Scripps College is a small, all-women’s liberal arts school in Claremont, California. It’s part of the Claremont Colleges, a consortium of liberal arts schools designed to mimic that New England school feel. They all share resources, buildings, and sometimes classes!
The first-year acceptance rate at Scripps is 28%, but the transfer acceptance rate is 11%!! Eleven! This signals to us that people are like, really happy at Scripps, since so few spots open up each year for transfers. That also means it’s much more competitive as a transfer, but no fear – we have lots of tips and tricks to make the most compelling transfer application possible.
Scripps’s Requirements
Here are Scripps’s eligibility requirements:
“You are considered a transfer applicant if any semester or quarter units were taken at another college after graduating from high school. Scripps welcomes applicants who wish to transfer in at first-year, sophomore, or junior status.”
That’s pretty neat – you can apply as a spring transfer!
Here are their other requirements:
Transfer Common App
Essays (more on that later)
Two faculty recommendations (can be professor or TA)
School/College report
Midterm report
Official Transcripts (college + high school)
Optional requirements:
Test scores
A professional recommendation
Two extra academic recommendations
Virtual interview (they want you to schedule one!)
Arts supplement
More on their requirements and process for transfer applicants here.
Pick the Right Classes
Scripps doesn’t list any prereqs they suggest before applying, but there’s definitely an art to choosing your classes. You want to show that you’re locked into your stated major, and the best way is to take classes that fit into your major and show off your niche. For example, if you’re applying as a poli sci major (their most popular one!), and you’re more interested in international politics, it’s probably not smart to use your one (or two) major classes your first few semesters on classes on the American political system.
You also want to work on the prereqs at your existing school. This serves two purposes: getting credits completed for Scripps (fingers crossed), but also giving yourself the safety net of getting credits done in case your transfer bids aren’t successful.
Get Really Good Grades
With Scripps’ very low acceptance rate for transfers (and to put it into numbers, out of the 191 who applied last cycle, 21 were admitted), it’s safe to assume you need to have really good grades. One good thing about college: you mostly get to take classes you really enjoy and want to take, which translates *usually* into higher grades.
Speaking of classes you want to take, if you’re having to take some prereqs in topics you don’t like, steer away from the insanely hard ones or the topics you struggled with in high school. Like, if calculus kicked your ass, maybe opt for statistics or algebra. There’s no reason to take classes that damage your GPA and your ego if you don’t absolutely have to!
P.S., go to office hours. All of them! Those connections with professors can help you get better grades and it’ll help when it comes to getting rec letters.
Develop Your Niche
It’s not enough to take a few poli sci classes and call it a day (well, a semester). You need to show Scripps you’ve explored your academic interests outside of the classroom. Some ways you can do that:
Researching with a professor
Joining (or starting) clubs
Writing for an on-campus publication
Getting an internship
Getting a paying job
Volunteering (in something related to your major)
While these things help your resume, they also serve an extra lil bonus benefit. By plugging into your current school’s community, you’re giving yourself more of that cushion and safety net in case those transfer apps don’t come through.
Write Great Essays
Scripps has two essays, both insanely standard and normal college essay fare.
Why have you chosen to apply to Scripps College? (1500 characters)
@Transfer Common App: we have one idea for a New Year’s resolution for you – get rid of the character count and just use words like a normal application portal.
Anyways, this is a why Scripps essay. The formula is easy:
Origin Story (why do you wanna study what you want to study, the lightbulb moment)
Declare your major (duh)
1-2 upper-level Scripps classes that work with your origin story/niche\
1-2 Professors doing research in what you want to do
An academic extracurricular (could be a club or a research opportunity, for example)
A non-academic extracurricular (since this prompt is broad)
Weave it all together and baby, you’ve got a stew going. More instructions on this type of prompt here.
Please provide a statement that addresses your reasons for transferring and the objectives you hope to achieve (5000 characters maximum).
This is a standard transfer essay that almost every school will ask you. It’s very similar, in function, to the Why essay above, so you’re gonna have to get a little creative with it.
You want to explain why you want to leave your current school – and look, we know there are a lot of reasons to leave your current school that are not academic, and are in reality, very terrible and traumatic. For the sake of this essay, we encourage you to stick with academic aspects. If there was a trauma that led you to leave your current school and it impacted your grades, first of all, please reach out to us, and we’re sorry that happened, and second of all, it would probably be smart to include that info in Additional Information in the main Common App. In your academic reasoning for leaving, make sure not to bash your current school.
There are probably other things than what you listed that draw you to Scripps that are different than what you stated above + different from your current school, like the whole concept of the Claremont Colleges, the all-women’s thing, class sizes, availability of majors, overall culture, etc. This is what you can hit on here. More on how to write this essay here.
We hope these tips help you a) prepare to transfer and b) make that transfer application happen. Good luck with your Scripps application and make sure to keep your grades up, get plugged into your community, and dive into your passions.
If you need help with your transfer applications, reach out to us today.