<p>Hey all,
gonna be a freshman at UCI this fall, which follows the quarter system. i'm so far lined up to take a humanities lecture + discussion, general chem lec +dis, intro bio and intro history.i did terrible in hs gpa wise (3.2) though having taken a lot of ap/honors classes, but i had decent SAT scores (2200) and good ECs. i'd like to go to stanford next year, so i'll probably have to retake my SAT I. I have pretty compelling reasons for transfer, since stanford offers a major that uci doens't have. question is, is my courseload enough, granted that i can keep a high 3.9 or maybe 4.0 gpa to get me into stanford? i made the mistake of not having really worked on my esssays last time, which is something i wo'nt do now. anyone care to give me feedback?</p>
<p>i can tell you that my friend at columbia who was a valedictorian in high school and who maintained the gpa of 3.9 was rejected from stanford two years in a row (after being wait-listed on both occasions). his "compelling" reason was that stanford offers a major that columbia does not. The interesting part is, my friend managed to get accepted to columbia two years ago, beating that year's regular applicant acceptance rate of 9%, which was lower than stanford's regular applicant acceptance rate (the acceptance rate for columbia has been lower than stanford for past 10 years or so.) So basically, transferring to Stanford is harder than getting into Columbia as a regular applicant... Just for your info, this year, stanford accepted about 6-7% of the transfer applicants, which translates to about one in 15-20.</p>
<p>oh god. any suggestions on making my app better?</p>
<p>Do everything in your power to maintain as high gpa as possible - this is the most important for a transfer applicant. Second, make sure you make efforts to get to know two professors very very well during your 1st term so that you can get incredible rec letters. Third, pray for the best...</p>
<p>Its a very bad idea to start college with the intent of leaving, I would suggust that you give uci a chance. There are the (very real) dangers of comparing everything to your idealized conception of stanford and of not being invested in uci (making all the friends you can, joining various groups). Both of these things would give you a very sucky year, more so of course if you cannot transfer.</p>
<p>If you decide you really want to transfer I think it might take two years. After one year in college hs school grades still matter, after two years they dont. I'm not sure how 3.2 would play out (that is, how bad they think that is) but it would count against you somewhat the first time you apply to transfer. The advice I would offer is to be involved in research. This allows you to show your intreast in academics and your major, get to know professors, and means a lot to a research school like stanford. ECs don't matter so much once you are in college but they can not hurt. </p>
<p>It is without a doubt difficult. The year I tranferred it was 4.5% but that was abnormal, timetochill is right with 6-7% and it should be like that in the future. Though this does not mean that it is harder than getting in out of college just as 9% versus 12% doesnt mean that columbia is harder to get into than stanford. There are some transfers from top schools but there are a lot of cc people who after doing really well in an environment with little challange feel that they are one of the best students in the nation (there are of course ccers that are qualified, im just saying that far too many mistakenly try). Also there are a lot who are trying again (with about the same stats) after being rejected the first time. Overall, the transfer app pool is less qualified than the app pool that comes out of hs (you can look at the ave scores to confirm this).</p>