<p>For which does a student have a better chance of admission at Harvard (or in general, for that matter): HS Senior applicant or transfer student?</p>
<p>High school student has better chance.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Last week, Harvard College administrators announced that they will accept half as many transfer student applicants as they have in previous years in order to make room for larger freshman classes.</p>
<p>For the 2006-’07 academic year, Harvard accepted 85 transfers — representing 8.8 percent of its applicant pool — resulting in 75 enrollments. But the growing size of the freshman class — up from about 1,640 for the Class of 2009 and previous classes to a projected 1,675 for the Class of 2011 — will necessitate a decrease in the number of transfer students accepted in future years.
[/quote]
from Yale</a> Daily News - Harvard says it will accept fewer transfer students</p>
<p>(you'd think google would come up with something from the Crimson)</p>
<p>.....this makes me shake with fear.</p>
<p>I'm a transfer applicant. :(</p>
<p>Yes, the odds are much tougher for transfer applicants.</p>
<p>transferring is statistically harder: acceptance for freshmen is about 9 - 10%
for transfers it is 3 - 4%</p>
<p>but i have no idea what the quality of the applicant pools are relative to each other, so these stats don't necessarily mean anything.</p>
<p>Fitzsimmons told me that it's relatively easier to break down the transfer app pool than freshman because there are quite a few who apply when they probably shouldn't be applying. So I guess they narrow it down to about 100...then it's crunch (and dream crushing) time. </p>
<p>Freshman applicants are probably a lot stronger, but they have more room. Though I don't know much about that.</p>
<p>I haven't seen the transfer applicant pool. But I did meet every student who transferred into Harvard between 1997 and 2002. The median qualifications of the admitted transfers are INSANE. I knew plenty of amazing people who got in as freshmen. But when I met the other transfers, it was like, what the (*$# am I doing in this group? Honestly, I'm glad I didn't know what this group was like before I applied, because I might have chickened out, and that would have been one of the great mistakes of my life.</p>
<p>great......just splendid.</p>