We’ve gotten a lot of questions from students who are applying to transfer in the middle of their first year, so I figured I’d summarize where we are for students in that situation. First, our transfer admissions requirements are straightforward: at least 24 completed credits with a 3.0 GPA is the minimum standard for consideration.
Some of you, however, are in your first year; you’ve only completed whatever credits you took in the fall (say, 15-16) and won’t have met that 24 credit threshold until the end of May when your spring grades have posted. For students in that situation, we’ll look back at your final high school transcript and your SAT/ACT scores to round out the application. What that means, though, is that if you were denied admission for Fall 2010 coming out of high school, it’s highly likely that that piece of your academic history will not help you in the application review process… and as such, you’re going to need to wait until you have completed 24 credits to receive full consideration.
The monkey wrench comes in once we start reviewing transfer applicants after our March 1 deadline; it’s likely that we will fill our transfer class quickly, which will potentially lock out anyone for whom we need to receive spring grades before we can render a decision.
My advice to those of you who are completing your freshman year is to have a backup plan for fall. Best case? We don’t fill the class early, and there’s time to get your spring grades to us so we can make a decision on your application. Worst case? We fill the class early, and you’d need to reapply for Spring 2012.
Questions? Ask away.
This may be a bit specific but just how many transfer students do you accept per semester? I applied for Fall 2011
Depends on a number of factors; I think our fall transfer class will probably be about 1200 students.
Do you guys look at all transfers with 24 credits or more before you look at all transfers with less than 24 credits?
Well, yes and no. They're looked at differently, but priority is given to students who have completed 24 credits, yes.
Hi. I was accepted into Stony Brook my senior year in high school, but chose to attend a different university. I've decided that Stony Brook is the best place for what I'm majoring in, but got rejected as a first-year transfer applicant. I plan on doing research with a professor to get experience in the fall, but still wish to attend Stony Brook. My gpa is around 3.0, the minimum requirement, so I'd like to know how does participating in research factor into or help my chances of transferring to Stony in Spring 2012? Thank you!