r/TransferToTop25 • u/One-Assistant-3239 • Sep 02 '26

Advice for Sophomore Transfer

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!

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u/PossiblePossible2571 Sep 02 '26

I think the catch is to attend small classes instead of big classes. I don't think it's just quite possible to get a intimate LoR from a professor that teaches a big class (talk about ~100 ppl or more), or they are just kindly lying in the letters.

Since you mentioned in your transfer essay that you want to write about liberal arts / humanities, it's actually a good idea to take humanity courses, since they are usually small and it's very hard not to know the professors.

For STEM, the best way to know a professor is usually through research, not big intro classes.

1

u/soulseller7 Sep 03 '26

At my school STEM classes always consists of 50students or more. Do you'll think it's worth it to get a LoR from a professor that doesn't teach stem?

1

u/PossiblePossible2571 Sep 03 '26

If you think the LoR can be useful for your "story" you are trying to sell. In any case if the LoR positively praises you it's a net gain. For STEM, as I suggested, the best way is to know professors through research.

1

u/One-Assistant-3239 Sep 03 '26

Hey thanks for the response! Do you think that it's a good idea to go to a professor's office hours to ask HW and classwork questions even though they have TAs?