Hello, I am studying at Maastricht University (Data Science & Knowledge Engineering), I would like to try my luck and apply Stanford Computer Science as transfer applicant.
So my concern is the following…I did SAT 2 years ago, got 1320, 720 Maths and 600 English section. Should I write SAT again? SAT score of 1320 is rare in Stanford Admitted freshman applicants at least, so is resitting SAT a must for me? Or it does not matter as long as my GPA is 3.5+?
Should I resit SAT?
Yes.
You should also be in the top few students in your class and have done something out of the norm (successful app or project).
But before you do, keep in mind here’s no financial aid for international transfers. Do your parents have $150,000?
1320 SAT is way low for Stanford. Getting into Stanford as a transfer student is even harder than as a freshman. I think that your chances would be much better to get your bachelor’s where you are, and then apply to Stanford for a master’s degree. To do this however you are going to want to pull in a lot of A’s and very little else for the rest of your undergraduate study.
What is a typical GPA at your currently university? Is 3.5 above or below average? Is your major GPA higher?
I also agree with @MYOS1634 regarding expenses. It is hard to imagine that Stanford is worth spending an extra $150,000 compared to Maastricht even in the unlikely case that you were accepted.
could you tell me which top tier universities provide financial aid for international transfer applicants please?
Also, I am partly applying for fun, I will just apply to maximum 2 universities (within top 10) for fun, like who knows what might happen right?
Pretty much none. You could try Harvard or Yale.
You are want to apply to transfer to a place with a 1% acceptance rate for fun? things must be even quieter in Maastricht than I thought! Are you a star where you are?
Harvard does give money to transfer students, but they also look for a specific academic reason to transfer.
If you’re going to go through the trouble of applying at all, I would apply to a bunch more places. Assembling all of your application materials, including test scores, letters of recommendation, school reports from your high school and university, and an obscurely detailed financial aid application, is the hard part. Selecting a few more universities from a list to which your application gets sent, is almost no effort at all. (Yes, there’ll be a few more 200-word essays. All easy compared to the other stuff.)