<p>First off, I would like to offer my sincere thanks to you for helping me out. I am currently a Freshman at Emory University. When I applied to colleges my senior year of high school, I was rejected by most of my top choices due to a low GPA. This end result was not due to a lack of intelligence, but a lack of effort. I really burned myself out by selecting all the toughest APs and Honors courses (10 total AP's, 8 Honors classes at a HS ranked in the top 100 in the nation), and it really killed my energy. But in college, I decided that I needed to turn things around and really work to my full potential, and I successfully managed a 4.0 with a rigorous course selection. This year, I want to try again for those elite schools. I know that I have it in me to succeed there. It's not that I don't like Emory, but I know that the universities that rank among the best of the best provide more abundant opportunities for jobs in the future. Also, I am planning on majoring in either Pre-Business or Economics, depending on the availability of the major at the schools I am applying to. </p>
<p>Here are my statistics:
College GPA: 4.0
High school GPA: 3.43 UW, 3.87 W
SAT: 2200
ACT:33
SATII's: Math-750 US History-770
PSAT:2130</p>
<p>From junior year of high school to now, I have also compiled a lot of extracurriculars and awards. Some of the most important ones are:
-Business Club Vice President (Starting next semester)
-Current Team Captain on the Emory Club Baseball Team
-Interned for Meg Whitman's campaign for Governor of CA, Summer of 2010
-Outdoor club President and Founder
-Speech and Debate (Vice President)
-Numerous awards for MUN and debate
-Senior (Vice-President), Junior, and Freshman Class Council in HS
-Varsity Baseball and Lacrosse (Team Captain)
-Piano Certificate of Merit Advanced Level</p>
<p>I am currently planning to apply to Brown, UPenn, Stanford, Dartmouth, Cornell, Duke, Northwestern, Harvard, Columbia, Yale, UChicago. Yes, there's the bell for Round 2 of College Admissions.</p>
<p>I would highly appreciate your honest and insightful judgement. Thanks!</p>
<p>You have a good shot, but it’s all going to be dependent on your essay. You’re already at a T20 school with an excellent business program, but here are the draw backs:
Ivies are HARDER to transfer to than get into as an incoming freshmen.
Acceptance rates for Harvard/Yale/Stanford are about 2%
Columbia is around 5%
And the other ivies fall between 8% and 15%.
Northwestern is where you have your best shot. Also be familiar with the fact that UC and NU are one quarter systems, which means (1) you’re in school 3 terms out of 4 per year. And there are many more requirements for gen ed, etc. (2) you’re going to lose time in transferring - You will have completed 2 terms, while every freshmen already there will have completed 3.</p>
<p>Now to your essay: You’re already at a T20 school, so you need a VERY good reason for not wanting to stay there. To me, (and most other admissions officers), based on your reasons for transferring, you’re only trying to climb the rankings. (This doesn’t look very good). You need good solid reasons for transferring and why you want to transfer to each particular school.</p>
<p>It’s going to be very difficult to convince admissions at each school that you have a legitimate reason for transferring out of a T20. If you enjoy Emory, why are you trying to transfer out? It’s reputation is very solid. Many people may not know of Emory, but to the people who know where the top students come from, believe me, they know Emory. It provides great opportunities, especially in the Atlanta area. Internship would be relatively easy to get, since it’s by far the most reputable school in the atlanta area. If you’re like me however, you may not like the atlanta area and prefer the northeast (the reason I did not accept Emory’s admission offer) and you may want to somehow include that in your essay. Any attempt to cite academic reasons for leaving aren’t going to be highly believable, as it doesn’t get much more academically rigorous than Emory. So social reasons for transferring would be the most convincing.</p>