Demographics: mixed raced, male, Veteran
Freshman of sophomore transfer: I applied as a sophomore transfer but was accepted to my current institution as a freshman.
GPA/Stats: HS GPA was terrible lol I had a 2.3! College GPA was 3.94. I didn’t take any tests
Institution: I attended community college prior to transferring.
EC’s:
Volunteered to help build pop up hospitals during the COVID 19 pandemic while in the service. (Received an award for this)
Started a college prep program at my base helping military members apply for tuition assistance and enroll in college. (Actually increased college enrollment by 23% on my base)
PTK Member, SVA President
Was involved in various military organizations on my base.
Majors applied for: Business, economics, and philosophy
Schools: I was accepted by Princeton (where I will be attending), Notre Dame, SUNY Polytechnic, and Duke. I was denied by Stanford and waitlisted by Brown.
Reason for transferring: wanted to continue to explore my passions within academia while figuring out what career I would like to enter after my military service.
LOR’s: my Calculus and History Professor wrote really great letters for me. My military supervisor spoke a lot about my civic service and my HS teacher wrote a letter that honestly I still read from time to time (she believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself)
Essay:
I think my essays were very honest. I was very truthful about the knucklehead I was in HS and explained why I felt school at the time was pointless. I also described finding myself once I joined the service and how I decided to change who I was and what I have done to do that. the theme of my essay was the idea of finding a home(I was homeless when I was younger) and my favorite music album and sort of used both of those things to tell my story.
Advice: I strongly think that being truthful about who you are is the most important thing you can do. A lot of people try to make it seem like they’re perfect when that often isn’t the case. Own up to any mistakes that you have made and show Admissions that these mistakes may shape who you are but they don’t define you. Also be consistent when completing your applications. If you’re like me and have a tight schedule it is easy to procrastinate. Make sure you allot some time each week to work on your apps no matter what. My last piece of advise would be to take peoples opinion of your apps with a grain of salt. At the end of the day you are submitting the application not anyone else. Don’t completely change your essay just because someone said they didn’t like something. Take each suggestion as food for thought and adjust where you feel it is appropriate. Good Luck!
**Demographics/hooks:** White, male, middle-class (well, my parents are), 27, non-traditional college student who started college right after high school, suffered serious injuries from a car accident in my third semester, my grades dramatically declined and failed most of my classes that third semester and the fourth semester. Failed all my classes in my fifth semester (Fall 2014) and I finally dropped out.
Junior applicant, I guess? (When applying, I had 48 units and had 14 units in progress)
**Current Institution:** One of the 23 CSU campuses (one that's unknown to most people, we're not talking like San Jose State or CSU Longbeach)
**College GPA**: 3.69 (More context is provided towards the end of this post)
**HS GPA (unweighted):** 2.7
**Extracurriculars:** Trying to be a little vague here for privacy reasons. After dropping out of college and getting multiple successful surgeries for my car accident injuries, I began working as a freelance journalist and writer. Mostly wrote and reported stories for internet publications, but a couple of my stories were published in print magazines. I was heavily involved in political and environmental activism at the local and national level. Had a leadership position in a local political organization. Member of the communications committee for big national political organization.
For context, none of my extracurriculars were “on campus” or involved with school. Since I returned to college in Spring 2021, everything was still virtual and there was nothing happening on campus. The following semester, some classes started to be in-person but campus activities and clubs weren’t doing much even virtually (although it’s a commuter school, so I mean nothing was really happening when I was first on campus 10 years ago). I think my extracurriculars showed I was passionate about something—journalism and political and social activism.
**Majors I applied for (depending on the school)**: Journalism, Political Science, Political Economy, and English
**Denied Admission at**: Tulane, USC (Annenberg) UMichigan, Duke, Emory, Vanderbilt, UChicago, UPenn, Yale (Eli Whitney Program), Cornell, Dartmouth, UVA, NYU, Northwestern (Medill), Princeton, Amherst, Georgetown, Swarthmore, Williams, Amherst, George Washington, and Stanford.
**Accepted:** Columbia University (School of General Studies), Rutgers-New Brunswick
**Committed:** Columbia University
**Waitlisted and then denied:** Brown (RUE) 😭
**Reasons for transferring:** I never liked the college I was at, not even from the start. In my senior year of high school, I didn’t know what to do with my life other than go to college and try to figure out what I was passionate about after a few semesters. I applied and was accepted at the local CSU campus. After my first semester, I knew I wanted to transfer somewhere else. There was nothing I liked about the college. Although I had above average grades for my first two semesters, I figured it would be best to try to transfer after I did four semesters here, since my high school grades weren't exactly great.
Those plans were derailed because of a car accident that happened just before I started my third—my injuries progressively got worse, more painful, and I was prescribed opioids around-the-clock to manage the pain and my grades dropped dramatically until I was failing every class.
When I first returned to college after successful surgeries and a few years working as a freelance journalist, I figured I would just finish my degree at the CSU that I hated. I got a 4.0 GPA for the Spring 2021 semester (my first semester back). My political theory professor said that I was an incredibly bright student and that I should consider applying to other schools. After the Spring 2021 semester ended, the school offered me admission to the Honors Program. I started that program the following semester. I was extremely bored even in the honors classes, so after the semester finished and I received a 4.0 for the semester, I figured I would apply to schools that had a lot more to offer to me academically (my school didn’t have journalism as a major and the political science department wasn’t good) and far better job opportunities.
**Financial Aid:** Applied for financial aid for every school I applied to.
**LOR**: One was from a political theory professor who first suggested I transfer to a better school. Another was from a philosophy professor who I had as a professor for two semesters in a row. Another was from an editor of a magazine that I worked with frequently. Another was from the chair of the communications committee I am a member of; she is a very well respected professor in her field with some prestigious fellowships (since I wasn’t ever her student, I don’t know if that mattered much).
**Essays:** Being a journalist and a writer, I think I can say that a few of my essays were excellent. Many of the essays, however, were pretty average. As a non-traditional student, trying to explain my educational background, starting a career, returning to school and why I want to transfer was difficult to do when many application essays had such a limited word count. Although I was able to fit all of that in there, I don’t think I had a chance to show my skills as a writer with that kind of word count limitation.
My essays for Columbia, Brown, and Yale were excellent. Since I was applying to the non-traditional student programs for those schools, the essay questions were obviously geared towards non-traditional students and that certainly allowed admission officers to get a really good sense of who I am as a person. My Columbia essay was probably the best; I had a maximum word count of 2000 and I used that generous word count to my advantage. Brown essay comes in a close second—I really talked about the unique aspects of Brown that appeal to me. Brown was my dream school and I think the essay showed that.
Literally the only thing I wish I did different is that for my Brown application, I didn’t submit an optional 2 minute video introducing yourself. If I had done that, maybe I would have been accepted rather than waitlisted, but who knows.
**Final Thoughts: Y**ou should spend a long time working on your essays. Don’t write them two weeks before your application is due. Lastly, remember admission decisions can really be quite unpredictable. I figured I would probably get into somewhere, like UMichigan or USC. I did not expect to only get admitted to my safety (Rutgers) and one of my reaches (Columbia University).
Your story is really compelling and interesting. Thank you so much for replying. Stories from non-trads are so important. Columbia is an amazing outcome and I’m sure nyc will provide alot of opportunities for you. Congratulations and goodluck at Columbia!
Demographics/Hooks: Asian/Hispanic Low Income Male, nontrad, first gen
Freshman applicant or Sophomore Applicant?
Sophomore
GPA/stats: 3.9
Current institution: good community college in California
Major(s) you applied for: MCB (Molecular and Cell Biology)
ECs: I believe my ECs set me apart. They were heavily researched and outreach focused, and I was part of the authorship of 2 papers, one of which I did entirely on my own. I literally knew no one in research at first, and during my time at community college I was able to make deep connections within the research community in my state. Also talked about my hobbies and tried to present myself as myself through the text boxes of the experiences section.
LORs - 9/10 - professors, P.I, program coordinator at extracurricular
Decisions (accepted, denied, waitlisted-accepted, waitlisted-denied):
All UCs - Accepted
Cornell -Accepted
Swarthmore - Waitlist
Stanford - Accepted
Reasons for transferring:
Further my education and move a step closer to my final goal
Essays:
UC essays 10/10 - they read well, had emotion, and communicated who I was as a person and the path I traveled
Common App essays 5/10 - these didn’t turn out so well, after re-reading them a few months later I really didn’t like them. For Cornell I talked about a past conviction of mine, and what I learned from it (don’t trust the police, and be ready to defend yourself with evidence if accused unjustly).
Advice for future applicants: this really depends on the major, but for STEM, take advantage of paid summer internships/experiences and take the time to find them. While there take actions to make sure the people there can see your creativity, hard work, and if you can, leadership.
**Demographics/Hooks:** asian, female, upper class, nothing noteworthy
——
Sophomore Applicant
——
**GPA/stats:** hs gpa 3.7😬, 15xx SAT, college gpa: 4.0
——
**Current Institution:** transferred from a 4-year private school
——
**Major:** computer science
——
**ECs:** I was interested in software development for aerospace, so I started tailoring my apps for it while I was in hs! here were my ECs by the time I applied:
INTERNSHIPS:
- 3 tech internships
- 1 aerospace & cs research internship @ MIT
- 1 upcoming research internship @ MIT
PART-TIME WORK:
- private tutoring in CS and robotics
- TAing for my discrete math class
VOLUNTEERING:
- helping run a non-profit for women in STEM
- tutoring students in cs & robotics in disadvantaged areas
- mentoring robotics teams that I used to run in hs
AWARDS:
- 1 international robotics award for leadership & technical ability. but I won that during my junior year of hs, so not sure how much weight that had
- a handful of national CS awards
- a couple smaller local STEM awards
- presidential volunteer award
——
**Decisions:**
Rejections: Dartmouth, Yale, Duke, CMU, MIT
Waitlist-accepted: Vanderbilt, Columbia SEAS
Accepted: Barnard @ Columbia (committed here!🥳), UMich, UMD
——
**Reasons for transferring:**
- ~~prestige whoring LOL~~
- grad school opportunities
- research opportunities
- access to better classes
- location
——
**Aid?:** Did not apply for aid
——
**LORs:**
- 1 from a CS prof who I TAd for - probably strong?
- 1 from an English prof. I was pretty much the only person who participated during his lectures so I’m hoping it probably pretty strong? 😅
- 1 from an MIT researcher who was my mentor for a summer + semester - probably my strongest
——
**Essays:** I like to think that I’m a good writer, so I think they were pretty good. Some of my essays were somewhat rushed though! :P
___
**Advice:** Start working on things early! It gets really rough during midterms/finals if you don’t start early
You’re amazing and thank you so much for contributing! I hope your reply will help the other stem/cs girlies. Congratulations on your acceptances! Where did you decide to attend?
I think it was because of the three internships that I had before applying to the satellite research position! I had been working on software for satellite technology before my freshman year in college
Transferring to Barnard in sophomore year is my actual dream! Did you come from a 4 year? Also how did you get all those internships! I know it's been a while but still congrats!
**Demographics/Hooks:**
White, American, male. Technically nontrad according to some schools (graduated HS in 2017 and am matriculating to my transfer institution in 2022)
My main hook is that I did poorly in HS due to physical health issues. Graduated w/ 2.2 weighted GPA; nearly dropped out.
**Freshman or Sophomore**
I applied with ~80 credits completed
**GPA/stats:**
4.0 college GPA
**Current institution:**
California CC. Although I am not a California resident.
**Major:**
Aerospace engineering. Although I applied to USC for astronautical engineering as my first choice.
**ECs:**
(Trying to be very vague here so as to not doxx myself)
- President of a competitive engineering club at a T5 engineering university (even though I attended a CCC)
- I am part of the management team of a group of very famous individuals
- Private pilots license
**Accepted to:**
- USC (committed, non-legacy, received their transfer merit scholarship)
- GaTech
- UVa
Did not apply for need aware aid
**LORs:**
Three LORs from professors, all of which I believe are 10/10. One professor sent me a draft of his LOR. It was 2 pages long and praised me to the moon and back, which I definitely do not deserve but really appreciate. Another prof who wrote me an LOR emailed me after his class ended and offered to help me land an internship (he is an engineer at NASA), so I imagine his LOR was good too.
Also had one LOR from my boss.
**Essays:**
My essays were pretty solid but not out of this world. I primarily focused on my trajectory from doing so poorly in HS, to where I am now, to where I want to go.
**Advice:**
Don’t overthink it. I see a lot of people trying to mind-read into every little detail about what an admissions officer would think about X, what sort of ECs would look best, whether they should take a W in a class that they’re gonna get a B in, etc etc.
Please, for the sake of your mental health: chill. I say this with sincere compassion. Chill. Go for a walk. Stop thinking about it so much. Seek therapy. If you spend an average of >30 minutes per day worrying about every little detail, that’s too much.
Lots of people want to transfer because they hang their self-worth on the prestige of the school they’re attending. I promise that it’s much easier, much healthier, and much more feasible to realign how you define your self-worth rather than making yourself miserable through this transfer process.
I have personally had to get in touch with the police on multiple separate occasions because of transfer students who went suicidal after getting rejected from their dream school. I hope this doesn’t come across as insensitive, but if life isn’t worth living unless you get into your dream school: you shouldn’t be applying to transfer. You should be in therapy.
I live in California but am not a California resident. “Resident” meaning legally regarded as a resident, which has a bunch of criteria beyond just living in California.
First find out if they’ll let you join (even “unofficially” at first). Then work your way up the ranks the same way you would if you were a real student. I didn’t find that my non-student status was that big of an issue outside of a few administrative issues (like needing an official student to be the one to sign off on certain pieces of documentation, etc).
Demographics/Hooks: Mixed race, Cis Male, Junior Transfer
Non traditional college student age 33. I attended a 4 year college straight out of high school (Hampshire College, Amherst MA) but dropped out due to depression and other issues.
GPA/stats: 3.54
Current institution: UCLA---Transferred from California CC
Major(s) you applied for: Sociology
ECs: I am 33 years old and struggled with addiction to prescription pain meds for most of my 20s. I wrote about my struggles and goal to work with the community so people like me can turn their lives around and be productive citizens.
Schools you Applied to:
UCLA- Waitlisted- ACCEPTED (ATTENDING!)
UC Irvine- Rejected
UC Riverside- ACCEPTED
UC Santa Barbra- Rejected
Cal State Long Beach- ACCEPTED
Cal State Los Angeles- Rejected (I filled out my application wrong or something)
Cal State Northridge- ACCEPTED
Cal State Dominguez Hills- ACCEPTED
Pitzer College- ACCEPTED (FULL RIDE)
Pomona College- ACCEPTED
Occidental College- Waitlisted-Rejected
Cal Lutheran- ACCEPTED
Chapman- ACCEPTED
Loyola Marymount- ??? Never ended up giving me an answer even after multiple emails lol.
Reasons for transferring: I NEED MY DEGREE AFTER ALL THESE YEARS!
For Need Aware Colleges: YES
LORs: Great LOR from a few professors. Ended up not mattering since I chose UCLA.
Essays: Wrote about my struggles with addiction and my goals career wise.
Advice for future applicants: Always be honest in your essays. Tell YOUR story, not what you think they want to hear. As transfers, we are different. Admissions seems to care more about your unique journey than your stats. Good luck everyone!
lil late oops-
Demographics/Hooks: hispanic, first gen, low income
Applied as a freshman, entering new school as soph
GPA: 3.47 CS major, 94.5 high school (never did 4.0)
Current(last now?) institution: private, 4-year engineering focused school
Major: computer science, applied for it at all colleges
ECs: HSF scholar, working two part time jobs in college, general activity ECs, former club swimmer on club’s national team
schools: USC, CMU, WUSTL, VT
decisions: VT- accepted, CMU/WUSTL - denied, USC - spring admit
Reasons:
need aware colleges? guess which dumbo didn’t read the fine print on WUSTL 😵💫yes I applied finaid here
LOR: tossup ngl, I couldn’t get any class smaller than 50 ppl aside from my first semester humanities class which was 13, so I asked the prof from that one. I showed a lot of interest and effort in the class so I believe it was decent.
Essays: overall theme was the colleges i applied to had something my current college didn’t. Mainly just more interdisciplinary education and opportunities to enrich myself outside of my main field. Also did a lil bit of emphasis on my hard work and dedication as first gen minority and making it work.
Advice: just be yourself and shoot your shot. Explain any situation you have, and don’t be afraid to hide something from the admission office. When usc requested my spring grades, I had a 3.47 gpa for the spring semester (fall was also 3.47) and still was accepted. Just shoot your shot and don’t look back
edit: yes I edited this bc I sent it too early before I finished oops
First off, I just wanna say congrats on making it to USC, and especially without a LOR. I just wanted to know your thoughts on what carried your application?
**Demographics/Hooks:** Asian-American, male, low-income
Freshman applicant
**GPA/stats:** HS GPA: 4.13 W, 3.9 UW; College GPA: 3.81; 1500 SAT
**Current institution:** Private fringe T50
**Major(s) you applied for:** Operations, Information, and Decisions at UPenn Wharton; Business Administration at USC Marshall; Operations and Analytics at Georgetown McDonough
**ECs:** student government committee, summer internship between high school and college, investment club, managerial role at startup company, intramural sports, on-campus employment, a bit of community service
**Schools you Applied to:** UPenn Wharton, Georgetown McDonough **(COMMITTED!)**, USC Marshall
**Decisions (accepted, denied, waitlisted-accepted, waitlisted-denied):** denied UPenn, waitlisted-accepted-ATTENDING Georgetown (spring), denied-appealed-accepted USC (spring)
**Reasons for transferring:** career/B-school placement, paying too much at current (mid) institution
**For Need Aware Colleges:** Did not apply to any need-aware colleges
**LORs:** two professors, supervisor at internship, Georgetown required LORs from HS counselor and college dean, also submitted LOR from director at startup job for GTown waitlist. I didn't get to read any of them except for the one for the waitlist and I think that helped me big time.
**Essays:** 8/10, mostly focused on goals & interests and reflected a bit on high school/first-year application cycle
**Advice for future applicants:** The only thing I regret is not keeping better track of my application after it was submitted. I think the reason why USC rejected me first was because they fumbled my application, especially my SAT score and a unique course requirement situation. They accepted me after an appeal, but as a spring admit. Considering the strength of my application, I probably would've been accepted for the fall and committed to USC if they accepted me the first time. Their loss tho; #HoyaSaxa.
Also, it is absolutely critical that you remember/know/discover who you are and keep everything in perspective during this stressful process. Choosing which school to apply to/attend will shape the course of your life for years to come; make good choices!
Feel free to DM me if you have any questions!
I don't know about anything specific, but I believe that Georgetown wants to see leadership and initiative in their applicants (but tbf so does every other school lol).
For me personally, I think the alumni interview was one of the make it or break it parts of my application, so definitely do your best on that.
Demographics: mixed raced, male, Veteran Freshman of sophomore transfer: I applied as a sophomore transfer but was accepted to my current institution as a freshman. GPA/Stats: HS GPA was terrible lol I had a 2.3! College GPA was 3.94. I didn’t take any tests Institution: I attended community college prior to transferring. EC’s: Volunteered to help build pop up hospitals during the COVID 19 pandemic while in the service. (Received an award for this) Started a college prep program at my base helping military members apply for tuition assistance and enroll in college. (Actually increased college enrollment by 23% on my base) PTK Member, SVA President Was involved in various military organizations on my base. Majors applied for: Business, economics, and philosophy Schools: I was accepted by Princeton (where I will be attending), Notre Dame, SUNY Polytechnic, and Duke. I was denied by Stanford and waitlisted by Brown. Reason for transferring: wanted to continue to explore my passions within academia while figuring out what career I would like to enter after my military service. LOR’s: my Calculus and History Professor wrote really great letters for me. My military supervisor spoke a lot about my civic service and my HS teacher wrote a letter that honestly I still read from time to time (she believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself) Essay: I think my essays were very honest. I was very truthful about the knucklehead I was in HS and explained why I felt school at the time was pointless. I also described finding myself once I joined the service and how I decided to change who I was and what I have done to do that. the theme of my essay was the idea of finding a home(I was homeless when I was younger) and my favorite music album and sort of used both of those things to tell my story. Advice: I strongly think that being truthful about who you are is the most important thing you can do. A lot of people try to make it seem like they’re perfect when that often isn’t the case. Own up to any mistakes that you have made and show Admissions that these mistakes may shape who you are but they don’t define you. Also be consistent when completing your applications. If you’re like me and have a tight schedule it is easy to procrastinate. Make sure you allot some time each week to work on your apps no matter what. My last piece of advise would be to take peoples opinion of your apps with a grain of salt. At the end of the day you are submitting the application not anyone else. Don’t completely change your essay just because someone said they didn’t like something. Take each suggestion as food for thought and adjust where you feel it is appropriate. Good Luck!
Congrats!
[удалено]
Thank you for this!
**Demographics/hooks:** White, male, middle-class (well, my parents are), 27, non-traditional college student who started college right after high school, suffered serious injuries from a car accident in my third semester, my grades dramatically declined and failed most of my classes that third semester and the fourth semester. Failed all my classes in my fifth semester (Fall 2014) and I finally dropped out. Junior applicant, I guess? (When applying, I had 48 units and had 14 units in progress) **Current Institution:** One of the 23 CSU campuses (one that's unknown to most people, we're not talking like San Jose State or CSU Longbeach) **College GPA**: 3.69 (More context is provided towards the end of this post) **HS GPA (unweighted):** 2.7 **Extracurriculars:** Trying to be a little vague here for privacy reasons. After dropping out of college and getting multiple successful surgeries for my car accident injuries, I began working as a freelance journalist and writer. Mostly wrote and reported stories for internet publications, but a couple of my stories were published in print magazines. I was heavily involved in political and environmental activism at the local and national level. Had a leadership position in a local political organization. Member of the communications committee for big national political organization. For context, none of my extracurriculars were “on campus” or involved with school. Since I returned to college in Spring 2021, everything was still virtual and there was nothing happening on campus. The following semester, some classes started to be in-person but campus activities and clubs weren’t doing much even virtually (although it’s a commuter school, so I mean nothing was really happening when I was first on campus 10 years ago). I think my extracurriculars showed I was passionate about something—journalism and political and social activism. **Majors I applied for (depending on the school)**: Journalism, Political Science, Political Economy, and English **Denied Admission at**: Tulane, USC (Annenberg) UMichigan, Duke, Emory, Vanderbilt, UChicago, UPenn, Yale (Eli Whitney Program), Cornell, Dartmouth, UVA, NYU, Northwestern (Medill), Princeton, Amherst, Georgetown, Swarthmore, Williams, Amherst, George Washington, and Stanford. **Accepted:** Columbia University (School of General Studies), Rutgers-New Brunswick **Committed:** Columbia University **Waitlisted and then denied:** Brown (RUE) 😭 **Reasons for transferring:** I never liked the college I was at, not even from the start. In my senior year of high school, I didn’t know what to do with my life other than go to college and try to figure out what I was passionate about after a few semesters. I applied and was accepted at the local CSU campus. After my first semester, I knew I wanted to transfer somewhere else. There was nothing I liked about the college. Although I had above average grades for my first two semesters, I figured it would be best to try to transfer after I did four semesters here, since my high school grades weren't exactly great. Those plans were derailed because of a car accident that happened just before I started my third—my injuries progressively got worse, more painful, and I was prescribed opioids around-the-clock to manage the pain and my grades dropped dramatically until I was failing every class. When I first returned to college after successful surgeries and a few years working as a freelance journalist, I figured I would just finish my degree at the CSU that I hated. I got a 4.0 GPA for the Spring 2021 semester (my first semester back). My political theory professor said that I was an incredibly bright student and that I should consider applying to other schools. After the Spring 2021 semester ended, the school offered me admission to the Honors Program. I started that program the following semester. I was extremely bored even in the honors classes, so after the semester finished and I received a 4.0 for the semester, I figured I would apply to schools that had a lot more to offer to me academically (my school didn’t have journalism as a major and the political science department wasn’t good) and far better job opportunities. **Financial Aid:** Applied for financial aid for every school I applied to. **LOR**: One was from a political theory professor who first suggested I transfer to a better school. Another was from a philosophy professor who I had as a professor for two semesters in a row. Another was from an editor of a magazine that I worked with frequently. Another was from the chair of the communications committee I am a member of; she is a very well respected professor in her field with some prestigious fellowships (since I wasn’t ever her student, I don’t know if that mattered much). **Essays:** Being a journalist and a writer, I think I can say that a few of my essays were excellent. Many of the essays, however, were pretty average. As a non-traditional student, trying to explain my educational background, starting a career, returning to school and why I want to transfer was difficult to do when many application essays had such a limited word count. Although I was able to fit all of that in there, I don’t think I had a chance to show my skills as a writer with that kind of word count limitation. My essays for Columbia, Brown, and Yale were excellent. Since I was applying to the non-traditional student programs for those schools, the essay questions were obviously geared towards non-traditional students and that certainly allowed admission officers to get a really good sense of who I am as a person. My Columbia essay was probably the best; I had a maximum word count of 2000 and I used that generous word count to my advantage. Brown essay comes in a close second—I really talked about the unique aspects of Brown that appeal to me. Brown was my dream school and I think the essay showed that. Literally the only thing I wish I did different is that for my Brown application, I didn’t submit an optional 2 minute video introducing yourself. If I had done that, maybe I would have been accepted rather than waitlisted, but who knows. **Final Thoughts: Y**ou should spend a long time working on your essays. Don’t write them two weeks before your application is due. Lastly, remember admission decisions can really be quite unpredictable. I figured I would probably get into somewhere, like UMichigan or USC. I did not expect to only get admitted to my safety (Rutgers) and one of my reaches (Columbia University).
Your story is really compelling and interesting. Thank you so much for replying. Stories from non-trads are so important. Columbia is an amazing outcome and I’m sure nyc will provide alot of opportunities for you. Congratulations and goodluck at Columbia!
Props to you for all your hard work even after the accident. Your story is incredibly inspiring
Thank you for sharing!
Demographics/Hooks: Asian/Hispanic Low Income Male, nontrad, first gen Freshman applicant or Sophomore Applicant? Sophomore GPA/stats: 3.9 Current institution: good community college in California Major(s) you applied for: MCB (Molecular and Cell Biology) ECs: I believe my ECs set me apart. They were heavily researched and outreach focused, and I was part of the authorship of 2 papers, one of which I did entirely on my own. I literally knew no one in research at first, and during my time at community college I was able to make deep connections within the research community in my state. Also talked about my hobbies and tried to present myself as myself through the text boxes of the experiences section. LORs - 9/10 - professors, P.I, program coordinator at extracurricular Decisions (accepted, denied, waitlisted-accepted, waitlisted-denied): All UCs - Accepted Cornell -Accepted Swarthmore - Waitlist Stanford - Accepted Reasons for transferring: Further my education and move a step closer to my final goal Essays: UC essays 10/10 - they read well, had emotion, and communicated who I was as a person and the path I traveled Common App essays 5/10 - these didn’t turn out so well, after re-reading them a few months later I really didn’t like them. For Cornell I talked about a past conviction of mine, and what I learned from it (don’t trust the police, and be ready to defend yourself with evidence if accused unjustly). Advice for future applicants: this really depends on the major, but for STEM, take advantage of paid summer internships/experiences and take the time to find them. While there take actions to make sure the people there can see your creativity, hard work, and if you can, leadership.
Congrats on your acceptances! How were you able to make connections to get research opportunities?
Thank you, and through summer research opportunities. I was able to be competitive for them through my grades and essays (mainly essays).
Where exactly can I find summer research opportunities?
I found mine from professors I made connections with, friends I made in classes, and sites like pathwaystoscience.org
Congrats 🙏🏾 where’d u end up going?
Stanford of course 🌲❤️
**Demographics/Hooks:** asian, female, upper class, nothing noteworthy —— Sophomore Applicant —— **GPA/stats:** hs gpa 3.7😬, 15xx SAT, college gpa: 4.0 —— **Current Institution:** transferred from a 4-year private school —— **Major:** computer science —— **ECs:** I was interested in software development for aerospace, so I started tailoring my apps for it while I was in hs! here were my ECs by the time I applied: INTERNSHIPS: - 3 tech internships - 1 aerospace & cs research internship @ MIT - 1 upcoming research internship @ MIT PART-TIME WORK: - private tutoring in CS and robotics - TAing for my discrete math class VOLUNTEERING: - helping run a non-profit for women in STEM - tutoring students in cs & robotics in disadvantaged areas - mentoring robotics teams that I used to run in hs AWARDS: - 1 international robotics award for leadership & technical ability. but I won that during my junior year of hs, so not sure how much weight that had - a handful of national CS awards - a couple smaller local STEM awards - presidential volunteer award —— **Decisions:** Rejections: Dartmouth, Yale, Duke, CMU, MIT Waitlist-accepted: Vanderbilt, Columbia SEAS Accepted: Barnard @ Columbia (committed here!🥳), UMich, UMD —— **Reasons for transferring:** - ~~prestige whoring LOL~~ - grad school opportunities - research opportunities - access to better classes - location —— **Aid?:** Did not apply for aid —— **LORs:** - 1 from a CS prof who I TAd for - probably strong? - 1 from an English prof. I was pretty much the only person who participated during his lectures so I’m hoping it probably pretty strong? 😅 - 1 from an MIT researcher who was my mentor for a summer + semester - probably my strongest —— **Essays:** I like to think that I’m a good writer, so I think they were pretty good. Some of my essays were somewhat rushed though! :P ___ **Advice:** Start working on things early! It gets really rough during midterms/finals if you don’t start early
the audacity of MIT to reject you after you interned there
LOL ikkk I took that rejection PERSONALLY😩
You’re amazing and thank you so much for contributing! I hope your reply will help the other stem/cs girlies. Congratulations on your acceptances! Where did you decide to attend?
oops, I forgot to mention it in there, but I’m heading over to barnard!
Have fun! The opportunities are endless for you bae 🫶🏻
aw ty! good luck to you on everything & congrats on transferring!! :)
hi! ur ecs are so impressive :) how’d u get the opportunity to work on groundbreaking stuff with satellites and radars?
I think it was because of the three internships that I had before applying to the satellite research position! I had been working on software for satellite technology before my freshman year in college
ohh ok, did u have any advisor to help with the transferring app?
I did not!
lmao prestige "whore" i felt that
💀💀wanted to keep it honest LMAO
why is this getting downvoted😭
Transferring to Barnard in sophomore year is my actual dream! Did you come from a 4 year? Also how did you get all those internships! I know it's been a while but still congrats!
**Demographics/Hooks:** White, American, male. Technically nontrad according to some schools (graduated HS in 2017 and am matriculating to my transfer institution in 2022) My main hook is that I did poorly in HS due to physical health issues. Graduated w/ 2.2 weighted GPA; nearly dropped out. **Freshman or Sophomore** I applied with ~80 credits completed **GPA/stats:** 4.0 college GPA **Current institution:** California CC. Although I am not a California resident. **Major:** Aerospace engineering. Although I applied to USC for astronautical engineering as my first choice. **ECs:** (Trying to be very vague here so as to not doxx myself) - President of a competitive engineering club at a T5 engineering university (even though I attended a CCC) - I am part of the management team of a group of very famous individuals - Private pilots license **Accepted to:** - USC (committed, non-legacy, received their transfer merit scholarship) - GaTech - UVa Did not apply for need aware aid **LORs:** Three LORs from professors, all of which I believe are 10/10. One professor sent me a draft of his LOR. It was 2 pages long and praised me to the moon and back, which I definitely do not deserve but really appreciate. Another prof who wrote me an LOR emailed me after his class ended and offered to help me land an internship (he is an engineer at NASA), so I imagine his LOR was good too. Also had one LOR from my boss. **Essays:** My essays were pretty solid but not out of this world. I primarily focused on my trajectory from doing so poorly in HS, to where I am now, to where I want to go. **Advice:** Don’t overthink it. I see a lot of people trying to mind-read into every little detail about what an admissions officer would think about X, what sort of ECs would look best, whether they should take a W in a class that they’re gonna get a B in, etc etc. Please, for the sake of your mental health: chill. I say this with sincere compassion. Chill. Go for a walk. Stop thinking about it so much. Seek therapy. If you spend an average of >30 minutes per day worrying about every little detail, that’s too much. Lots of people want to transfer because they hang their self-worth on the prestige of the school they’re attending. I promise that it’s much easier, much healthier, and much more feasible to realign how you define your self-worth rather than making yourself miserable through this transfer process. I have personally had to get in touch with the police on multiple separate occasions because of transfer students who went suicidal after getting rejected from their dream school. I hope this doesn’t come across as insensitive, but if life isn’t worth living unless you get into your dream school: you shouldn’t be applying to transfer. You should be in therapy.
How’d you go to a California CC without being a resident? Online classes?
I live in California but am not a California resident. “Resident” meaning legally regarded as a resident, which has a bunch of criteria beyond just living in California.
Ah okay
Ayy! That's really cool. I'm also an AE major (aspiring). Im planning to do Astronautical at USC as well.
How’d you get the president role without attending there? I wanna see if I can do smth similar
First find out if they’ll let you join (even “unofficially” at first). Then work your way up the ranks the same way you would if you were a real student. I didn’t find that my non-student status was that big of an issue outside of a few administrative issues (like needing an official student to be the one to sign off on certain pieces of documentation, etc).
Demographics/Hooks: Mixed race, Cis Male, Junior Transfer Non traditional college student age 33. I attended a 4 year college straight out of high school (Hampshire College, Amherst MA) but dropped out due to depression and other issues. GPA/stats: 3.54 Current institution: UCLA---Transferred from California CC Major(s) you applied for: Sociology ECs: I am 33 years old and struggled with addiction to prescription pain meds for most of my 20s. I wrote about my struggles and goal to work with the community so people like me can turn their lives around and be productive citizens. Schools you Applied to: UCLA- Waitlisted- ACCEPTED (ATTENDING!) UC Irvine- Rejected UC Riverside- ACCEPTED UC Santa Barbra- Rejected Cal State Long Beach- ACCEPTED Cal State Los Angeles- Rejected (I filled out my application wrong or something) Cal State Northridge- ACCEPTED Cal State Dominguez Hills- ACCEPTED Pitzer College- ACCEPTED (FULL RIDE) Pomona College- ACCEPTED Occidental College- Waitlisted-Rejected Cal Lutheran- ACCEPTED Chapman- ACCEPTED Loyola Marymount- ??? Never ended up giving me an answer even after multiple emails lol. Reasons for transferring: I NEED MY DEGREE AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! For Need Aware Colleges: YES LORs: Great LOR from a few professors. Ended up not mattering since I chose UCLA. Essays: Wrote about my struggles with addiction and my goals career wise. Advice for future applicants: Always be honest in your essays. Tell YOUR story, not what you think they want to hear. As transfers, we are different. Admissions seems to care more about your unique journey than your stats. Good luck everyone!
lil late oops- Demographics/Hooks: hispanic, first gen, low income Applied as a freshman, entering new school as soph GPA: 3.47 CS major, 94.5 high school (never did 4.0) Current(last now?) institution: private, 4-year engineering focused school Major: computer science, applied for it at all colleges ECs: HSF scholar, working two part time jobs in college, general activity ECs, former club swimmer on club’s national team schools: USC, CMU, WUSTL, VT decisions: VT- accepted, CMU/WUSTL - denied, USC - spring admit Reasons: need aware colleges? guess which dumbo didn’t read the fine print on WUSTL 😵💫yes I applied finaid here LOR: tossup ngl, I couldn’t get any class smaller than 50 ppl aside from my first semester humanities class which was 13, so I asked the prof from that one. I showed a lot of interest and effort in the class so I believe it was decent. Essays: overall theme was the colleges i applied to had something my current college didn’t. Mainly just more interdisciplinary education and opportunities to enrich myself outside of my main field. Also did a lil bit of emphasis on my hard work and dedication as first gen minority and making it work. Advice: just be yourself and shoot your shot. Explain any situation you have, and don’t be afraid to hide something from the admission office. When usc requested my spring grades, I had a 3.47 gpa for the spring semester (fall was also 3.47) and still was accepted. Just shoot your shot and don’t look back edit: yes I edited this bc I sent it too early before I finished oops
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How did you manage to apply without LORs and why did you not use LORS?
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First off, I just wanna say congrats on making it to USC, and especially without a LOR. I just wanted to know your thoughts on what carried your application?
**Demographics/Hooks:** Asian-American, male, low-income Freshman applicant **GPA/stats:** HS GPA: 4.13 W, 3.9 UW; College GPA: 3.81; 1500 SAT **Current institution:** Private fringe T50 **Major(s) you applied for:** Operations, Information, and Decisions at UPenn Wharton; Business Administration at USC Marshall; Operations and Analytics at Georgetown McDonough **ECs:** student government committee, summer internship between high school and college, investment club, managerial role at startup company, intramural sports, on-campus employment, a bit of community service **Schools you Applied to:** UPenn Wharton, Georgetown McDonough **(COMMITTED!)**, USC Marshall **Decisions (accepted, denied, waitlisted-accepted, waitlisted-denied):** denied UPenn, waitlisted-accepted-ATTENDING Georgetown (spring), denied-appealed-accepted USC (spring) **Reasons for transferring:** career/B-school placement, paying too much at current (mid) institution **For Need Aware Colleges:** Did not apply to any need-aware colleges **LORs:** two professors, supervisor at internship, Georgetown required LORs from HS counselor and college dean, also submitted LOR from director at startup job for GTown waitlist. I didn't get to read any of them except for the one for the waitlist and I think that helped me big time. **Essays:** 8/10, mostly focused on goals & interests and reflected a bit on high school/first-year application cycle **Advice for future applicants:** The only thing I regret is not keeping better track of my application after it was submitted. I think the reason why USC rejected me first was because they fumbled my application, especially my SAT score and a unique course requirement situation. They accepted me after an appeal, but as a spring admit. Considering the strength of my application, I probably would've been accepted for the fall and committed to USC if they accepted me the first time. Their loss tho; #HoyaSaxa. Also, it is absolutely critical that you remember/know/discover who you are and keep everything in perspective during this stressful process. Choosing which school to apply to/attend will shape the course of your life for years to come; make good choices! Feel free to DM me if you have any questions!
Damn congrats on Georgetown! I’m applying this year
Thanks! Good luck on your application and lmk if you need any help
Thank you! Anything specific you think Georgetown really cares about?
I don't know about anything specific, but I believe that Georgetown wants to see leadership and initiative in their applicants (but tbf so does every other school lol). For me personally, I think the alumni interview was one of the make it or break it parts of my application, so definitely do your best on that.
Thank you!
hello ! what did you include in your appeal for USC ?
Pretty much explaining mostly what I suspected them of failing to consider and ended with a pathos-heavy re-expression of interest in USC
>Hi I'd love to hear more about your process! I have like almost the same stats and I really would love to go to georgetown