<p>Im a freshman at UCLA, and I wanna transfer to either MIT, Stanford, or Harvard (it's virtually impossible I know.) In the application, it says I need to submit 3 instructor evaluations, now I know u need to keep going to office hours to be known by them but in office hours how do u steer the conversation away from academics to normal conversation? I find at the office hours Im only able to Talk about academics as there are other students waiting so i can't just have a normal Convo with the instructor. Please help me out!</p>
<p>Get in on the professors good side so know the academic stuff, build your credibility. Then find a good segway to normal conversation.</p>
<p>You are a first semester freshman, so I’m having a hard time visualizing how this conversation would go, even if you could set up an appt. outside of office hours to discuss a transfer. If I were the faculty you wanted a letter from, I would say 1) I don’t know you well enough to write a letter based on 1/2 a semester of work 2) I’d need some pretty compelling reasons to spend my time doing this for a 1st semester freshman who obviously hasn’t given UCLA a chance and 3) the fact that you are applying to MIT, Stanford and Harvard suggests that it isn’t because of anything other than perceived prestige. If I want to be nice, I suppose I could write a generic - s/he wants to transfer, and I see no reason not to take her/him. But that kind of letter isn’t going to help you get anywhere.</p>
<p>A much better use of your time would be to excel in your academics at UCLA, build faculty relationships, and then apply to grad school elsewhere.</p>
<p>ITA with M’s Mom, down the line.</p>
<p>If your circumstances were different, Abcd, and you had solid and apparent reasons for transferring elsewhere, you could certainly go to office hours to pick your current professors’ brains about where to go, and how to get there. This would give you some reason to ask them for letters of recommendation later on.</p>
<p>But I can’t really think of a scenario in which a first-semester freshman’s desire to transfer to MIT, Stanford or Harvard seem anything but shallow.</p>
<p>As a matter of fact I’m giving Ucla a fine chance, I’ve gone all out here: made lots of friends, got a research project with one of my instructors, and joined clubs. I want MIT more than the others not just cos of prestige, but cos it has been my dream school for as long as I can remember so I wanna give it another chance. And yes, I thought cos I’ll try for MIT might as well apply Stanford and Harvard too, though I have good reasons it’s not just prestige. I don’t intend on discussing the transfer with them till next quarter tbh, I still wanna get to know my professors much better so opinions onhow I should approach office hours would be much appreciated, like how did u guys get to know your professors better?</p>