<p>I've been doing some serious thinking lately about college and life. For all my life, I have wanted to live in California and in fact that is where I plan on establishing my business and raising my family. Currently, I'm a transfer student at the University of Miami. I have a 3.5 GPA cumulative GPA (UMD and UMiami) combined and 3.75 GPA at Miami. For the first half of my freshmen year, I went to the University of Maryland, College Park. However, I decided that the north was not the right place for me. I'm very happy at the University of Miami but realize that it's more well-known in the north and southeastern portion of the U.S. and I probably would not get the same job opportunities in the West for this reason. I would most likely want to transfer in Fall 2009. I have listed certain statistics below.</p>
<p>High School Resume:
UW GPA: 3.7
W GPA: 4.2
Rank: 99/540 (certain reasons)
Top 15% of graduating class
Location: south Florida
High School type: Most competitive public, "A" rated school and nationally ranked in US News (130s/1000)
Senior year courseload: highly competitive (2 APs/4 Honors)
Extracurriculars: NHS, Jewish Forum, Key Club, Kiwanis Club, peer counselor, numerous other clubs, two years of Vocal Ensemble IV(advanced choral unit).</p>
<p>First semester of college:
College: University of Maryland, College Park
Major: Undecided (was going to transfer into Smith School of Business)
Courses: Introduction to Shakespeare, The Student Experience, College Algebra, Microeconomics, Psychology(introductory level).
GPA: 3.3
Reasons for transfer: weather, surrounding areas and campus were unsafe, did not adjust well to big campus and large classes.</p>
<p>Second semester of College
College: University of Miami
Major: International Finance and Marketing
Courses: Business Calculus, English (writing intro), Biology (environmental), Macroeconomics, Political Science.
GPA: 3.75
Overall: Very happy at Miami, just thinking about my future.</p>
<p>It is considered very difficult to transfer to Stanford, regardless of your "statistics." If I were you, I would apply and hope, but use the kind of hope one might have when wishing some far-away nation would spontaneously name you as their leader.</p>
<p>I honestly have no idea how Stanford handles transfer admission--only about 20 people transfer in each year. With a ~1.5% acceptance rate, transfer admission is the epitome of crapshoot at Stanford.</p>
<p>So I'm really considering applying and praying that someone is on my side. But what do you think? For Fall 2008, I got a 3.94 GPA (all As and an A-), that raises my UM GPA to a 3.84, but my MD GPA drags my overall combined transfer GPA to a 3.56. I'm involved heavily on and off campus (volunteer at hospital 3 hrs a week, participate in numerous cancer walks and fundraisers, and hold leadership positions in a few clubs). I'm ahead in previous work experience as I had the opportunity to score an internship at UBS Financial Services, Inc. and have applied for GS and others for Summer 2009. Stanford is where I really want to be, do I have any chance?</p>
<p>Would going to a prestigious university in a foreign country, or/and the fact that you had been accepted first-year to Stanford(but decided not to go because of cost, etc) help your chances of transfer in any way?</p>
<p>For anyone else considering a transfer to Stanford, here is my 2 cents/</p>
<p>As noted the odds are long for transferring to Stanford. I have seen a number of articles on transfer students at Stanford in the Stanford Daily. It seems these students have something unique about them and are chosen for purposes of diversity in the student body. </p>
<p>My feeling based on these short bio’s of transfer students is that your grades really aren’t going to get you in or not in. It will be how you stand out in your extracurricular activity and separate yourself from the typical “high-achieving, high grades, high test scores” kind of person.</p>
<p>The transfer students I have met at stanford have fallen into one of two categories: (1) somehow got in from a community college or (2) ROCKSTAR from a top 10 type (probably top 5) school. One of the transfers this year is from one of HYP and is one of the most all around impressive people I’ve met at stanford.</p>