<p>I am an international currently at one of the top schools in my country and I want some advice on my chances of transferring to H. I know it's a crapshoot for anyone but what I am trying to figure out is whether I would even find myself in that pool of transfer applicants who should stand a chance, incredibly small as it may be. One of my friends recently transferred from a fairly unknown school outside the US and I'd be delighted to join her! This is for a junior transfer by the way. </p>
<p>College GPA: 4.0 / 4.0
HS GPA: 35 - 37 in IB out of 45 (though at the top of the small graduating class - bad school)
TOEFL score: 110+ / 120
SAT / ACT: n/a yet (What would constitute a bare minimum for a decent chance? Any estimates? I plan on taking the ACT)
Misc: Did a summer program at a US university, studied languages abroad, worked with teaching children English in East Asia, lived abroad in East Asia during summers and winters during HS - it is this living in East Asia experience which has been significant from my HS years onwards that I hope would work as some kind of hook seeing as I would express my desire to pursue East Asian studies.</p>
<p>If we hypothesize a strong ACT score, recs and essay, what do you think? I'd love to hear what you think!</p>
<p>“From a pool of 1,448 applicants, 15 students were admitted to Harvard College in the 2012 transfer admissions cycle, putting the acceptance rate for students who start their time at Harvard as sophomores or juniors at approximately 1 percent.”</p>
<p>Yes, I wouldn’t count on admission, but then again if no one applied no one would be admitted right? H is one option out of many, so I’m not too concerned about that - I just happen to like Al’s sandwiches.</p>
<p>Given the high rents in Harvard Square, Al’s (or any eatery) may not be there in six months time, so I would not use that as your raison d’etre.</p>
<p>As 99% of transfer applicants are rejected, I imagine that successful transfer applicants provide Admissions with compelling ACADEMIC reasons why Harvard would be a better fit than their current college.</p>
<p>That’s lamentable. You wouldn’t have a decent estimate of how probable Al closing or moving would be? I want to factor it in to my 1% probability of going.</p>
<p>Perhaps the admissions office would appreciate some humor?</p>
<p>As the Andrew Hatch story a few years ago showed, not all transfer students present “compelling ACADEMIC reasons why Harvard would be a better fit than their current college”. There can be compelling athletic reasons, too, like having lost your job as the starting quarterback of the national championship team, and being willing (and able) to come to Harvard. Which makes the odds on a successful transfer application all the tougher, because people like Hatch are there in the statistics, but he effectively constituted a pool of one, where the admission rate was 100%.</p>