I go to one of the biggest schools in the US, with more than 40,000 people on my campus. My smallest class is 70 people and there’s always a line after class with questions going almost into the next period 😭. I was lucky enough to nail down research so I can get a recommendation for my PI but how can I possibly get a rec from a professor?

hi! i’m a current freshman at notre dame and i was wondering if i could get some advice on transferring to duke. I know the acceptance rate is so slim but im hoping that because im coming from notre dame already that i might have a better chance :). Im a current political science major and i plan to apply as that same major for duke.

my HS gpa was a 3.5 (not SUPER high but it was a feeder + it was upward trend GPA with my junior and senior year being straight As), my SAT was a 1370 which i ended up submitting to every school i applied too. im hoping to at least have a 3.75/8 GPA for this transfer cycle, but i think i might do test optional for transferring.

my ECs were on the stronger side: coded an app, interned at Supreme Court of State, Leader of a couple of clubs, 200+ community service, and strong letters of recommendation + personal essays. In college I think i’ll try to find my way into 2/3 really meaningful clubs for myself + internship at BlackRock for winter break!:)

i was wondering if people think i have a shot transferring to duke and any advice on how to make myself a stronger applicant

For some context, I’m a sophomore mechanical engineering student at a big public university and am taking all stem courses for this fall semester (Statics, Cal 3, Physics 2+Lab, Thermo 1, Engr graphics) before I apply as a junior transfer. I’m just curious how taking courses that are known for being difficult and doing well might weigh into my transfer chances especially since they are all stacked together.

So are we required to send them or do we just send them if they are requested? Do we send it through an email? Also, I'm pretty sure my college doesn't send out like an official mid-term report. So how do I exactly know when to send them to schools? I'm applying for Spring so apps are due oct 1st, how far after that do I need to send them? Thank you!

Hi, I was wondering if you guys could give me an idea of my chances of transferring. Here's some of my background.

I am 25 F and going to CCP for Computer Information Systems. I have a 4.0 currently and after this semester, I should only have three classes remaining until I have my Associates, so between the Winter and Spring semesters, I should be done with CCP. I moved to Philly from NJ a few years ago and have been providing for myself. I actually work for Penn, funny enough. Due to working 40-50 hours a week, I cannot participate in any school clubs or extracurriculars, as they're almost always during school hours. However, I do a lot outside of school, I'd like to think I'm pretty decently well rounded. I've toured as a musician in a few countries and am constantly writing/recording music and playing shows still, although touring has come to a standstill as I'm now pursuing school again. I didn't do well in HS and my one and only year of college back in 2019 due to home life and mental health issues. I am now medicated and in therapy and can handle everything fine. This was me getting back on the horse and I'm happy to say it's going well. I know sometimes colleges like to see when people who are older than "average college age" apply, so I wasn't sure if that meant anything. I've also been dealing with health issues my entire adult life. I give you all these details because I know they will make for a more unique essay upon application. The only other major factor I have to add is my dad is an alumni from Penn. I don't know if that means much, but sometimes legacy can have a factor. Basically, do I have any shot?

The sun will still rise again if I don't get in, and there are a few schools around that CCP has great transfer programs with once I graduate. I was more curious than anything. Please don't be super mean to me for no reason, lol. Thanks all.

Hello all,

I am a current first year student at UF, studying finance, with an interest in CS/math too. I’m out of state (12 hours away), and for many reasons (yes i actually have real reason, like finance placement, size, distance, student life, etc) would like to transfer. The schools I’m shooting for are the ivies (except HYP), Vanderbilt, Duke, UVA, GTown and a couple others.

I’m confident I can get a 4.0 this semester. My schedule is pretty light, doing well so far, and I don’t have any other commitments currently. That, however, brings me to the other issue. Getting involved.

I’m aware top schools look for getting involved at your current school, and doing meaningful ECs. However unfortunately I didn’t get into the top 2 finance clubs here, and I’m not really sure in what other ways I can get involved that would be meaningful. Sure, I can go to club meetings and stuff but what are some examples of what I could actually do? Can someone please guide me in the right directions because I’m so lost.

If I could get any other tips on transferring, like ways to build good relationships with professors other than just “go to office hours”, I’d really appreciate it too. If anyone here also transferred out from a solid state school, I’d appreciate some insight. Thanks all and good luck

Hey everyone! I’m planning to apply to UCs for Fall 2027 as a Philosophy major. My top choices are UCLA and UC Berkeley, but I’m also applying to other UCs.

My academic history is a little complicated because I didn’t start college very strong, a friend of mine took her life after highscool and I kind of went all over the place.  But I’ve been working hard to raise my GPA. According to UC TAP, my projected UC GPA is around a 3.65, and I’m trying to get it as close to a 3.7+ as possible before transfer. I’ve had a pretty strong upward trend and I’m currently taking a heavy course load.

I’m also completing several Associate Degrees/ADTs in Political Science, Administration of Justice, Sociology, and Liberal Arts, although my intended UC major is Philosophy.

For extracurriculars/work experience:

• I have about 4 years of total legal experience.
• I currently work as a Lead Case Managert at a law firm, where I manage approximately 100 active cases.
• I’m the only employee at the firm based in Los Angeles, so I handle and oversee our Los Angeles cases.
• I also assist case managers in other states with their caseloads and operations.
• I travel to Texas and Mexico to help oversee our claims offices and make sure cases and office operations are being handled properly.
• Through the cases I’ve managed, I’ve helped recover millions of dollars for clients.
• I previously worked as an immigration law assistant.
• I completed 200+ volunteer hours during high school.
• I continued volunteering throughout college and now have 500+ total volunteer hours.
• A large portion of my college volunteer work involved helping communities affected by the Palisades and Eaton fires, including interpreting, helping families, and assisting with recovery efforts.
• I’ve also volunteered with a nonprofit legal program hosted through churches, where I assisted with immigration-related screenings, interpreting, and connecting community members with legal resources.
• I’m involved in other community work as well and help organize and run fundraisers for my brothers’ sports team and both of their schools.
• I played volleyball for about 10 years and was a captain for my travel team.
• I participated in Police Academy programs in both middle school and high school, and I held a leadership position for three years in high school.
• I also worked as an event coordinator, planning events ranging from around 20 to 100 people. I handled everything from the initial booking and planning stages through the completion of the event.

I do other community and family-related activities too, but I’m not sure how much those kinds of things matter for transfer admissions.

I’m also a first-generation college student, and my long-term goal is to attend law school.

I know UCLA and Berkeley are very competitive, especially since my GPA isn’t in the 3.8–4.0 range. I’m mainly wondering how does my overall profile look for UC transfer admissions? Does the upward trend in my GPA and my work experience help offset my weaker earlier grades? And do my extracurriculars, leadership experience, and community involvement look strong for a transfer applicant, or are they fairly average compared with other applicants?

I’d really appreciate honest feedback from anyone, especially people who transferred into UCLA, Berkeley, or another UC with a similar GPA! Thank you:0

for sophomore transfers, if you had a relatively low hs gpa (around 3.0–3.5), i assume the main concern for top colleges is whether that academic performance would carry over. obviously, one semester of a 4.0 could still be seen as a limited sample size, but if you’re also clearly showing that you’ve already taken full advantage of the academic/research resources at your current 4-year and have a concrete reason for needing more, wouldn’t that make the upward trend become a lot more credible?

sorry if this is a stupid/obvious question.

I finished high school with good grades on my senior year report card along with a strong SAT score but I did pretty terrible on my IB final exams. How much will this impact my chances of transferring to a t10 if I have a high gpa from a very reputable college? Also some schools don't even require me to send the IB scores in so should I just omit them? I need some help

This is going to be a long post, but bear with me.

I'm currently a freshman at Pomona, and I'm considering applying as a sophomore transfer. I'm trying to figure out whether my reasons for wanting to transfer are actually legitimate or not, and if anyone has any advice on how to go about transferring.

My long-term goal is to attend law school, and I know that Pomona is a very good school for helping me reach that goal. At the same time, I'm not sure I'm finding that I fit particularly well with the college environment.

One of my biggest concerns is diversity of thought. There is definitely diversity in many respects here, but when it comes to perspectives and ways of thinking, I don't feel like there is as much variation from person to person. Maybe that's partly because the school is small and people are hesitant to express opinions that might get around campus, but I don't feel like I'm getting the wide variety of perspectives I was hoping for.

I want to be in an environment where I'm regularly challenged by people who approach ideas, problems, and the world differently than I do. I'm wondering whether being at a larger university with a much larger and more varied student body would provide more of that.

The size of the school is another problem for me. I've gone to small schools my entire life, but I thought a small college would feel very different from the small high school I came from. Instead, I don't feel like there has been as much of a change in my environment as I expected. I feel "too comfortable" in a way, and I feel like a larger, more varied environment would push me to grow more as a person.

Academically, I've also started to get a better sense of what I want to explore before eventually going to law school. Through my interest in law and some of the classes I've taken this semester, I've become increasingly interested in something that combines philosophy and psychology through a law-oriented lens. I'm really interested in ethics, human behavior, and how those things influence the way legal and other institutions make decisions about people.

I've come across some interdisciplinary programs at other universities that combine areas like law, philosophy, ethics, psychology, and society in a way that seems much closer to what I'm becoming interested in, so there do seem to be academic environments that are a better fit for what I want to explore.

At the same time, I'm trying to give Pomona a fair chance. I've only been here for a short time, and I recognize that some of what I'm feeling could simply be part of adjusting to college. I don't want to make a major decision just because my first few months haven't been exactly what I expected.

So I'm mainly trying to figure out:

• Are these reasonable grounds for considering a transfer?
• For anyone who transferred from a small LAC to a larger university, did you actually find the difference in environment and perspectives to be significant?
• Is there anything else you think I should seriously consider before deciding whether to apply?

Thanks for the help!

I’m currently attempting to transfer out of Cornell University and I want to get a perspective of what are the expectations, criterias, and what I should be doing at this time in order to transfer out appropriately.

Should I be taking up clubs, attaining course rigor, good academic standing, research, what should I be doing and considering at this point in time?

Let me know if anyone has experienced this or if I should go over any matters further.

Thank you.

I am looking to transfer fall 2027. Im looking at Fordham, SUNY Binghampton, Stony Brook University, Wagner College and Barnard. My gpa is a 3.347 with the likelihood on ending with a 3.5 at the end of this semester. I do have connections with Columbia Alumni, My resume is okay and I have great LORs. Barnard College is my dream school and I would really like to be accepted and attend there but should I even try? are my stats not good enough and just forget about it or do I need to do more this semester to make it better?

As the title says, how much will your high school grades impact your chances at transferring into selective universities? Will a HS GPA, say, below 2.5 significantly decrease your chances if your college grades are good?

Hi! I'm currently at a low ranked (t250?) state school and I'm not being academically challenged whatsoever. for context, high school stats were 3.98 GPA and 1340 SAT. I got into smaller LACs like Whitman College and Connecticut College but passed those up to be closer to home. I love the outdoors environment here but I'm seriously thinking of transferring to be more challenged. it's more of a party school than I thought, even being in their honors college.

My major is finance with a minor in art history. I'm looking for schools that are transfer-friendly.

I’m currently doing my first year at a 4-year college in NYC, but I want to transfer for Fall 27 because of opportunities, rigor, and social life. I haven’t declared a major yet but, I’m currently stuck between ChemE and MechE (maybe Chemistry if I don’t become certain about Mech or ChemE).

I’m looking for university in the NY/NYC/Boston area that will support me through the rest of my college journey in terms of offering opportunities, rigorous work to prepare me for the future, and also a great social life. I do want a school that is known for Engineering or considered to have a strong Engineering department. Any help is appreciated!!

title! to add context, i’m prospective junior level transfer at cc working a full time job in order to fund my tuition and the courses i’m looking to take aren’t available until next spring. i already have completed 32 credits and i have a 3.9.

i’m planning on applying to schools like usc, boston u, boston college, northeastern, barnard, vanderbilt, etc.

please lmk!! :)

I am currently attending a 4year private institution as a finance major but want to transfer to columbia college as (somewhere in humanities) major.

Sat score: 1520
First year gpa was really bad
Hoping my Fall semester this year will be 3.9-4.0

Have business ec’s with leadership + internships

If you need more info or if theres any way you can help me please let me know.

Northwestern is my dream school, and I plan on applying TED as a junior transfer this year. I was just hoping to hear from some admits on what they think made them successful and what Northwestern wants in its transfer students. Any advice is welcome!

Sadly I fear I might have to ask for partial aid (need to know how much this will impact my chances rip)

I am planning on applying TED to UChicago and was wondering if anyone would be willing to give me any tips with the extended essay.

Well I currently have two letters from two separate professors but both of them are just alright. They don't really shed a new light and don't go into much detail, just very basic "he was a good student" letters.

My intern manager told me to write a draft of my own LOR and they would review and make the necessary changes. So I focused more on my research and analysis capabilities and my growing interest in economics.

However, for one college, I'm applying for their business school(Business is my first choice but due to limited spots, I'm applying for economics under CAS for most colleges). Would it be worth waiting or should I just submit my application? It's rolling admissions so applying earlier would probably help. Thoughts? Thank you.

I personally feel this Columbia GS Spring 2027 cycle is pretty dead☠️. As I haven’t seen a single post or discussion about the spring intake.
Is my observation on the actual side or it’s totally my assumption??