Hi guys, am planning on applying as a transfer from McGill to some ivies (Brown and Cornell). Has anyone from mcgill applied as one? Does anyone have any tips?
That’s a very specific pool of students that you’re trying to find.
If you share your stats and perhaps your reason behind transferring, then we can gauge where you roughly stand.
A word of warning: no matter how good you look on paper, getting into an Ivy League institution as a transfer is a crapshoot for everyone. So if you’re truly unhappy at McGill, you should consider applying a bit more broadly.
thanks. although isn’t Cornells transfer rate close to 30% for CALS?
Yes but most of those are from NYS community colleges and part of an articulation agreement.
Also if you were denied at those Ivies as a freshman your chances are further reduced.
To add onto @TomSrOfBoston’s insight, Cornell is an “exception”. Other than them, you’re not going to find an Ivy League that is as “forgiving”, per say.
Therefore, you shouldn’t bank on Cornell having a “high” acceptance rate.
As I said, if you’re really unhappy on McGill, apply broadly, and don’t constrict yourself to the Ivy League.
I know several people who did their Bachelor’s at either McGill or Toronto, then did their Master’s and/or PhD at Princeton, Stanford, or U.Washington. All were very smart and hardworking and had very good grades as an undergrad.
My guess is that graduating from McGill and applying for a Masters is probably a better bet than applying to be a transfer student. Either way your grades are going to need to be very good.
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McGill is a well known school and has an exchange program with a lot of the ivies iirc. If your application is strong enough then I wouldn’t worry about coming from McGill.
There aren’t any exchange programs with Ivy League institutions and McGill.
And, exchange programs ≠transferring.
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Cornell admits by college. Last data I saw, its College of Arts & sciences, which is the college there that has similar majors and program of studies to the other Ivy League schools, had a transfer admissions rate under 8%.
Its “contract colleges” (CALS et al) are easier to gain admission to. But, as mentioned above, interpretation of the data is clouded by articulation agreement admits and also by “guaranteed transfers”, who were offered a form of conditional deferred admission when they applied out of high school. Moreover, CALS admits by major. Some majors are regarded as being more selective than others, however admit stats for each major are not published. So that further clouds understanding of one’s true chances.
If you decide to enroll as a transfer to CALS, you had better want to take that particular course of studies. Including requirements for that particular CALS major you specified, and requisite credits to be completed within CALS itself. Because transfer out is not guaranteed.