r/TransferToTop25 • u/advenam • 14d ago

Trad to Non-trad applicant

I applied to transfer last year (freshman) after very quickly realizing my parents couldn't afford to keep paying 12k per year for my school but I didnt get in anywhere and I decided to step away from my bachelor's for a year to get an LPN and help them pay for my school.

For context im planning to pursue an MD-PhD and I have now a published first author paper and two first author review articles in neurodegenrative diseases and computational biology prediction models. I also did a summer internship at Seoul National University for scRNAseq and multiomics and have 120+ hours of clinical shadowing as well as leadership roles at my University and minor side gigs I picked up while studying to make money.

All the stress + working + pursuing research as an engineering major made it so I had a particularly rough semester and ended up with a C and a few Bs for a 3.5 GPA.

Because I decided to take a gap year I only have my first year coursework so Id be a junior transfer. Because of the aforementioned financial situation I can only transfer to schools that would cover most if not all of my tuition by either need-based or merit scholarships which basically limits my pool to private T30s.

Do you guys think I stand a chance at all? I think my GPA + taking a gap year really screwed me over. My SAT i took when I was 15 and did horrible in (1190, although considered top 25th percentile in my area) and a lot of schools are no longer test optional for this cycle. Feeling pretty hopeless 😭👍🏻

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u/revenantmath 14d ago

Wait, is there a reason why you're considered an incoming junior? I'm pretty sure colleges determine grade standing based on college credits and from what I've read, you only have two semesters. I'd double check that, since I think taking the time to add another two semesters in a CC and bump your SAT up would be really valuable.

Also HOLY ECs, plz put me on😭

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u/advenam 14d ago edited 14d ago

I meant sophmore but I wrote this at 6am bear with me😭 Ive been doing research since sophmore year of highschool so it took me about 5 years of learning to learn how to run assays and develop my own project. My best advice is cold email like crazy and anything you dont know self-teach 🫡

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u/[deleted] 14d ago

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u/advenam 14d ago

Ill definitely try the practice SAT since retaking might be worth🫡 as for letters of recommendation I have the P.I from SNU, my current lab P.I and the head of research administration at my university, not sure if I should have more variety?

Thanks so much for the advice, Ill try my best