Chance me: transfer student: U Washington, Berkeley, Yale, Stanford

Transfer Students
1

Hi, i’m in my final semester of CC and am about to apply for transfer. I had a list of schools, mainly state schools/private schools but one of my professors suggested I try an ivy league/higher ranked schools. I was wondering if this has any merit/if i possibly had a chance. The schools i’m wondering about are: UC Berkeley, U of Washington, Stanford, and Yale. Do not worry about finances.

About me: White gay Female, 19, Catholic, second gen Italian immigrant , First gen college student. In state for Texas.

Went to CC because in May of my senior year my sister fell ill and had to be hospitalized for ~1 year. My grandma also passed that summer and my family needed the extra help because we relied on her a lot. Was originally going to attend University of Denver.

Stats: Will have 68 credits after this semester. 4.0 GPA Marine Biology/Aquatic Bio/Wildlife Bio/Zoology/Biology Major(going to grad school so not as important)

High School Stats: 3.5 GPA, 1400 SAT

ECs:

  1. Marine/Conservation Biology and Ecology
  • Research assistant at my state's flagship university researching evolutionary behavioral mechanisms in aquatic life
  • Completed a research project at my college where we isolated viruses from soil sample and analyzed their genetic structure
  • Research internship (forthcoming) in NYC(researching environmental effects of local processing plants in local waterways
  • Worked with the National Parks Service in a intern-type field program
  • 4 month field summer internship (forthcoming) in Alaska working directly with marine mammals
  • Volunteer wildlife rehabilitator
  • Volunteer zookeeper
  • Volunteer at state flagship's aquatic collections room
  1. Speech and debate
  • Founder/President of my college's speech and debate team/
  • NFL competitor/NFL judge (side job)
  • Volunteer at my high school's speech and debate team, work in TAB which is all the behind the scenes organization and work. (60 hours a year)
  1. Teaching / work experience
  • Work 25 hours a week as a kindergarten teacher at a private school (worked my way up from summer camp counselor to teacher). I am responsible for creating lesson plans, buying supplies, and teaching the kids.
  • Have also worked as a summer camp counselor and preschool gymnastics coach
  1. Misc.
  2. Well established painter. I've won several competitions and sell my art regularly.
  3. Attended a 3 day sustainability conference. Was chosen out of 10K applicants. Recieved a full travel grant.

I have 2 letters of rec, one from my college speech and debate coach and one from one of my professors. Both are very strongly written.

My why transfer essay is basically saying that I want new opportunities and want to further my education to reach my goals.

My personal essay is humor based, about how having fish tanks taught me life lessons. It’s pretty good and pretty lighthearted. Everyone i’ve had read it loves it.

I’m applying for the Fall 2018 class of 2020.

My ultimate goal is to go to grad school, get my doctorates, and do research on marine mammal intelligence. I’d also like to work for an aquarium or the government in conservation.
Thanks!

2

https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/transfers-major can give you some information about transfer admissions at UCs.

For the UCB Integrative Biology major for 2016, the admit rate was 14% with a 25th-75th percentile prior college GPA range of 3.57-3.93.

3

You have quite a strong academic profile; the 4.0 with 68 credits coupled with a heavy involvement in your CC community gives you a certain edge. Your reasons for transferring are somewhat implied since you’re coming from a CC, but if I could give you some advice it would be to do your CommonApp essay specifically for each of the colleges you mentioned. In the essay, mention specific resources of which you’d take most advantage!
Good luck, we’re bound to bump into each other on future decision threads for transfer students.

4

A word of warning: your application is great, however, admission into Ivy Leagues, among other top schools, is exceedingly difficult, even with a fantastic application. Make sure to apply broadly, and have a Plan B.

5

@TransferStalker Yeah, I was only applying to those just to see. I’m most likely going to be attending the University of Denver.

6

You should be able to get into better than Denver. Berkeley and U. Washington seem reasonable. I would not bother with Stanford and Yale. You mention a 3.5 in high school. CC students usually don’t have the high school record top schools are looking for. You could apply to some top 30 to top 50 schools and see what happens.

7

I disagree; plenty of community college students with EXTREMELY poor high school records have been admitted to top schools. Yale? Not a whole lot, obviously. But I’ve worked with many, many community college students who had very low high school stats (and 4.0 college GPAs and strong hooks, of course) end up at top universities.

8

I would keep looking for schools near the ocean for marine biology. There is a whole world of schools better than UDenver and less selective than Yale, especially since you say money won’t be an issue.

9

If cost is not an issue, what about UCSC, which is on the ocean and offers marine biology?
https://admissions.sa.ucsc.edu/majors/marinebiology
https://undergrad.pbsci.ucsc.edu/eeb/mabibs/index.html

The University of Hawaii also has significant offers in marine biology.
https://manoa.hawaii.edu/biology/node/180