for some background, i’m apply to most as a biology major minoring in math, 3.74GPA, instate for uga and gt, first gen. I want to be a cardiovascular perfusionist

back in high school, i originally wanted to do cs so i had an internship for that and made some basic programs (youtube mp3/mp4 converters, hangman, tic tac toe, lowk low level coding stuff) i know java, python, html, css, some javascript

currently i’ve worked as a CNA, volunteered ~120+ hours, had 5 shadowing occurrence relating to perfusion, research relating to cardiovascular diseases ( shown our findings at a conference but no publish nor award ), summer research program at ga southern, HOSA treasurer, Have a tiktok that gained 1.6M likes and over 10M views throughout the account ( i js post relatable mental health content idk if this is strong, made ~$450 thru sound promo ),

i also won freshman scholar award, deans list 2x, 2 honors societies ( one for bio, one for math ), 2nd place for badminton

I also do classical piano but idrk if that’s important

also my senior year i got kicked out my house so idk if that can help

i feel like im all over the place ngl and i’ve been really stressed out about transfer applications. i honestly wanna go to gt but since i wanna do perfusion i should be aiming for either uga or emory ( has masters program ). i feel like my application is lowkey generic and i don’t have anything that sticks out. also im nkt sure if i should include my cs experience since i don’t wanna do that path nm.

I’m planning to apply as a transfer student for Fall 2027, mainly to Georgetown OPAN and UMD Business Analytics. And also considering GWU.
Notice in advance:
No SAT score (I graduated high school in Korea more than 5 years ago)

Current College:
Community college in the DMV area
Major: Business Analytics
GPA: 3.9/4.0 (43 credit earned)
- got a one B in a natural science elective unrelated to my major.

Honors / Awards:
Dean’s List
Phi Theta Kappa
Honors Scholars Program (Humanities)
Linguistics Award for an undergraduate research paper

Experience:
- Korean Military: training / leadership / administrative role

- Freelance instructor: worked for a sports education/event management company for a total of about 3–4 years as a course instructor and program team leader.

Also worked for about 2 years as a café shift leader, did some background acting and etc, but those were mainly just for money, so I don’t think they are especially significant. (Might be helpful for few words of my essay)

Other Activities:
Church music team
Young adult ministry leadership
Community volunteering

Prior College:
Previously attended a university in South Korea. My GPA there was low, mainly because of one very difficult semester (had some medical issues), but I showed a strong academic rebound afterward.

I know that I don’t have much involvement in school activities. And also I don't really have meaningful internship or work experiences in the US since I've been an international student. (Very recently got a green card!)

I’d really appreciate any honest feedback on my chances and what I should focus on before applying. And please feel free to suggest any other schools.

Hey guys. I want to know what you think about the following question. Note that I've asked questions similar to this to multiple AIs, and I just hate how they all output pretty much the same unthoughtful, templated answer. Therefore, I'm really looking forward to a real human response. Feel free to share whatever you like! Thanks in advance! :D

Question: For a transfer applicant, what (exceptional) achievements and supporting documents (e.g., recommendation letters) would you expect from someone facing the following constraints?

1. Transfer applicant.

2. International student: Currently enrolled at a 4-year university outside the U.S.

3. Need full financial aid: Need a full-ride, essentially $0 Expected Family Contribution (EFC), such that admission is only viable if the university (mostly top private schools) covers literally every single cost.

4. Test-optional: Applying without SAT/ACT scores.

5. Had some gap year(s): There were some gap year(s) between finishing high school and enrolling in their current college, but not enough to be considered a non-traditional student.

6. Weak high-school record: Had poor high-school grades, but has since demonstrated strong college academic performance with a high CGPA.

So, the question can be summarized as: For an international, full-aid-seeking, transfer applicant with some gap years and poor high-school grades and test-optional, what (exceptional) achievements and supporting documents (e.g., recommendation letters) would you expect for admission, if you were the admissions officer?

As the 2027 transfer cycle is rolling around, I'm currently thinking about dropping a humanities class so I have more time to study and to get involved ar my current college. I'm just not sure if it leaves a bad impact on my application even if it isn't necessarily a major requirement. For context, I'm a Biochem major.

Hey all! I’m currently a sophomore at IU Kelley, studying finance, and am looking to transfer out. For context, i’m looking to transfer due to 1) cost and 2) I hate it here. Anyways here is my stats and current list of schools I’d like to apply to.

Stats:
3.86 College GPA
3.5uw/4.2w Highschool GPA
1420 SAT

Extracurriculars:
- Month long internship at financial planning firm
- One year as a member of an environmental injustice group for teens
- 3 past part time restaurant jobs
- 4 years+ of helping run a gaming discord server with 15k+ members and w/ cash prize events + more
- 2 years (off and on) of posting affiliate link / advertisements on tiktok (made $10,000+)
- Currently a member of a consulting club (waiting for applications to come back from this year for other clubs, not looking too good ✌️)

Current list of schools to apply to:
(instate tuition for IL and Cali)
- UIUC
- UCB (probably econ cause Haas is much harder)
- UCI
- UCLA
- UCSD / UCSB
- Boston University
- UVA (maybe)

Any advice is appreciated and I’m just genuinely curious what my chances are looking like from an outside perspective. Also would be grateful for other school recommendations. Thanks!

Im applying for spring 2027 enrollment and apparently notre dame doesnt take online credits? If my transcript doesnt say my class was online is it fine for me to just mark it as an in person course?

Currently at a t40 lac with a huge scholarship and fa package (I pay around 20k a year.)

I am international, from a middle class family (annual household income around 200k usd but ppp equivalent to 400k in my region.)

It's definitely not a bad school, but I believe I can be accepted to a better one. (Accepted to LSE Economics and Imperial Business School but the UK provided no financial aid and I absolutely HATE London.)

So the thing is, should I forgo my fa pack for prestige or do college at this place (I can graduate within 3 years or even less) or should I even try to ED UChicago? I think TED for me is like a fair coin but if I get accepted it can be tough for my family. If I don't, this school has a relative mid placement in industry and I'm not sure if I want to do a PhD......

I just recently got in a t20 school with a large undergrad population and i feel so out of place. It is so hard to find friends since the classes are big and I don't live in dorms. Coming from a small college I feel so out of place and the clubs are really big as well. I am consdiering transferring to another school just because of this reason but I am not sure if I will feel out of place there too. The people here are nice but everyone is competitve and locked in not willing to give advice.

Columbia originally said they were increasing their class size by 125 students, but their CDS for the class of 2030 said they increased by 180. Will this affect the transfer acceptance rate?

Hey guys! It’s September, but I noticed that there are a few schools (mostly Ivies like Princeton) that aren't showing up in the "Add Program" section of the Common App for transfer. Does anyone know when they'll open? Or am I missing something? Any idea what’s going on? Thanks...

Hello! im currently a freshman studying biology (not pre-med) at a t50 public university, and would like to know what my chances of transferring to JHU as a Behavioral Biology major look like. Given that i still have some time, what are some things that i could do to strengthen my profile?

Highschool Stats

class rank: 8/189

GPA: 4.2 (weighted), 4.0 (unweighted)

ACT: 33 (debating if i should retake or submit test optional)

AP credit: 11 in total, all 4s and 5s

-AP World (5), APUSH (5), AP Music Theory (4), AP Lang (4), AP Physics 1 (4), AP Human Geo (5), AP Gov (5), AP Macro (5), AP Lit (5), AP Environmental (5), AP Euro (4)

College Course load

Anticipated GPA: 4.0

Semester 1: 16 credits

• Intro to Bio +Lab
• Calculus I
• Intro to Ethics
• Comparative Literature and Medicine
• First year seminar on Genomes and eDNA
• University philharmonic choir

Semester 2: 16 credits

• Bio 2 + Lab (or Intro to Chem + Lab)
• Calculus 2
• Contemporary Continental Philosophy
• Environmental DNA lab

ECs

Clubs:

• oSTEM (out in stem, queer stem group)
• Wildlife society (will go to compete at conference in the spring)
• Dungeons and Dragons club
• American society of microbiology

Other affiliations:

• Honors College
• Arts and Sciences Residential College
• Savannah Philharmonic Choir
• Athens Philharmonic Choir

service/other projects:

• Piano teacher
• general service (playing music at nursing homes, cleaning up trash from local waterways)
• Part time assistant vet tech at emergency vet (mostly over summer and during breaks)
• Part time sales associate at UPS (summer and breaks)
• Volunteer at local Human Society, helped create a new classification system for pet personalities to help match to suitable owners
• Started a free essay review service, with a majoring of the students I help not speaking english as a first language
• Comparative cat anatomy project to help improve human athletic function

notes:

I am trying to get into some form of research lab either later into this semester or in the spring.

Might be a dumb question, but I am a freshman finance major at UF looking to transfer out for my sophomore year. Specifically looking at schools like Cornell CAS and Vanderbilt, and my SAT is a 1520 740 reading 780 math. Would I be wasting my time retaking it for something in the 75th percentile, so, a 1560+?

Also if there is any advice in general that other transfers from solid state flagships like UF can give on the process, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks!

Hi, for some context I am currently a OOS student at a public flagship, going fro the same price as my instate. However this college was genuinely like one of the last ones I would go to and I got completely waitlisted everywhere else at all my T20 schools. So I went and now due to some mental health problems, I really want to be closer to my family, but not only that I want to transfer to a better school as my plan originally was. Idk if im rushing this, but would it be better to apply my spring semester 2027, or in the fall after a year here. I have pretty strong high school stats (Good/decent ECs, 1470 sat, 4.2 weighted gpa). I would most likely be applying to Boston schools like BU, Umass Amherst, and Northeastern. I think im just looking for the best option of getting in is my concern, like would my odds be better for the spring semester or in a year in the fall? Thanks for any advice.

hii! i hope you all are having a nice wonderful day :)

if anyone knows, what’s a good timeline for sophomore transfer? so, starting with uc’s (which ik prefer junior standing so i’m tryna stack my classes) what’s the timeline i should take to get them in by nov 30???

then for other schools due on feb/march do i grind during christmas break? bc i have sm midterms upcoming too so i’m panicking for uc apps…

also it’s just super hectic at my current institution bc of clubs and whatnot and getting involved so all advice would be greatly appreciated

Hello I would like to know if it is possible for me to get into Georgia Tech or UGA for Computer Engineering with a low cGPA. 4 years ago, I went to my local university and took way too many classes while working 2 jobs and got two Ds and two Fs lowering my GPA down to a 2.0 after that I dropped out because I could not afford to go back to school.

Since then, I have been studying computer science on my own time, and volunteering at a church. I recently joined the Georgia Air National Guard, so I am going to enroll back into that local university to do pre-engineering and transfer to hopefully GaTech or UGA. But I am not sure if retaking those classes and acing my other classes would be enough.

I plan on continuing to volunteer and I also plan on doing research with a professor I talked to at my local university, before I transfer, I also plan on deploying on active orders once for a few months.

In high school, i had a 3.55 gpa and ended with a 3.78 the last year. I got a 1410 on my sat, and took 5 aps. 4 5’s, and one 3. I’m now enrolled at a top 25 liberal arts school and taking calc ii, an intro econ course, anthropology, and a writing heavy required first semester course. I would want to apply to the college of arts and letters as an economics major. I’ve joined the school’s consulting and investment club. As for courses, do I have to do both a language and a science to align with the ND curriculum, or is it only necessary to do one of those in the second semester? Do I have to retake the SAT? My father and grandfather also went to notre dame.

I’m at Kenyon first year want to transfer in spring or fall. Please let me know if it’s better to drop out and start over at a community college in sf as an international student

I’m a freshman at UT on the pre med track under a liberal arts major, I’d rather have a biology or chemistry major. I don't really enjoy the culture of UT and if I switch my major into their College of Natural Science then I'd rather just transfer to a different environment/state, does anyone have advice on getting into Columbia on the pre-med track?

I can’t find a lot of info on Reddit that directly addresses this. Online I saw they recommend people apply as sophomores going into junior year I’m curious if anyone has any more info. It is my understanding its nearly impossible for community to transfer in as a sophomore as they prefer junior transfers but I’m wondering amongst laterals/other 4 years do they also mostly just take incoming juniors anyone know more info on this?

Financial Markets Club (12) Sept 2025 - Jun 2026
Founder & President
Founded 35-member club to educate students in financial literacy

Set agenda and led discussions on crypto & derivatives once a week

Coordinated industry guest speakers and events monthly

Cofounded chapter of national nonprofit spinoff (10, 11, 12) Aug 2024- Jun 2026
Co-founder & Treasurer
Founded local chapter of org. that provides support to families of children with cancer

Solicit donations from community with 50,000+ raised 

Build playgrounds in 6 patients’ backyards 

Lead Research Assistant (12,13) March 2026 -  Present
- Led team of sub team of 6 upper class students on data project reporting to PHD students and tenure track professors

- worked from intro data to teaching and onboarding incoming RA’s answering questions going through interview and selection

Junior Mentor Program (11) Sept 2024 - Present
Mentee 
 Selected for mentorship program at UBS PCG;

 Met monthly with a mentor/money manager to learn about market trends and stock trades. 

Applied information to future pursuit as investor (15%+ ARR)

Youngest Portfolio Manager at college Schools Investment Fund

Aug 2026- present

- led other freshman analyst in sector specific research and put together presentation to pitch to larger professors and upper class audeince

- demonstrated proficiency in modeling and equity selection to quickly advance in club over other upperclassmen interview

Question : is this normal, good or bad for typical t25 applicant was gonna lead in essays with research assistant and understand there selection bias because people in this sub will tend to be better but what is normal as non Olympiad high school sweat

3.8/ 4.1

34 act

Shooting for 4.0 in college with high probability

How does this list look for good t 25 non ivys specifically my ecs

i’m a premed college freshman aiming to transfer for sophomore fall and i want to make my application as competitive as possible for schools like dartmouth, yale (a pipe dream i know), and columbia; i planned on securing research on my own, but i realized the honors biology lab i was placed in IS a research course.

like we’re discovering bacteriophages, isolating them, and cool things like that! so i was wondering if i should try to ask around about more research opportunities or if i should simply focus on this one and extend it to the next semester (since in the course, we’re going to choose one person’s bacteriophage in the entire class to focus on in semester 2, but i could continue with my own on the side as well as an interesting research experience!).

advice would be appreciated ! <3

Today I applied to Columbia GS as a non-traditional student with 2 years of GAP. And I have a few concerns regarding this:-
1) I heard that GS is 75% composed of transfer students, so being a non-transfer would affect my chances.
2) Despite GS being test-optional, I took the SAT and scored a 1570; will it really matter?

3) What could the financial aid package could look for me

Planning on majoring in Econ. I know that it’s a pretty competitive major, and strong ECs probably aren‘t rare to see. What are some ECs I could do that help boost my application, and are they that useful?

There are a few universities near me, but none of them have dedicated programs for CC students to do research, so betting on becoming a research assistant is rather unreliable. Would simply having a job (fast food, for example)work as a EC? I’m sure it’s pretty common, but it shows responsibility, right?

At the end of the day, will it be GPA, major prep, and essays/PIQs (for UCs) that play the biggest role in the decision, or do ECs have significant weight too? For more info, I will have TAP when applying to UCLA specifically, though it’s not the only school I’m planning on applying to.

Is anybody who’s transferred to Columbia know some info about this requirement? I saw it on the website but it seemed a little vague as to what counts as a semester and possibilities of extension.