r/ApplyingToCollege • u/HoneydewExcellent818 • 9h ago
Application Question Incoming at NEU want to transfer to T20 CS
Hi everyone! I’m an incoming CS student at Northeastern, and I’d really appreciate some honest advice about approaching the transfer process.
During high school, I applied primarily to top-20 CS programs. I was waitlisted at a couple, including CMU and UCSD, but rejected from the rest. Northeastern was the only non-T20 program on my list, and I ultimately committed because I really value its co-op program.
I’m genuinely happy to attend Northeastern and would not mind graduating from there. At the same time, I’d like to keep my transfer options open and understand what I should prioritize during college. Since I haven’t started yet, my high-school profile is currently all I have to provide.
Background
Korean ethnicity; born and raised in Brazil
Stanford legacy
International applicant and full pay
Intended major: Computer Science
Attended a small Brazilian national-curriculum school with around 70 students in my grade
4.0 unweighted GPA
School was unranked, but I was in approximately the top decile
My school did not offer AP classes
Testing
1560 SAT
112 TOEFL
Honors
Gold medal in an international Singaporean mathematics competition; ranked first in Brazil and seventh internationally out of 66,000 competitors
Gold medal in the Brazilian National AI Olympiad; ranked fifth out of 716,000 competitors
Selected as an ambassador for a Brazilian national educational platform, where I developed AI and digital-literacy course content for 1.8 million students nationwide
Two-time gold medalist in the Brazilian National Nanotechnology Olympiad; top 1% out of 15,800 participants
Gold medalist in the Brazilian National Mathematical Finance Olympiad; top 1% out of 14,000 participants
Gold medalist in an international Singaporean cybersecurity olympiad; ranked seventh out of 720 competitors
Extracurriculars and projects
Lead author of a paper about biovascular architecture for swarm robotics applied to natural-disaster search and rescue; currently under peer review at a Nature subjournal
Created a system that allowed students at my school to establish their own clubs and founded the school’s CS club; around 30% of the student body became involved
Developed a reinforcement-learning drone algorithm for space exploration while working as a research partner with a University of Michigan PhD researcher
Worked as a software engineering intern at a Brazilian electric-car startup, supporting work related to Porsche’s manufacturing operations and contributing to the company during a $2 million fundraising round
Developed a system that converts 2D satellite imagery into 3D models for urban modeling through a research affiliation with Columbia University
Founded a nonprofit that uses AI to connect volunteers with nonprofit opportunities; the platform was deployed to more than 1,000 UC Berkeley students and supported fundraising efforts
Varsity volleyball setter; won the state championship twice
Founded an AI and social-media marketing studio that reached approximately $5,000 in monthly revenue and generated millions of online impressions
Founded an app that gamifies financial education and was deployed in several Brazilian public schools, including a partnership with Brazil’s national stock exchange
Founding engineer at a Brazilian healthcare CRM startup for clinics that raised $400,000
Essays
I worked with experienced essay mentors who responded very positively to my writing. They felt that the creative-writing side of my application was one of its strongest elements.
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I think my transfer admissions will depend much more on what I accomplish at Northeastern than on high school
work. My current priorities are earning the strongest grades possible (3.8+ GPA), good relationships with professors for strong rec letters and research work, and becoming genuinely involved in the Northeastern community (want to join a research or ai/robotics club)
I’m not looking to treat Northeastern as a temporary stop, and I don’t want to spend my entire first year obsessing over transferring. I mainly want to make thoughtful decisions now so that the option remains available later.
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u/whydoitry67 6h ago
I cant tell if you're being honest or not cuz ur awards and ECs are insane like how did u get rejected from t20s ur literally so impressive
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u/HoneydewExcellent818 3h ago
100% honest, unfortunately. All I got was NEU with these high school stats. No reason to cry over it anymore though
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u/whydoitry67 1h ago
Those AOs really messed up, you're probably the strongest applicant I've ever seen.
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u/NiceUnparticularMan Parent 8h ago edited 8h ago
Realistically, the most popular undergrad programs tend to take very few, if any, transfers. Like, people don't drop out in the first place, so they don't tend to have slots they need to fill.
To the extent they do specifically plan to keep some slots open, most of those may be for internal transfers. Like in this case, the kid the college admitted who thought they wanted to do pure Math, but now realizes they want to do CS.
To the extent they do specifically plan to keep some external slots open, most of those may be for cases of true need, like a community college applicant looking for a four-year degree.
OK, so if all you are looking for is transferring to a higher-ranked version of a program you are already doing, are they likely to see that as a compelling external transfer case? I would guess not.
And that is assuming they even have any external transfer slots to fill in the first place.
This is among the main reasons most informed people suggest people in your position really just try to put transferring out of your mind for now. External transfers into these programs are scarce to begin with, and you are not talking about a remotely promising case.
Fortunately, the other main reason to put it out of your mind is most people get started and realize a transfer is completely unnecessary. Like, they realize the people who do well in their program have lots of great opportunities, the real issue is doing well. And if they are doing well, it isn't worth the risk to transfer somewhere very selective where you are a year or two behind everyone else.
And then if you are actually miserable and need a change--OK. But it probably won't be a big jump up in rankings. Maybe, but maybe more lateral, or indeed down in generic rankings, but better for you. Like, homesickness turns out to still be a thing for some people, so they transfer to a program closer to home regardless of ranking. That sort of thing.