<p>I'm thinking about transferring schools, but I'm not sure how plausible and/or how practical this is. I'm currently a freshman attending Rice University in Houston, Texas, and I'm doing okay. However, I often feel that I'm in the wrong place. I was thinking about applying to Yale and maybe a few others. My major is undecided and I haven't been extensively active in activities my freshman year. However, I'm fairly intelligent; my current GPA is 3.96 and my high school SAT's were 1580. When I was applying to colleges as a high school senior, I was wait-listed at Yale and Columbia and received a full Scholars scholarship to UCLA. I was also accepted into UCBerkeley & University of Chicago.</p>
<p>Please help!
:
-suggestions on places to transfer
-is it even worth it? (should i stick with rice? i.e. the differences in education and attention between schools)
-what are my chances of getting in? (i don't have a bunch of official activities/positions for my freshman year and am not really close to professors for recs)</p>
<p>you are kind of late, if you are a freshman you may want to wait a year, keep that gpa and then get in anywhere you want next year</p>
<p>If you don't like it any better a year from now then transfer. I would</p>
<p>What exactly don't you like about Rice? It's actually similar to Yale in many respects, including the house system. I don't think you'd get more personal attention at Yale either, given the size differences. If you do decide to transfer, be aware that it's very competitive- Yale admitted 24 transfers out of more than 600 applicants last year.</p>
<p>Here's an article you might want to read.
<a href="http://www.dukechronicle.com/media/paper884/news/1994/06/02/388550/To.Stay.Or.Not.To.Stay.A.Sophomore.Considers.Transferring-1438798.shtml?%5B/url%5D">http://www.dukechronicle.com/media/paper884/news/1994/06/02/388550/To.Stay.Or.Not.To.Stay.A.Sophomore.Considers.Transferring-1438798.shtml?</a></p>
<p>I know the house system is similar... I guess a main issue is quality of education and environment. Clearly, I don't go to Yale so I can't really judge the differences in how great the education is, and I know there are good/bad professors everywhere, etc. I think that the education may be better though, when it has more resources and expectations that do come with the name. Environment-wise, I really like the East Coast feel. I don't know if other people would agree, but I feel like there are differences in the attitudes and characters of people from different regions. I was raised in the East Coast, and I feel a bit out of sync here in the south. It's kind of lame, but the feel of the people and the setting (having four seasons) actually makes me happy. Also, I feel that in a place like Yale people around me would be more motivated and enthusiastic in their studies, more prevalent than here at Rice. I've heard that students there do what they love and love what they do, without that cutting edge of competition. I'm pretty sure there's more diversity and social awareness too, which is something I crave. </p>
<p>Anyone who knows more about this or is an authority with Yale/Rice, I'd really appreciate your views.</p>
<p>Wow. I always thought Rice was one badass school that was nearly at par with the Ivies.</p>
<p>If you are really unhappy at Rice, I'd at least give a few other colleges a try; is it Yale and only Yale that you are interested in, however? What about some other Ivies like Dartmouth, Penn, Cornell, etc? And, how about some lac's like Williams and Amherst? Just a thought.</p>