Transferring

[Tangeriine]

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So I currently go to a top 30 private New England school that is very good for pre-med. Unfortunately, I am very unhappy here. I am planning on applying to transfer and wanted to know how this will effect my medical school aspirations. Will my application be weaker because of the 1 or 2 month period break from progress while I'm re-acclimating and finding new extracurricular's? Also, will just the fact that I transferred be a bad mark on a medical school application? And in general, what are the disadvantages when applying to medical school if I do decide to transfer.

Also, can you comment on the pre-med prowess of the five schools I'm considering:
Vanderbilt
Rice
Washington University in St. Louis
Dartmouth
Cornell

All of them are reaches, about a single full tier above my current school where I have a 3.2 GPA, but I would rather be stuck here and be unhappy than transfer down to a significantly less prestigious school (I understand many of you think prestige doesn't matter at all, I tend to disagree).

 

[jqueb29]

I think the main thing you have to worry about as a bad mark on your application is that GPA. I'm not sure what year you are in, but your biggest concern needs to be making sure that none of the stress or whatever from transferring brings that GPA down further and to get that thing up to at the very minimum a 3.5-3.6 by the time you apply. I don't think they'll care about you transferring, and they certainly won't care about a short break in EC's.

 

[Tangeriine]

I think the main thing you have to worry about as a bad mark on your application is that GPA. I'm not sure what year you are in, but your biggest concern needs to be making sure that none of the stress or whatever from transferring brings that GPA down further and to get that thing up to at the very minimum a 3.5-3.6 by the time you apply. I don't think they'll care about you transferring, and they certainly won't care about a short break in EC's.

Good to know. I'm in my first year so that GPA is only from 1 semester.

 

[funkymonkey0987]

I hate to be blunt, but for someone that places a high value on a school's prestige you will need to start doing better than a 3.2 if you want to attain high "prestige" for medical school. I'm not an adcom so I can't speak to what they will think of you transferring, but I see the GPA being a bigger issue than the school switch. Good luck.

 

[Tangeriine]

Regarding the whole GPA and prestige thing: I'm concerned about the prestige of my undergrad in case I don't go to medical school. If i do go to medical school then i really only care that it is prestigious enough to get me into my specialty of choice. I know my GPA is low, I had a rough time adjusting the college and I am doing better this semester.

 

[candbgirl]

The prestige of Your undergrad will have absolutely nothing to do with getting you into your "specialty of choice". Your undergrad doesn't really have a lot to do with getting you into med school. On the other hand your grades and GPAs play a very big part in the process. Why are you considering moving up a tier in prestige when you transfer? Do you think it will be easier to get good grades?

Sent from my KFOT using Tapatalk 2

 

[moop]

There are only a select number of people who can afford to care about prestige. You don't seem like one of them. Prestige matters, but only for the select few who do well enough with that prestige.

You will blame your new grades at the new school on the acclimation thing, when in fact you should probably evaluate your own prowess as a student first before considering the "premed prowess" (cue lols) of undergrads.

No one will care about your transfer. You should, though, because I see the potential to sink and drown in your prestige-oriented fantasy.

Also, unhappiness does not drive good grades. Common sense

 

[tiedyeddog]

Yeah, are you seriously asking this? Those are all amazing schools.

 

[Tangeriine]

I think you are all really misinterpreting what I am saying about prestige.

I only care about it if I don't go to medical school AT ALL. If I go into industry right out of college a more prestigious degree matters a lot, whether you like it or not.
If I do go to medical school, then yeah prestige doesn't matter at all you're right. But, I am being honest with myself and I know I might change my mind in two years about what I want to do with my life.
And the reason I want to move up is so I can justify spending the money I spent to go to the school I am at right now.

And to Moops "Also, unhappiness does not drive good grades. Common sense": Obviously, that's why I want to transfer.

I don't get why I am having to defend myself, I just wanted some advice.

 

[Tman90]

.

 

[MrLogan13]

If you're unhappy at your current institution, then transfer. If you're happier you'll be able to do better, and that's all that matters.

 

[moop]

What you say about prestige makes sense. I never challenged that. (Even in med school, though, prestige still matters a small bit)

I only challenged the larger point about your chase with prestige as a backup. That needs to be done carefully, med school or not.

 

[Lucca]

The effect transferring will have on your application is small compared to the effect your GPA will have on your application. Your GPA is not bad for a first semester freshman but it certainly needs to improve (3.7+) if you want to be competitive for MD. If your goal is to go to some other school to be happy then you should iron out a couple of things first:

1. What about your current school makes you unhappy?

2. What about another school will make you happy?

3. Why should the same problems from your current school not arise in the new school?

4. If you do want to transfer, why don't you also include more realistic schools in your list given your current GPA?

You answered four, you want the prestige for industry. Well, that really depends on the industry and market you want to work in. Can you elaborate on other fields you might see yourself working in?

And the most important question that you don't have to answer right now but you should answer regardless: Do I want to do medicine and why do I want to do it?

 

[beachside]

I don't think med schools will care that you transferred. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that most people transfer at least once. Any of those schools will have good pre-med programs. Hell, a significantly lesser-quality school would probably do you just fine in terms of pre-medicine.

 

[moop]

I don't think med schools will care that you transferred. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that most people transfer at least once. Any of those schools will have good pre-med programs. Hell, a significantly lesser-quality school would probably do you just fine in terms of pre-medicine.

Uh..................I am going to say no way in hell do "most people transfer at least once." Uh...

 

[beachside]

Uh..................I am going to say no way in hell do "most people transfer at least once." Uh...

Eh, I don't know what you kids do these days. I've met a significant number of people that transferred. Note that I mentioned that I "wouldn't be surprised to hear" that, not that I was claiming it was necessarily true. Since your reply was kind of rude, I even googled it: http://chronicle.com/article/A-Third-of-Students-Transfer/130954/ . Apparently around a third of students transfer, which is not too far off of my original estimate. So go pound sand.

 

[moop]

Eh, I don't know what you kids do these days. I've met a significant number of people that transferred. Note that I mentioned that I "wouldn't be surprised to hear" that, not that I was claiming it was necessarily true. Since your reply was kind of rude, I even googled it: http://chronicle.com/article/A-Third-of-Students-Transfer/130954/ . Apparently around a third of students transfer, which is not too far off of my original estimate. So go pound sand.

Original estimate = "most people." Let's make that 51% (could even be 60% if we take "most" to mean "supermajority"). Actual number: 33% (leaving aside the full-time/part-time issue).
Percent error = 35.2% (remember the equation for this?)

35.2% error is nothing to brag about, and neither is it "not too far off" of an estimate. Try taking that kind of percent error in any other quantitative scenario and convince people it was pretty close. lol. Good try, though; good effort looking up the number. Thanks for proving to me there is "no way in hell [] most people transfer at least once."

 

[beachside]

Original estimate = "most people." Let's make that 51% (could even be 60% if we take "most" to mean "supermajority"). Actual number: 33% (leaving aside the full-time/part-time issue).
Percent error = 35.2% (remember the equation for this?)

35.2% error is nothing to brag about, and neither is it "not too far off" of an estimate. Try taking that kind of percent error in any other quantitative scenario and convince people it was pretty close. lol. Good try, though; good effort looking up the number. Thanks for proving to me there is "no way in hell [] most people transfer at least once."

Look, idiot, I already mentioned above that my original comment said: "I wouldn't be surprised to hear that most people transfer at least once." I don't know what your reading comprehension problem is, so I posted it again for you a third time. Would you like a fourth: "I wouldn't be surprised to hear that most people transfer at least once."

Does that say anywhere that I am making an unambiguous claim that more than 51% of people transfer at least once? What is your problem? Good luck making it through medical school with your horrendous people skills, lack of reading comprehension, and whatever else caused you to post the complete nonsense above.

 

[touchpause13]

I transferred from a prestigious school to a state school, I was asked about it at one interview, I stated that I didn't feel comfortable taking out as many loans as I was when I could go to school for like 10 times cheaper. I was accepted.

As long as whatever issue you are having at your current school can be fixed by transferring, it's fine

 

[Ismet]

Members are reminded to keep their posts courteous and to contribute positively and professionally.

 

[moop]

Look, idiot, I already mentioned above that my original comment said: "I wouldn't be surprised to hear that most people transfer at least once." I don't know what your reading comprehension problem is, so I posted it again for you a third time. Would you like a fourth: "I wouldn't be surprised to hear that most people transfer at least once."

Does that say anywhere that I am making an unambiguous claim that more than 51% of people transfer at least once? What is your problem? Good luck making it through medical school with your horrendous people skills, lack of reading comprehension, and whatever else caused you to post the complete nonsense above.

Lol you just don't want to admit you don't understand the math, but that's okay man no hard feelings

 

[aalamruad]

Original estimate = "most people." Let's make that 51% (could even be 60% if we take "most" to mean "supermajority"). Actual number: 33% (leaving aside the full-time/part-time issue).
Percent error = 35.2% (remember the equation for this?)

35.2% error is nothing to brag about, and neither is it "not too far off" of an estimate. Try taking that kind of percent error in any other quantitative scenario and convince people it was pretty close. lol. Good try, though; good effort looking up the number. Thanks for proving to me there is "no way in hell [] most people transfer at least once."

O chem lab? (jk)

 

[redpanda]

I only care about it if I don't go to medical school AT ALL. If I go into industry right out of college a more prestigious degree matters a lot, whether you like it or not.

Comment from person who has been in industry: do you know what industry you'd want a job in? The "prestige" of the name of your undergrad school may not appreciably help you in many areas. I can tell you right now that the large corporation I worked for has never recruited out of any of the example schools you have listed, likely for two reasons: 1. There's no established relationship of those schools with giving them useful employees in this area and 2. These schools don't exactly have strong programs in field this company wants to recruit in. Every single person below PhD level to my memory was recruited from a small subset of the Big 10 schools (minus Rutgers and UMD, because they weren't around) and a good chunk of the PhDs were as well.

Maybe the name of your school matters when McKinsey comes on campus to recruit, and, should you get an offer and join, you can join the legion of McKinsey consultants that people in industry make fun of because their recommendations reflect the fact they have never once set foot in whatever industry they're making recs for.