<p>Hi. I'm 19, ambitious and from a third world country. I got into Mount Holyoke College, class of 2013. My grades were okay, my SAT I was okay (SAT II was horrible), I had a lotta extracurricular activitis (the highlight being debate, i went international once). But my essay was, thanks to my God, stellar. Prolly why I got into Holyoke. I know throughout the blogs forums and other websites there are discouraging words all over. But I REALLY REALLY want to apply to Yale next year for international transfer student. So if any of you could give me REAL, specific advise on how to spend my first year at an American college so that Yale might even consider me, I would be so so happy. Tell me how I should eat, breathe, sleep, walk, talk, study, ....well u get the idea! I'm not ungrateful about Holyoke, I could'nt be more grateful. But I'm ambitious and wanna move on higher, highest! What does Yale REALLY REALLY look for? Anyone experienced in this? How much weight would they give to a student from a college as Holyoke? TELL ME EVERYTHING!! PLEASE!!</p>
<p>Search the Yale foum for the many, many threads on transferring. International transfers are no different than US transfers in terms of the advice given.</p>
<p>Briefly: 1. Love the college you’re at. Don’t go in with an attitude that you’re going to transfer. Give it a real chance. Odds of getting into Yale as a transfer are INCREDIBLY slim, so if you ruin what would have been a wonderful freshman year at Mt. Holyoke by obsessing about transferring, you’re doing yourself a disservice that could impact all four years at Mt. Holyoke. 2. Get outstanding grades at Mt. Holyoke. 3. It’s very hard to excel in extracurriculars as a freshman unless you’re an athlete, but try to distinguish yourself. 4. Your transfer essay is crucial and you must have a specific, detailed reason for transferring to Yale that doesn’t have to do with prestige, the residential college system, etc.</p>
<p>Embrace Mt. Holyoke. You’re going to get a wonderful education and meet amazing women. Your social life will suffer if you enter college with the attitude that you’ll be transferring.</p>
<p>Mt. Holyoke is a really great school that really goes out of its way to welcome international students. The campus is gorgeous and the Five College consortium means that Mt. Holyoke students have the benefits at being at a strong LAC college in a country-like setting (for instance, the horse trails around the pond), with the benefits of access to courses taught by professors at UMass, Hampshire, Amherst, Smith. The alumnae network is also superb. AA is right: don’t spoil your first year of college obsessing over getting into another school. There are tremendous resources available to you at Mt. Holyoke. And congrats for getting accepted there: Mt. Holyoke does a number of things to specifically commit to its international students, so they must have really wanted you to come!</p>
<p>It sounds like you want to go to yale because of its name. That’s a terrible reason to want to go to yale.</p>
<p>From what I’ve seen and noticed many people who are unhappy with their school and then apply to transfer out are usually the most successful. Not just with Yale, but with other school’s as well because they have a good reason as to why they want a switch. Yale probably isn’t going to care that the reason you want to go Yale is because you’ve dreamed about going and that your only attending your current school so that you’ll be eligible as a transfer. Have a cogent reason as to why you want to attend Yale and just work hard if you really are serious. Good Luck and please do enjoy your first year at Mt. Holyoke. Who knows, you might even end up liking it. You can still move high and be ambitious at any college.</p>
<p>Congrats on Mount Holyoke! It is a really fantastic school. Try your best to excel there in everything you do; that way, even if Yale doesn’t work out, you’ll have a solid base for enjoying the rest of your time at MoHo. :)</p>
<p>This is your life and you should be enjoying and living it, not wishing it were something else.</p>
<p>Thank you for the reply guys, but going to Yale isn’t only because of prestige and the dream school factor. My dream school is in fact Harvard. I’m planning to major in Economics and the specific emphasis on the area I want to. Plus Yale gives more research grant than Holyoke but the former reason is the the more important one than prestige or anything. I’ve looked up on an area in Economics thats hasn’t received much attention in undergraduate programs and Yale would give me the chance to explore that. Im certainly hyper about Holyoke dont worry! Im just trying to groom myself for transfer application. Do they ask for SAT scores and stuff? And I can always apply for next year if not as a freshman transfer applicant, right?</p>
<p>i meant that Yale would give me the opportunity to explore that specifc area!</p>
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<p>You should definitely let Yale know that in your transfer application.</p>
<p>OP The cautions you’re receiving from posters is due to the fact that the transfer accept rate is about 3% and will probably decline in upcoming years.</p>
<p>Good luck to you at Holyoke.</p>
<p>:S
nell_ann were u being sarcastic? im gullible so i dont really knw…sorry…(blushing)</p>
<p>nell_ann is being sarcastic</p>
<p>Yes, I was being sarcastic. Sorry. I just thought it was funny that you went out of your way to try to explain that prestige was not your reason for wanting to go to Yale, then in the next breath you said your real dream school was Harvard. No prestige behind that pick.</p>
<p>Ambi: coming from Singapore, I know the tremendous pressure to attend Yale-Harvard-Princeton. The fact is that here in the USA, it’s widely known that there are many, many great schools besides those. For internationals with less knowledge of other US schools, it may not seem so. Trust in Holyoke. If you have a compelling reason for Yale, best of luck to you in the transfer process. However, as stated earlier, you’ll have a wonderful time at Holyoke</p>
<p>thanks T26E4 and everyone else. Definitely, the “pressure” on the top three names is oviusly always there but yea i do know better, hence i din apply to any of them. but there’s no harm trying right? i mean chances are slim but no harm attempting after all. since i din even start college i asked for pointers from u all, most of u much more experienced and knowledgeable than i am. that’s all. coz when i open websites everything sez the same: get good grades, stand out in extracurricular activities etc. there must be more right? everyone knows these things. but there’s more. i posted this thread with hope to know that. thanx everyone and best of luck with u guys too!</p>
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<p>Have you looked at the Y website about transfer applications? It’s all there:</p>
<p>[Transfer</a> Student Program | Transfer & Other Programs | Office of Undergraduate Admissions](<a href=“http://www.yale.edu/admit/other/transfer/index.html]Transfer”>http://www.yale.edu/admit/other/transfer/index.html)</p>
<p>Except that is, for the actual numbers: out of about 800 transfer applicants each year, Y accepted 24 for fall 2008 and 18 for fall 2009.</p>
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<p>Not just good; get outstanding grades, have top test scores, get excellent LORs, take a difficult course load, and have a very strong reason for why you want to transfer. ECs are necessary, but second tier IMO compared to academic considerations.</p>
<p>Remember that when you apply to transfer for soph year, you will have only completed 1 sem/qt at MH, so your HS record (gpa and rigor of coursework) and test scores will carry the most weight. As rare as it is to get in as a transfer in general, it is even rarer to get in as a soph transfer if you weren’t a competitive candidate during freshman admissions.</p>
<p>hmm this is helpful…i read the site but not so thoroughly. will after the exams. so what if i apply in my second year…wud HS records and test scores still hold that much weight? Btw umm what’s LORs and IMO?</p>
<p>Letter’s of Recommendation</p>
<p>In my Opinion</p>
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<p>As a jr transfer applicant, they carry LESS weight and what you’ve done in college is more important. However, when applying to a college as selective as Y, everything will be evaluated to some degree, but it’s difficult to determine how much weight they will have in the decision.</p>
<p>(sorry for the shorthand, too much time on this site ;)).</p>
<p>p.s. Do check out the current transfer thread on this forum and the Y ones from this year and last on the Transfer Students forum.</p>