Overheard in Transfer Committee – The Academic Turn Around

We Admit It!  It’s time to turn our attention to transfers.  We know you’ve been patiently waiting, and the time has finally arrived.  We will now commence with Transfer Committee.  Sadly for us, the snack cart has definitely diminished in size and scale of available goodies, but we’ll make it through just the same.  We are eager to learn your stories and admit great students to the Classes of 2017 and 2018.

Overheard in Transfer Committee: High school was not good, but man he’s really turned it around in college.

In the case of the student whose application we were reviewing, to say that his performance in high school was not good was a bit of an understatement.  His high school transcript was littered with Cs, Ds and Fs.  He didn’t challenge himself in high school, and from what we could discern, he simply wasn’t academically focused.  But that happens.  Some students don’t realize their potential, or choose to fulfill it until later on.  Sometimes they need some time off – some distance, some perspective.  In the case of this student, he actually enlisted in the military after high school and took time off from academics.  From the information he provided in his essay, it was through his time in the service that he realized the value of learning, and of a college education.  When he was discharged, he enrolled at a local community college and turned out great grades in great courses as if he’d been doing it his entire life.

So here we had an application with a truly awful high school record but an absolutely outstanding record from college (four full-time semesters of A-level work).  And this was a student we gladly admitted.  The genuine sentiment expressed in his essay, the perspective he could bring as a veteran, the time that had passed since high school and the fact that he had now proven himself academically, all moved the Committee to enthusiastically admit this student.

Many transfer students get nervous when they learn that we require a high school transcript, no matter what.  Sometimes their high school record is not one they are particularly proud of.  They fear that their high school performance will tank their chances of admission.  We hope this blog shows that a poor performance in high school should not deter students from applying as transfers.  The more time and distance you have from high school, and the more you are able to demonstrate an academic turn around, the more likely the Committee is to admit you.

As we post these blogs the next question is usually regarding a decision release.  As with freshman applicants, we won’t know a specific release date until it’s upon us, but our original deadline of mid-to-late April is still on target.

Stay tuned for more on transfer applications, how we review them and the decisions we make.

Wendy Livingston ’03, M.Ed. ‘09
Associate Dean of Admission

Categories: Admission, Faculty & Staff Blogs Tags: , , ,
27 Comments
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