Ivy Transfer

<p>I'm a freshman at Rice. Rice is really fine, but my dream has always been to graduate from an Ivy League school. I know that it's not ideal to just pick any ivy simply for its name; I know with any acceptance I would have to weigh my opportunities accordingly. Regardless, I was wondering what you thought of my chances of admission. I applied as a transfer student to Stanford, Yale, U of P, Columbia, Cornell, Brown, as well as NU and UVA (yes, i recognize NU and UVA aren't a "ivies").</p>

<p>My particulars:</p>

<p>College:
GPA - 3.85 during first semester at Rice
extracurriculars - pretty good (leadership positions in two prominent clubs)
(midterm reports may be less impressive than first semester grades)
Decent letter of rec</p>

<p>High School:
GPA - 3.7 from top high school in ny
extracurriculars - very impressive (president of stud gov and a few clubs, varsity athlete, participation in musical arts, lots of volunteering, etc.)
classes taken - pretty rigorous (lots of AP credit)
SAT - 1300/2000
SATII - Chem (700)
Really impressive letters of rec</p>

<p>What are my chances? Which do you think I have a shot at? Thanks for your input!!</p>

<p>what school at cornell? and major?</p>

<p>Also stanford isn’t an ivy :P</p>

<p>stanford and yale - no
penn, columbia - reach
brown, cornell - low reach</p>

<p>Brown accepts fewer transfers than Penn or Columbia, so it’s definitely a high reach.</p>

<p>Other than that, ditto what ironicallyunsure said.</p>

<p>Would you be willing to elaborate more on why you want to transfer? Your motivations seem, right now, extremely bad.</p>

<p>Did you get into any of these schools in the first place and decide to turn them down? If so, then you might have a slightly better chance of getting in again. However, if you got rejected at these schools the first time, I think you are more likely to be rejected again the 2nd time (because transfer admission is a lot more competitive at these schools). I think you have a great shot at Northwestern though.</p>

<p>Personally, I think you would be a strong applicant with your HS and college record: your HS stats seem strong and I think a 3.85 GPA during 1st semester at a Top 20 school is impressive (especially since Rice is known for not “grade inflating”).</p>

<p>However, your reasons, at least the ones you posted on this thread, do not seem strong. I hope you articulated stronger reasons in your Common App Transfer Personal Statement and your supplement essays why you are transferring. Because to be honest, Rice is just as good as all of those schools, and as you probably know, many Rice students turned down Ivies, Stanford, Caltech, etc. to come here. The “prestige” and “it’s always been my dream to go here” argument is not going to be very convincing in my opinion. </p>

<p>Anyway, good luck! It’s always a good thing to keep your options open. At this point, don’t worry about it, especially since everything is about to be submitted. You should be sure to continue giving Rice a chance though.</p>