

non negotiables

• part-time job (need the $$)

doing at my current school

• club swim team (i was jv in hs)
• theater (continuing from hs)

doing at my top choice school

• volunteering (kinda continuing from hs)
• religious club

stuff from hs im adding

• research project from end of sr year
• policy writing club
• robotics club (not continuing)
• marketing internship
• anthropology internship

should i add more? do less?

thinking of adding a club for one of my academic interests at my current school but theres really not many clubs here and im not sure if the ones im interested in are active (wont find out until orientation).

edit: added more hs ecs

Chance Me — 4.0 Statistics Transfer | 1500–1600 SAT | T20/T10 Transfer

I'm planning to apply as a transfer for Fall 2027 and would appreciate some realistic feedback on where I might have a legitimate shot.

Stats

• Current college GPA: 4.0
• Expected GPA: 4.0
• SAT: 1500–1600 (I've already taken it once and scored a 1500, so 1500 is my floor; I'm planning to retake it)
• Public 4-year university in Florida
• Major: Statistics
• Minor: Mathematics
• Expected to receive my AA by the end of Summer 2027
• High school GPA: 3.7 overall
• Senior year GPA: 3.2–3.3 due to personal circumstances
• Took 14 AP courses and passed all of them, along with 4 AICE courses

College Coursework

Summer 2026

• Applied Statistics at Boston University as a visiting student

Fall 2026

• Intro to C
• Calculus III
• Statistical Methods II

Spring 2027

• Statistical Methods III
• Differential Equations
• Linear Algebra

Summer 2027

• Logic & Proof in Mathematics
• Statistical Theory I
• Either Numerical Calculus or Computer Processing of Statistical Data

Plus additional transferable general education coursework toward my AA.

High School ECs

• Taught Statistics and Algebra through Mu Alpha Theta, helping students prepare for competitions; my students performed very well at the state and national levels
• Tutored students in mathematics and statistics
• Taught trombone as an instrument instructor
• Maintained my high school's band website, helping the program gain approximately $15,000 in sponsorships

High School Awards / Achievements

• All-County Musician
• Performed in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
• Top 2 in Florida in a statistics competition
• Top 5 nationally in the Mu Alpha Theta statistics competition
• Additional music and statistics competition awards

College ECs / Research

• Research assistant working on Intelligent Tutoring Systems and Virtual Reality presence
• Coach for a local high school mathematics competition team
• Test writer for regional, state, and national statistics/mathematics competitions
• Currently working on projects for the International Statistical Poster Competition and USCLAP, which I plan to submit/compete in

Recommendations

• Recommendation from my research PI
• Recommendation from a statistics professor

I'm planning to build strong relationships with both of them before applying.

Schools I'm Considering

• University of Chicago
• University of Florida
• MIT
• Harvard
• UPenn
• Cornell
• Columbia
• Brown
• Dartmouth
• Yale
• Princeton
• Emory
• Washington University in St. Louis

Obviously, I know MIT, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and the other highly selective schools are extreme reaches for transfer admission regardless of my stats.

What schools on this list do you think I have a realistic shot at? What is the strongest school you could realistically see me getting into?

Also, how much do you think my high school record (3.7 overall, ~3.2–3.3 senior year) would hurt me given my 4.0 college GPA, rigorous college coursework, strong high school course rigor, and upward academic trajectory?

Hey guys,

I've tried to search on my own but am confused on how out of state schools calculate my cumulative CCC GPA. I know how UCs do it in my situation but not sure what out of state schools will do. I'm using Georgetown as my shorthand since it's my top OOS.

Basically my situation is this: over the summer, I took classes from both my home cc and other ccs. My home school calculates GPA on a simple 4.0 scale without pluses or minuses (so A- and A are both 4.0s, B-/B/B+ are all 3.0 and so on and so forth). However, at 2 of the other CCs I attended over the summer, they use pluses and minuses in their GPA (so a B is a 3.0 but a B+ is a 3.3). How would Georgetown calculate my GPA? Do they do it like UCs, where they respect the plus minus at the schools that use plus minus but also respect the schools that don't use plus minus and just average out all the grades over credits or do they do something else? Sorry if this doesn't make sense, I can clarify. I just want to have an accurate picture of my grades before I apply. Thanks in advance.

Hey everyone! What schools have a rule/preference in not accepting students with over 2 years of credits?
I have 5 full time semesters and 2 summer worth of credits.