Hi, I’m a 17 year old freshman engineering student currently attending the Rutgers University School in New Brunswick, NJ. I live in New Jersey and decided to attend Rutgers because it is close to home, and I commute. Although I finished well in high school, I suffered from severe anxiety problems and depression. With this in addition to my severe lack of social skills, my parents and psychiatrist decided that it would be dangerous for me to go away my first year of college. It was a challenge for me just to communicate with the other person in my dorm. Emotionally, I wasn’t ready to travel far away from home where I would have to be self-dependent. Until recently, my mom was driving me to classes because I wasn’t mature enough to learn to drive.
I would like to transfer to a more elite engineering school that would assist me in being able to attend the graduate/post graduate school of my choice. Here is some of my info:
Finished high school with a 4.1 weighted gpa (3.6 unweighted) with all honors and AP
attended a competitive public high school, graduated top 10% in class of 500
5 on AP Calculus BC exam, 5 on Physics B and C exams (high school didn’t offer AP Physics C, I taught it myself), 5 on chemistry and biology
800 on both Math IIC Test and Physics
2350 SAT Reasoning (50 points from 12 on essay)
Science League Member in High school
Completed a course in multivariable calculus and Physics second semester in highschool at Rutgers with both A’s
enrolled in Honors Program
College GPA- 3.94 Dean’s List
Applied Math and Physics dual major (Honors)
– Several Physics awards and recognitions
– Lots of research since high school, primarily in condensed matter physics,including some published in Physics Review Letters with professor
– invited to meetings of American Physical Society
– I also know several professors, one affiliated with my dream school Caltech, who will all write me great recommendations
This is an abridgment of some of my most important achievements. Do I stand a chance in the highly selective transfer admissions?
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Transferring To College?
Posted on November 24, 2010.
No matter how good your grades are you will never get a job without good social skills.
Instead of taking so many physics courses maybe takes a course in learning how to be a more social person, that will benefit you.
You obviously have the academic skills to be a competitive candidate at good schools, but if you don’t have your anxiety and depression under control, being at a high pressure university without the support of your family is not a good idea.
If you can demonstrate to everyone that you can succeed at Rutgers, living in the dorm, interacting with others, then you might consider a transfer, but until then, I think transferring would only be setting yourself up for failure.
It’s great that you’re seeing a psychiatrist, who I assume is helping monitor your medication, but are you also seeing someone helping you develop the social and coping skills that you’ll need?