I attended a uni in a foreign country. Can I transfer to IVY plus?

Hi guys !

I am a freshman who just got into Yonsei, one of the top schools in South Korea.
Our school is actually very hard to get into in South Korea bc everyone is pretty hyped up about education(relatively)

but in a global scale, is our school that good…? I don’t think so.

I’m an American and I will, at some point, apparently go back to the States but I don’t think companies in the U.S will consider my academic background as nicely as they would be considered in S.K.

And above all, I want to change my major from business to computer engineering. I taught code myself and I am planning on taking classes related to computer science/engineering.

However my family moved to South Korea when I was very little so all of my education is based in there(meaning : no SAT scores, no APs, and not-so-many ecs bc South Korea doesn’t require them that much all they care about is ur grades and Korean standardized test scores).

  • able to speak four languages
  • TOEFL score : 120/120
  • straight As (high school)
  • class president for 6 years straight from middle to high school
  • made a 25 min film with my friends for 10 days and held a premier in front of the whole school(high school)
  • Python, Unity, C#(self-taught)
  • started an organ donation campaign(high school)

If I prepare real hard will I be able to get into one of the top schools?(e.g UPenn, CMU, Brown, Stanford …)

and also, is it necessary for me to take the SATs?

I would really appreciate some advice…! Thank you.

You should finish that program and apply to US Ivies for your masters degree.

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If you plan on staying in the same or related field, I think the masters route is the way to go. Business undergrad to CompE/CS masters is tougher (though not impossible and you could get a data analytics/data science masters).

But in any case, why are you aiming for the (relatively) tiny privates that accept almost no transfers besides athletes and other hooked/special transfer applicants? If your goal is to code, the top publics in engineering place in to the top tech companies just as well. Granted, they aren’t exactly easy to transfer in to, but they aren’t nearly impossible, and at unis like UMich, Wisconsin, and Cal, you can major in CS after transferring in to the arts & science college (for UCLA, UCSD, Washington, GTech, UIUC, and I believe Texas, you’d have to transfer in to a CompE/CS major, which is tougher if you are currently in a business program).

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Oh, and Vandy and USC do take a decent number of transfers, so it’s not as impossible to transfer in to them. Maybe NYU too.

For all these places, can you afford the list price?

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How hard it is to transfer varies quite a bit depending upon what level of university you are trying to transfer into. Transferring into MIT, Stanford, Caltech, or an Ivy League university is very, very difficult and borders on impossible. Transferring into U.Mass Amherst, the University of Michigan, or another school on that level may be possible. I know someone who transferred into McGill which of course is not in the US but which is very well known in the US.

There is no harm in applying to transfer to the top schools, but it is not likely to succeed.

Schools seem to be getting away from requiring the SATs in most cases.

I agree with others that completing a bachelor’s where you are and attending a top US school for a master’s degree is realistic. I did my master’s at Stanford and there were other students in the same program from all over the place.

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McGill is a good suggestion. I believe you can major in CS with their arts&science degree. Not sure how easy it would be for you to transfer in for their science CS degree.

after reading the comments I guess I should just really focus on graduating here…Thank you for your advice !

Thank you so much for your advice. I should just focus on my studies here and not waste time on chasing cars…

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Thank your for your advice and school suggestions. I didn’t have much information so I didn’t know where to aim for at my situation, but thanks to you I think I know where I am now! Have a good day