Can anyone personally relate to this? I am currently a sophomore and would like to transfer as a junior to standford majoring in economics. Also, how much importance are given to SAT scores for transfer students?
Does Stanford accept transfer students from california community colleges?
very, very, very rarely
Also, how much importance are given to SAT scores for transfer students?
they look at both your HS transcript and college transcripts and your standardized tests. All are important.
bottom line, if you had the grades and stats to be considered a strong applicant to Stanford as a freshman, but did not apply, you will have a stronger chance than if that is not the case.
Stanford accepts a much smaller fraction[ <1%] of transfer applicants than freshman applicants -5%.
I dont believe I was qualified enough to be accepted into stanford as a freshman because my high school gpa was roughly 3.75 and my SAT score was 1870. Also, I wasnt really involved in extracurriculars. But now in college, I have a 4.0, am involved in lots of extracurriculars and volunteer work so I thought I have a better chance now.
In order for you to be admitted, someone would have to drop out from Stanford and that happens rarely. They admitted maybe 5 transfers last year? They like legacies but that is not a guarantee on admission. Your SAT score of 1870 would tend to tell me that you would not be admitted.
There was an article in the Stanford Daily in the last few months on a student who transferred in from a community college in the Bay Area, if I recall correctly, so it does happen though as said above probably not that often. He is a bit older and a military veteran so a different profile than most applicants.
I remember glancing at that article.
As a military vet, it is a huge difference!
@cosgirl, Stanford most certainly accepts transfers from California CC’s. I transferred in last year and several members of my cohort came from community colleges in California. They came from Sacramento, Marin, and a few places further south. Also, @“aunt bea” is mistaken; 31 transfers were accepted last year, not 5. Of those 31, 29 matriculated.
I would assume much smaller acceptance rate than UCB.
yeah, they accepted a whopping 2% of transfer applicants last year.
and each year the % of accepted transfer applications continues to drop…
DrGoogle, I imagine you’re correct about Berkeley and the other UCs, which have as part of their mission accepting transfers from California community colleges. If I recall correctly the UCs are actually increasing the number of CC transfers.
@PaintTheSilence I read on Stanford’s website that the Econ department doesn’t give transfer credit to community college students. Would this be problematic for a hopeful cc transfer student?
@norcal255 - - The econ department is infamous for its reluctance to give credit for -anything- not done at Stanford. In fact, they typically won’t even award credit for units given in another department at the university. However, the other transfers and I have found that if you just go and talk to someone at the department in-person and explain that you’re a transfer, they’re willing to make an exception if you can prove that you covered the same material as the Stanford course. Sometimes they’ll even give you partial units, so say the core is Econ 41, 50, and 51. If your course covers 41 and 50, they’ll give you those and make you take 50. In short, it really just depends. But yes, in general econ is harder to get outside credit for. Btw, I was given transfer credit for the microeconomics class I took at CC, if that helps.
@PaintTheSilence Great thanks for the information! If you were a community college transfer, were there any specific admissions requirements like required classes that you had to take at cc? And could you give me any other tips for successfully transferring to Stanford as an Economics major? (EC’s, essays, etc.)
@norcal255 , no problem! No, there weren’t any specific courses you needed to take, they just want to see you took the most challenging versions of a variety of courses that you found interesting. I did pepper my transcript with a few rigorous courses just for the sake of it, though. Things like microbiology, physics, and calculus even though I’m a social sciences major. As for tips on your application, the best I can give is to be yourself, but REALLY BE IT. To explain, if you say you like econ, your entire application should mirror that. You should be “Econ Guy.” You should be a part of (or start) the econ club at your current school, you should be doing side projects and other work to prove your interest, your classes should be econ related, and you should have excellent grades in your actual economics courses. Your recommendations should speak to how wonderful you are, and how passionate you are about your intended field. This type of consistency helps to create a coherent story of who you are to the admissions office. I really can’t give you more than that, because even those of us who got in have no idea why they let us in. I even read my admissions documents and it didn’t tell me much about why they chose me at all. I think it all comes down comes down to your being relatively likable, interesting, and enthusiastic about what you want to do.
@PaintTheSilence - Awesome! Have any of your units from GE classes at community college successfully transferred over at Stanford? And how long will it take you to graduate with your degree seeing that you have so many remaining Economics classes to take?