<p>Thanks man. And good luck to you. I am transferring from a local university, Benedictine University.</p>
<p>I hope you are accepted. Keep me up-to-date. Always interested to see how fellow CCers do.</p>
<p>I hope you are too. It's been established that you have a very good shot. I'm just not sure mine shot's as good as yours.</p>
<p>wow. your accepted. no question</p>
<p>SMHVandy, I'm at Dartmouth (freshman) I write for the Dartmouth Free Press, do College Bowl, and Fence. I guess I want to transfer because I originally applied to Dartmouth ED for geographical reasons which are not nearly as compelling now (my family has since moved.) I guess I have competitive numbers... 1600/800/800/800... It will come down to how well I do in my courses this term, I guess...</p>
<p>Wow. That's as competitive as you can get. Just do well, and you have a great shot anywhere you want go. A 4.0 will get you to wherever you want to be.</p>
<p>Well Julians, I'd have to say you have the lock on the H-transfer. 1600/800/800/800...geeze! Those are amazing stats--perfect. I don't know what your high school GPA was, but I can't imagine Harvard turning you down. Just explain well the reasons you want to transfer, and you'll be in Cambridge come next year. Hopefully, we'll be there together. Best of luck.</p>
<p>Best of luck to you as well. Do you know when they're going to put the transfer app up?</p>
<p>No, I have no idea. I assume, though, that the app will be up relatively soon. I think it is released a few months after the freshman app.</p>
<p>Julians, just out of curiosity, what is your particular reason for wanting to transfer to Harvard when your family has now moved to California? Other than this, I think your chances at Stanford and Harvard are awesome.</p>
<p>My stats, I am transferring to Harvard as a Spring transfer this academic year . . . (2nd semester, Soph)</p>
<p>Stats at time of application:
William and Mary, physics major (1st Year, freshman)</p>
<p>Applied to: Brown, Harvard, Yale, Columbia
. . . got into Brown, Harvard (Spring), Columbia</p>
<p>College GPA: 1st semester 3.76, HS: 4.52 W
SAT: 740 M, 750 V
SATII: 800-US Hist, 760-Writing, 750-Physics
APs: National AP Scholar, 12 tests total
11 tests (both Econs, both Physics C, Chem, Calc BC, Eng Lang, Eng Lit, US Gov, Comp Gov, US Hist)5s, 1 test (Spanish Lang)3</p>
<p>Awards/Misc (College/HS)
*Invited to freshman honor societies at WM
*was offered a John Jay scholar when I applied to Columbia as a freshman</p>
<p>*Award from Virginia Historical Society, in forum with David McCullough (HS) (11)
*Peacekeeping Research Paper, won an award from US Institute for Peace (10)
*Virginia Junior Academy of Science, 1st place (10)</p>
<p>*Co-founder of new senior seminar at HS, Military History (12)
*Arranged an independent mentorship with a surgeon, turned it into extra course credit at HS after writing research paper (12)</p>
<p>Activities
--College
*founding member of a competitive dance team (hard to describe, not what you probably think)
*International Relations Club
*Tutoring adults, I developed an introductory computer class and teach it
*Involved in physics research, currently observational
*Also participate in campus leadership development programs (theyre selective)
--HS
*Quizbowl, team did very well (11-12)
*Model UN, Co-Treasurer (11-12) (4 years)
*A Mock Election program for VA schools, Coordinator (12) (4 years)
*Model Govt. Club (founder, author of constitution)
*Debate Team (10-12)
*Judo (9-10)</p>
<p>Workat our family business (HS weekends, summers, breaks)</p>
<p>wrote a decent essay, which got progressively better with later deadlines, it had random interesting things . . .
. . . there are things that I'm leaving out that would give pretty important +'s to my app, leave a little mystery, i guess</p>
<p>I suppose I was lucky, here's hopin' I don't get destroyed by Harvard physics geniuses . . .</p>
<p>BTW, no such thing as a lock SMHVandy, so panic, panic, and cry in your dorm room all day . . .
of course I'm kidding
you have a great shot, if you're harvard or bust you might hurt yourself, but if you're harvard, yale, columbia, etc etc, then you'll definitely have options</p>
<p>be sure your essay gives clear reasons why Harvard is what you need--what I've read so far needs a little work (to me, at least) . . . it's good to be able to name professors, departments, department resources, etc</p>
<p>try and slip it in that you got in last year, and be sure to mention that vandy gave you this scholarship honor, from what I understand, pointing out & highlighting such things help</p>
<p>very impressive 546, but why did you decided to transfer for the spring term? wouldn't it have been more convenient if you attended this fall?</p>
<p>Can you apply as a sophomore for spring or fall and then take a semester off to not have as many credits if you get in? I know they say your chances are better if you are flexible.</p>
<p>kimfuge, you take what Harvard gives you--it was nice enough not to be waitlisted with those crazy accept/reject numbers. . . plus it works out with my course of study</p>
<p>jacl, you can apply for either semester, but if they accept you for a semester, they don't change it . . . best option is to apply for fall and spring; however, if you are accepted for spring you don't have to go somewhere in the fall if you don't want to . . .</p>
<p>Congrats 546mp. That's great that you made it into the Big H. You had a very fine resume, so I am not all the surprised. Good luck this spring. Perhaps I'll see you up there sometime next year (I hope).</p>
<p>hey 546mp, you did not make it into yale? Had you done all those college EC's at the time of application there? I don't think i have a shot if you didn't get in!</p>
<p>Hey 546mp, I was a Blanton Scholar too! We got Rick Atkinson, I think DM would have been cooler...</p>
<p>Anyway, to Kimfuge - 1st I'd like to just give it a shot to see what happens -- I only applied to one school in HS and I'm just curious as to whether I could get in, second, I have a very specific academic interest that H would meet and D doesn't. (S meets it also, BTW)</p>
<p>Hey all,</p>
<p>SMHvandy, sounds like you have an amazing shot!</p>
<p>I'm applying for Harvard transfer as well, from a top Canadian school as a junior. I'm wondering how much harder it might be for me given my status as an international applicant from an over-represented country, for schools such as Stanford, Columbia, Cornell. I had the impression that Harvard and Yale are less likely to take international status as detrimental to your application. What do you think? Are my impressions entirely off? Please let me know! :)</p>
<p>speaking of over-representation...my case is even worse, I am a Chinese citizen, no green-card, no dual-citizenship. I know, Harvard is never short of Chinese folks....no offense. </p>
<p>I came to America and repeated my junior year in high school at a very good public high school in southern California, did okay academically, GPA-3.5. I was really....say, not knowing anything about applying to American colleges by then. Did summer school at Georgetown afterwards, a political workshop/summer school.</p>
<p>For immigration reasons, my status in California could only last for a year...so then I transferred to a prep school in western Mass...again, I screwed over myself. Senior GPA below 3.0, the only A work I did was an independent study project on Chinese Political Movement monitored by our high school's history department head.</p>
<p>Having seen all you guys' stats, I really feel helpless...low HS GPA with mediocre, if not bad standardized test scores:</p>
<p>SAT I:
V-590/M-760 (retake in Jan 2006)</p>
<p>SAT II:
Math IIC: 760
Writing: 640
Physics: 680</p>
<p>AP:
Comp. Govt-5
AP Calc AB-4</p>
<p>and a whole bunch of others with 3's, though I did many of those on my own...</p>
<p>I though did get an AP Scholar Award, not sure if it's national.</p>
<p>The only one thing that sounds good in my application is probably that I published a book on American Politics in China, though a big chunk of it was sensored by the publisher as the publisher is subsidized by our government's Foreign Affair Ministry (equivalent to the US State Department, don't ask me if China has a totalitarian regime)...</p>
<p>*Did some interesting sports like Rock Climbing and Winter Mountaineering in senior year, on our school team...
*involved in an environment protection group, Green Campus Initiative (a national college-level network, our high school was the only high school member), though I was only an active member.<br>
*VP of a club at high school, VOCA-Voice of Cultural Awareness</p>
<p>Excellent interview(does it count at all?) with Harvard, it was probably the best interview I have ever done. The interviewer and I climbed up a mountain in snow (my high school was in mountains, middle of nowhere), and slided down in dark...walked around campus, and read my college essay together, finally ended in front of a Chairman Mao poster from Cultural Revolution years in my room. He gave me one of the two highest scores/evaluation of the region that year...I suppose the other kid made to Harvard.</p>
<p>For the last two summers of high school years, I did intern at Sun Microsystem, China and IBM China for a short period of time, probably 1 or 2 months each summer.</p>
<p>Applied to a number for top colleges out of high school, but only ended up at my safety...here I am at BU. Academically trying to doing better, don't know how things will turn out...aiming for at least 3.75, though grade deflation is really bad here.</p>
<p>Now in college, I'm only fencing for fun...and to get in shape.</p>
<p>Thinking about Harvard, Yale, Georgetown SFS...</p>
<p>Really wanna go across the river since their Harvard-Yenching Library and Institute, the KSG Lectures are amazing. My majors are Classical Studies and Linguistics(will probably switch to Archaeology concentrating on East Asian) for now, and will most likely try to put Government as one of my majors in the near future. </p>
<p>Probably no American college can compete with Harvard in terms of the resources of East Asian studies (Fairbank Center and HYL/I)...and I am also extremely interested in political science, and by going to lectures joint-sponsored by BU/Harvard, I can see what kind of wonderful resource and intellectuals they have on the other side of the river. So...i guess i'm really going for the resource.</p>
<p>It's quite a tough situation for me...haven't sorted out yet. I did not work hard at all before I was turned down by these colleges...I guess it was a harsh lesson. It really woke me up...and now I'm working as hard as I can to go where I always wanted to go. The grade deflation seems like a big thing that I have to tackle in order to maintain a good GPA for my freshman year...I don't know how can I prove to the admission people that I have changed...I am working hard now. I do take responsibility for the past, as it was indeed all my fault.</p>
<p>Vandy, as for the dean thing...I'd highly recommend you to do that if you can. The Harvard interviewer that I had back at high school highly recommended me to go talk to those people in admission office. However, you need to have "connection". I have tried...they won't give you any chance of having a face-to-face talk with any of their decision making staff, only if you can make an appointment with that person directly by contacting him/herself. But after all, you are in good shape...</p>
<p>Best luck to everyone, and I would be happy to hear what you guys have to say here.</p>
<p>Hi. I am not actually sure as to Harvard or Yale's (or any other university's for that matter) policy regarding international students. It does seem that American universities have more Canadian students vis-a-vis other international students. That, to me, just seems natural as you all are our northern neighbor and we have good relations (although George Bush is trying desperately to ruin them). I think you should apply to both Yale and Harvard--maybe a few others as well. Don't know if being Canadian will hurt you--but you won't know if you don't try. Best of luck. Hope we both are in Cambridge next year.</p>