<p>Hi, I am new to this forum and I am looking forward to some helpful feedback. </p>
<p>I am seeking to transfer from the University of Alberta (ranked around 3rd in Canada) to over a dozen US universities including NYU, Harvard, Yale, UPenn, Stanford, Caltech, Columbia, Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, and MIT with a few fall-back schools. I wish to transfer to their economics program not only because the UofA's economics department is quite poor, but also because these universities have specific programs that I have researched and like. I am also not interested in learning about Canada's economic systems for four years because I plan to live in the US. </p>
<p>Back to my main question, what are my chances of getting accepted to at least one (preferably Harvard) with these stats:</p>
<ul>
<li>Enrolled in Honors calc (one of the hardest first year classes at the university), Honors linear algebra (challenging), Microeconomics, Newtonian Mechanics first term, then Honors calc II, Honors linear algebra II, Chem 101, English 144, Macroeconomics next term</li>
<li>3.9-4.0 GPA in curved classes where 10% get an A with the exception of my two honors math classes. I am projecting A-A+ in honors calc, A- to A in honors lin. algebra, A+ in microeconomics, A in newtonian mechanics</li>
<li>2250 SAT score</li>
<li>95% high school average including the Alberta Diploma Exams worth 50% of my grade (translates to a 4.0 GPA I would assume)</li>
<li>Two excellent professor recommendations</li>
<li>President of a student group I founded at the university</li>
<li>Trained 7 years in Martial Arts, 10 years of Piano at Royal Conservatory of Music</li>
<li>Tutor part time</li>
<li>Volunteered at the hospital for 6 months in eleventh grade</li>
<li>Volunteered to take notes for a disabled student in one of my classes</li>
<li>AP wasn't really offered at our high school in the traditional sense, it was more self learning. Anyway I got a 5 on Calc AB and a 4 on English Literature. </li>
</ul>
<p>Please be as critical as you wish. What are my chances of getting into these universities?</p>
<p>Transfer applicants are more competitive than freshmen applicants at all the ivies. Stanford admits 1-4% or so, and Harvard sometimes none. Unless if you are a superstar, which appears not to be true, your best chance are at the top state schools (Berkeley, UCLA, U of M, etc)</p>
<p>By the way instead of just saying “no haha” which is totally useless, please give me a specific reason. I did say that I have a 4.0 GPA at a top competitive university (in the hardest classes at that university) and a near perfect high school record so your opinion must not be based on academics. Is it my extra curriculars? I still think that they are reasonably good even if they are not as good as the rest of my profile.</p>
<p>Those rates that u posted are the acceptance rates for freshman applicants. Rates for transfer applicants are much lower. This is because universities try to find a phenomenal student that will compliment their student body. I think you would have a much better chance going to a top us university for masters.</p>
<p>University of Alberta which is ranked around 3rd in Canada. By the way, we don’t have any fancy titles in Canada like “National Merit Scholar” or even class rank.</p>
<p>Although it depends on the faculty, I wouldn’t rank U of A as 3rd in Canada. Also since most universities in Canada are government funded; the level of education one receives at most major research universities is roughly equal.
Your grades are impressive and I think you might have a chance, but still without a phenomenal rec from ur profs and ecs your chances would be low. </p>
<p>If you are going to apply, don’t spend too much time on it.</p>
<p>also, have you co-authored any research papers?
Research experience will help to increase ur chances of gaining acceptance</p>
<p>Thank you Outis, I will look into that. I know that the top schools are a long shot for even the best transfer candidates, but I am asking how I match up as a candiate, not how likely I will be the 1% accepted into Harvard. Constructive feedback is great.</p>
<p>I will write the best application essays that I possibly can… it will be the most time I’ve spent on 500 words haha. I truly do love economics though. I wish I could get into Harvard for Greg Mankiw… he is my favorite.</p>
<p>“I wish I could get into Harvard for Greg Mankiw… he is my favorite.”</p>
<p>^ THAT. right there. that’s what these schools are looking for. specificity. Your stats are amazing, and your rigor of coursework seems to be as well…Applying to these top 10 schools can be a bit daunting because of their practically obsolete transfer admission statistics. But, your reasons for applying are solid…which is what most transfer students seem to lack. Most of these kids applying to harvard want to go to harvard…well, because it’s harvard. for you, that doesn’t seem to be the case. convey that in your personal statement. i would say the PS is probably the most crucial part of the transfer application…
also, if you really like econ, i would strongly STRONGLY recommend you apply to the university of chicago…a stellar economics program & faculty.
chance back please :]</p>
<p>I would not count on those transfer rates that are posted for top schools. Very likely many of those are “insider transfers” which means that the accepted student has some connection to the univ…such as parent/spouse was hired as a prof, and the student was accepted as a transfer as part of the deal. Or was an athlete transfer or some other hook.</p>