This question was inspired by an email we received from a reader.
So, what GPA do you need to get if you’re applying to transfer? The obvious answer is “get all As (and maybe even shoot for A pluses) so that the school you apply to will have no excuse to reject you.” Of course, it’s not that easy to get straight As (or it might be too late for you), so here’s another answer: it depends. Whether or not your GPA is good enough depends on which school and program you’re looking at. In this blog post, we go over the following:
- Expected GPA from top schools
- Minimum GPA requirements
- GPA requirements under transfer agreements
Top-tier Schools Demand an Ambiguously “High” GPA
If you’re shooting for a top-tier school, expect extremely high standards in terms of grades and other qualifications. Let’s say you’re interested in Yale. Here’s what Yale’s “Who Makes a Good Transfer Student” web page says this:
Given the large number of extremely able candidates who wish to transfer to Yale and the very limited number of transfer spaces, no simple profile of grades, scores, and interests can assure a student admission to Yale.
Yes, the evaluation process is difficult and a little fuzzy, but a competitive academic record is still expected:
Successful transfer applicants present evidence of exceptionally strong college performance in demanding courses. The average GPA of admitted transfer students is usually 3.8 and above.
Minimum GPA Requirements
Some schools explicitly lay out their GPA requirements. Purdue University lists minimum GPA requirements for transfer applicants according to field of study. For example, you should have at least a 2.5 GPA if you’re going to apply to transfer into the Electrical and Computer Engineering Technology program. For the minimum GPA requirement for other academic programs, visit Purdue’s Transfer Student Admission Criteria page.
Other schools similarly outline the grades you need to be considered for transfer admission. Check if the school you’re interested in does this. Note that meeting the minimum GPA requirement does NOT guarantee transfer admission.
GPA Requirements under Transfer Agreements
Transfer agreements between two institutions tell you exactly what you need to do to get from School X to School Y. Foothill College put together an extremely clear explanation of how their transfer agreements with other school work: http://www.foothill.edu/transfer/taa.html.
This page lets students know the exact minimum GPA they need in order to transfer to a particular school (or to be considered for transfer admission) that has teamed up with Foothill College. If a Foothill College student wants to transfer to UC San Diego, for example, she should have at least a 3.0 GPA. If your current school has transfer agreements with other institutions, they’ll probably work in a similar way. You can ask an academic counselor (if possible, a transfer counselor), about transfer agreements.
However, you can probably find the info you need by searching online. Let’s be honest: counselors don’t know everything, so it’s to your advantage to do your own research as well as consult school counselors. Let’s say you currently attend Delaware County Community College (www.dccc.edu) and you want to find out about the transfer agreements your college has with other schools. Do an advance Google search by using the “search within a specific site (:site)” function. What’s the point? You want to do an online search of info on transfer agreements published somewhere in the Delaware County Community College web space. That way, the info you obtain is more likely official than if you found it on a random website. In the Google search box type this:
transfer agreement site:dccc.edu
The second search result item should take you exactly where you need to go: http://www.dccc.edu/career/taag.html. Let’s try another one. If you currently attend Santa Monica College (www.smc.edu), you can find transfer agreements by googling this:
transfer agreement site:smc.edu
Again, it just so happens that the second item in the list of search results steers you to the exact page you need.
There are websites that are trying to compile as many transfer agreement documents as possible. It’s a noble attempt, indeed, but the compilations are a work-in-progress. There are just so many colleges and transfer agreements out there, but at least you can try the Google “:site” search.
Final Remarks
Looking up all this information can be a grueling process, but all your efforts will pay off! With careful research (and lots of introspection), you should be able to find a school that’s a better fit for you.
(Photo: Robert S. Donovan)
Hello,
I am trying to apply to Georgetown University. I am a non-traditional student. I am 26 years old and a sophomore at my Tier 2 university. Growing up my mom and dad were in jail and my family who raised me were addicted to drugs, couldn’t hold down jobs and we were often poor. No one ever inspired me or encouraged me to do well. I was just kind of pushed through the system and did well enough. Being as I didn’t care about school growing up, I did barely enough to graduate. In fact, my senior year, I almost didn’t graduate from highschool because I skipped so many classes. I had straight F’s in this particular class and when I found out I needed it to pass… I worked out a deal with my teacher that if I could get an A on the final, she’d let me pass the class. well… I got an A on the final… high score of the class. I applied to college at graduation and based on my SAT and extra curricular (I was very involved) I got into my current university. At the time, it was a tier 4. I was going to college only because its what everyone else did. I took a class here and there, I was a business major because it seemed to be the thing to be. Often, I would enroll in classes and have to drop out because I had to work (my family was really poor) or on one occasion because my house burned down due to a domestic dispute between my aunt and her abusive boyfriend. But I never really gave up on school.
since then, about two years ago I became really motivated. I began to take classes again. I realized I wanted to be a double major in Psychology/Political Science since it was really my passion and I really want to go to law school one day. I got a good GPA and was even accepted into my school’s Honors college (my school has 40,000 students, and 1000 Honors College students… so its selective.) This semester, I am taking six classes and am slated to have straight A’s.
some may argue that I had a high GPA because I only took a class or two at a time. some could look at my record and see all the DRs and how many times I was withdrawn from school because I didn’t take any classes. they could look at my highschool transcripts and wonder with what audacity I would even apply at Georgetown?
I think based on this year, one would be able to see that I can excel at the university level taking a heavy course load. (I still work 35 hrs.) I am in the Honors College and have a 3.5 gpa. do you think I could get into Georgetown? I can prove the Jail thing and the fire… though I cant prove that my family was into drugs or how destitute we were.
Wow. What a story.
First off, thank you for sharing that with us. Second, apologies that it took a few days for your comment to get here, it was stuck in a backlog of comments to approve and we’ve just adjusted to the new system.
To answer your question, like we’ve said elsewhere on the site, it’s extremely tough to handicap a person’s chances at getting into any particularly university (especially since I don’t know what your essays look like, what you’re going to tell Georgetown about why you want to go there, etc.), BUT based just on what you’ve said here, it sounds like you’ve got a solid shot.
One quick piece of advice: on your essay, just be honest (they won’t make you “prove” your family was into drugs, so feel free to discuss what happened and don’t think you can’t talk about anything you can’t technically prove). It sounds like you’ve been through a lot of serious stuff, but you’ve also achieved a lot: don’t be afraid to let admissions know the whole picture. Based on your writing here, it also sounds like you can write about your hardships without sounding like you’re asking for pity or anything like that, which is a trap that some students fall into.
Best of luck with the process! We’d love to keep in touch to hear how things go for you.
Cheers,
Chris
I have been highly motivated to go for masters since the middle of my undergrad studies and have done lot of research on how masters differs from UG studies, what advantage can I have etc. However, after reading a lot of grad schools require “High gpa” (Mine being equivalent to 76.5%) and my friends getting rejections with same gpa as me, I am rethinking my passion for going for masters. Does my percentage mean I cannot finish PG education in time ? Probably not. Then why do they put cut offs as high as 80% etc knowing when it never guarantees a person will finish his/her studies as the college wants. This is really depressing
I’m not sure what you mean by finishing grad school “in time” because you can apply to a master’s program regardless of the number of years since receiving your bachelors. As for GPA, the more competitive and well known the master’s program/school, the more important a high GPA is. That means that there are definitely master’s programs out there that don’t require as high of a GPA. Look for master’s programs that seem to fit your academic profile. Also, depending on the program, years of work experience in a related area might trump a not-so-great GPA.
If you’re applying to UCLA and the minimum GPA requirement is 3.2. I have currently below it…so should i spend another semester at MSU(where i’m currently attending) and try to get over 3.2? If i don’t get over 3.2, is it ok to take one semester off to study SAT or TOEFL (Since i’m an international student) to show them i’ve improved on some tests?
Should i still able to apply even if i don’t meet the GPA requirement??
This is a tough one.
Yes, UCLA’s minimum GPA requirement is 3.2, but to have a good chance at getting in you usually need significantly higher than the minimum. In our experience, it’s closer to 3.5.
If you’re below the minimum GPA, getting better scores on standardized tests won’t offset that fact.
But all isn’t lost! We really think most people are capable of getting a 3.5. The best book we know of on getting good grades in college is How to Become a Straight-A Student.
Full-disclosure: I know the author and I’m in the book. But it’s without question the best book on doing well in college, feel free to look around.
Hope that helps! Feel free to reply or post in the forum with more questions!
Chris
Like Chris implied, for transfer applicants, your college GPA is the most important. Getting a better SAT score isn’t going make your application stronger if you don’t have at least the minimum GPA. International students need to also pay special attention to the minimum required score for the TOEFL. For example, the minimum internet-based TOEFL score for UCLA international applicants is 83. Here’s information for UCLA international transfer applicants to: http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/intl.htm#transfer