<p>Thus far, I have been rejected from Amherst, Dartmouth, Columbia, Harvard, Stanford, and Yale. I only have a few decisions left, being Duke, Northwestern, Cornell, Brown, Williams, and Penn. Most have acceptance rates quite a bit higher than the above, so I still have a chance, but the experience has been crushing. Every time I get an email, I can already see the dreaded "I am very sorry to inform you..." before I open it. I was accepted by UNC Chapel Hill, but it's quite expensive there since I will have to pay full freight. </p>
<p>I have become slightly depressed as a result of this, and I am very fearful that I will have to return to my previous college. Does anyone experiencing the same thing or who has experienced the same thing want to talk about it?</p>
<p>No offense but it’s your own fault if you only applied to colleges you can’t afford or have acceptance rates under 10%…(and most under 5%)…</p>
<p>Welcome to the world of an international student. I did the best that I could have.</p>
<p>Great, then accept that it’s not in your hands and don’t be surprised that the most competitive application process at the most competitive schools in the world isn’t treating you nicely.</p>
<p>I just don’t understand what’s going wrong. I had a high GPA in very rigorous college courses; I was Salutatorian of my high school; I had very specific academic reasons for transferring; I have done some activities that I love for many years…</p>
<p>Perhaps there is still hope considering I have only been rejected from ridiculously competitive places. I never really expected to get into them when I applied. What have your admissions decisions been like, 2013 transfer?</p>
<p>There’s no need to act snarky or condescending on a college admissions forum; you’re not helping anyone, so give it a rest.
As to the original poster, aren’t Duke decisions already out? I got rejected, which isn’t surprising considering they took 5% this year. I understand the frustration. It’s difficult to understand why the rejection is happening when you have good stats. It’s also tempting to get frustrated that just because you haven’t decided what you want to do forever and filled your resume with research and internships you’re at a disadvantage. Good luck, though!</p>
<p>I just checked; I got rejected by Duke. I don’t really care; they didn’t want to give me aid anyway.</p>
<p>I think the key to transfer admissions is not about your grades. If you are at a comparable school and doing well, you will be fine academically. I think it is about personality and fitting in and filling niches. I don’t think there’s anything you could have done differently and don’t beat yourself up! That was me last year as a freshman applicant. I’m doing better this time around!</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/transfer-students/1417791-do-not-apply-these-top-10-universities.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/transfer-students/1417791-do-not-apply-these-top-10-universities.html</a></p>
<p>Financial aid is not an excuse to apply to more (the most) selective colleges. Financial need is a reason for colleges to reject you.</p>
<p>Everyone is free to apply. Everyone should be realistic about their chances when applying. There are many people who have been rejected as transfers from the colleges you applied to, but there is no further reason to discuss rejection unless you want to feel even worse.</p>
<p>I’ve been rejected from all 4 schools that I’ve applied to. I’m in the process of getting reviewed by one of them so hopefully that decision will change.</p>
<p>I feel like you shouldn’t be chastising yourself for being rejected by all those colleges. First of all, they are extremely difficult to get into as a transfer. Second of all, I think transfer admissions is different from freshman admissions in that the admissions committee is looking to fill in what the class is lacking, i.e. if there aren’t enough students studying the sciences, the adcom would be looking for someone interested in the sciences, and if there aren’t a whole lot of international students in the class, the adcom would be looking for international applicants. I also got rejected by Amherst, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Duke, all of them with acceptance rates of below 5%, and I just thought of it as, “I guess they weren’t looking for an international applicant” or “I guess they already had a lot of students interested in the social sciences and especially government, which I’m looking to study,” which made me feel a whole lot better. And if you applied for financial aid as well, it’s only natural that colleges would have to reject you even if you are well qualified because they have limited funds for transfers to begin with in most cases, and the fact that you’re an international student goes against you as well. But I really do hope that you have better luck with other decisions. Don’t give up yet!</p>
<p>When I look at the stats of people getting accepted to these schools, many of them seem to have worse stats than I do. Unless they have an amazing life story, I think that these colleges’ decisions are unjustified. I don’t like the way the US college system operates. It’s all subjective junk. Write a story that melts the admissions officers hearts while having acceptable academics and you’re in.</p>
<p>I disagree with that last statement. Take my case for example.
I am transferring from a community college as an aerospace engineering major in the Fall, so my classmates and I have been hearing from the schools we applied to for the past few months. Many of us applied to the same schools, so we’ve all been pretty open about where we get into and where we don’t get into. Some of my classmates were pretty surprised to see that I got into just about everywhere that I applied to, including schools that denied them, even though some of them had higher transfer GPA’s than I do (I have a 3.60). Though some of them think it was unfair, what most fail to realize is that I had close to a 4.0 throughout my 3 year stint at my local CC, and that the reason it fell so dramatically was that I was diagnosed with a life threatening illness about a year ago. Though it took some time to find a way to deal with my condition, I am doing much better now and am easily acing all my classes this semester while undertaking engineering projects on the side. If I wasn’t able to explain this to the various admissions rep’s, most would probably think my good grades were simply a fluke and that I had no place in a good university. </p>
<p>But anyway, back to you:</p>
<p>You have a few decisions left, all of which come from schools with higher acceptance rates, so don’t lose hope! I think the worst thing you could be doing right now is comparing yourself to others that get into these schools, so you should really focus on doing something else. Just stay positive and ride it out, I’m sure you’ll get in somewhere.</p>
<p>The OP reminds me of the kid who applies as a freshman to all top schools with no safeties, then is stunned when they don’t get in anywhere. Acceptance rates are generally even lower for transfer students. Transfer students need matches and safeties just like freshman applicants do. All of the schools on your list are considered reaches/lottery students for everyone no matter what their stats, except maybe UNC. You shouldn’t be surprised at the outcome.</p>
<p>UNC was the safety, intparent.</p>
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<p>It’s not a safety if you can’t afford it. And it sounds like you’re going to be paying full freight there, as you mentioned in the first post.</p>
<p>Don’t kick yourself about not getting in anywhere. Those are all incredibly hard schools to get into as a transfer.</p>
<p>You seem resentful over the fact that other people who are “less qualified” have been admitted, though you haven’t been. How do you know that they are less qualified? Perhaps they are exactly what the school is looking for. As others have mentioned, a big part of being accepted as a transfer is whether or not a school needs students in your major. If a school is overloaded with chemistry majors, they aren’t too likely to accept a transfer applicant that is applying as a chemistry major. Conversely, if the school is short on physics majors, there is a greater likelihood of them accepting transfer applicants that are applying as a physics major.</p>
<p>I can’t help but notice that your list is basically a snippet of the top 20. You should have realized that the chances were slim.</p>