CHANCES?!?! Carnegie Mellon ----> Duke/Harvard/Columbia/Georgetown

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hey everybody.

Here are some of my stats, wondered what you all thought my chances would be to transfer from Carnegie Mellon to Duke/Harvard/Columbia/Georgetown. If there’s a more relevant thread, let me know as well! I’d also appreciate any advice/tips.

School: Carnegie Mellon
Major: Business Administration, currently a freshman
Intended Major: Economics, will do business/finance if I have to
College GPA: 4.0/4.0
High School GPA: 3.58/4.0
ACT: 34
High School EC: State debate champion (top 48 nationally), academic all-state football team (ranked #42 kicker in the nation at one point)
College EC: Varsity football team member, Executive board of a $50,000 investment fund and formulated stock pitches, leader of a team that beat the entire school in a stock pitch competition and qualified for the national competition, Moneythink mentor (teach high school students about financial literacy), Udergraduate Finance Association member (basically go to events), Undergraduate Marketing Association and Case Competition member, Wall Street Club member (usually don’t accept freshman), I’m also overloading classes this semester
Jobs: Owned a vending business with 20 machines in high school, ran a mowing business that had an annualized revenue of $42,000, secured an internship with a VC firm this summer

Love all of you, and thanks in advance :slight_smile:

2

Transfer acceptance rates at all those schools are very, very low, even with a 4.0, especially since your HS GPA was lower than the average freshman class’ at those schools. I think you’d have a shot at any of them, and I wouldn’t be surprised if you got accepted to multiple, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if you got rejected from all. Chances are pretty meaningless with this level of selectivity.

3

Well, the “Transfer Students” thread might have been worth a try :slight_smile:

So, what’s missing from your post is why you want to transfer, and why those colleges. It being late (where I am) I am going to be less circumspect than usual and hazard a guess that you just want to ‘trade up’ to a fancier name?

At any rate the why question matters. Harvard asks for a well articulated and compelling academic reason for transferring to Harvard. What’s yours?

4

I think you have a good shot at Georgetown! Your high school GPA is low but you have done so extremely well in college to make up for that. You probably have a shot that the others and may get in. I think its possible!

Can you chance me:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1857853-usc-ucsd-oos-and-northeastern.html#latest

5

Somewhat disgusted by your response @collegemom3717

I’m legitimately not wanting to “trade up to a fancier name” and am pretty frustrated that it was your initial assumption. CMU has not fulfilled my initial desire for learning and people don’t work hard enough (at least in my opinion). I see a lack of inspiration, and less people around me that are interested in the things that I’m interested in. I don’t care about my grades–I want to learn. For example, I took intro econ last semester (as do most freshman business students). This semester I read the book “Misbehaving” by Richard Thaler in my free time, and learned that one of the concepts (the Coase theorem) was heavily influenced (and possibly proved wrong) by behavioral economics variables (particularly the endowment effect). I promptly emailed my professors, and never received responses. When my brother attended UChicago, professors were chomping at the bit to help motivated undergraduate students learn–and I’ve heard similar things from undergrad students at Harvard.

No, I do not view my education as a commodity that I trade up, and value it as more than just a brand. That’s why I’m taking extra courses this semester. That’s why I told my advisor that I don’t care about grades. That’s why I did debate in high school and the fund in college. My college education is, perhaps, the biggest investment in myself that I’ll ever have, and I want the best ROI as possible–and that means learning more about myself and my studies. Please, please don’t insult me or anyone else on these forums by suggesting that we want to “trade up.”

I view my education as an opportunity to learn, and Harvard can fulfill my desire.

*still love you, even though you insulted me :slight_smile: *

6

Not insulting you! in the absence of any info from you as to why you wanted to transfer I tried to guess why you wanted to transfer to those colleges. For that matter, wanting to ‘trade up’ is not necessarily an insult (there are many perfectly valid reasons to ‘trade up’). And if you think that there aren’t a fair few students who are looking to amp up the prestige factor (esp ones who just missed the brass ring the first time), I have some oceanfront property in Arizona I’d like to sell you :slight_smile:

And, not to be insulting, but ‘CMU can’t fulfill my desire to learn’ is not a clear academic reason for Harvard to take you as a transfer. This:

doesn’t fit what I know of CMU, and I am astonished that you emailed more than one prof with something germane to they class they are teaching you and nobody responded. It doesn’t sound at all like the profs I know there (to be fair that’s a grand total of 2, so it’s not exactly a statistically meaningful sample size- but still)

Here are some questions that might help you (btw, I am not looking to hear the answers- just prodding you to think these through).

=> Is it possible that the first year experience you have had so far is not representative of the overall CMU experience?

=> What made you choose CMU in the first place?

=> What have you learned about yourself and college that will let you make a choice that suits you better than your first choice?

=> In your other thread you talk about deciding between UChicago and CMU. What was the process by which you ended up not going to UChicago?

=> What do you actually know about Harvard, Duke, Columbia and Georgetown in particular that lets you know that those schools will give you what you want.

=> Harvard asks for “A clearly defined academic need to transfer”: imo, saying that the caliber of students and faculty at CMU aren’t able to fulfill your desire to learn doesn’t meet that standard (but then, I’m not on the AdComm) What about the Econ department at Harvard do you need? (same for each of the others).

=> Why not other colleges that are academically competitive and strong in econ/business, such as UChicago, or Northwestern? Or NYU Stern or Wharton?

All of that is not to say you shouldn’t transfer: CMU is not for everybody and you may well be happier elsewhere. But thinking through the above can only help you make a strong decision about who/what/where.

7

I think you are qualified, but you know how difficult it is to transfer to those schools. I do empathize with you, however. I am going to be attending UChicago in September, and one of the main reasons, if not the main reason, I wanted to go there was the student body’s passion for learning for the sake of learning. I think that is a decent reason actually, but in my opinion (and I understand I may not be qualified to say this), you may have a hard time convincing these transfer schools that you can’t get what you want at CMU. In other words, I believe you have a good reason for wanting to transfer, but I’m not sure the colleges you want to transfer to are going to buy that you can’t get what you want at CMU. I don’t know how you could fix that either, so I guess I’m not helping that much, but I wanted to give my opinion.

8

Harvard only accepts about 12 transfers a year out of some 1200 applications. Oftentimes, those transfers include division 1 athletes that that they hope will improve one of their teams. Others are academic superstars or kids with high-level connections. In short, it’s really hard to be one of the chosen 12 and you have to have a very compelling reason for wanting to make the switch. Whining about your current school’s students or faculty isn’t usually a winning strategy. Good luck with everything!