<p>I'm applying to Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Stanford, Cornell and possibly a couple others as a junior transfer for either Fall or Spring 2006. Just posting a quick message to see who else is applying to these schools... hopefully we can keep in touch on CC over the year until admissions decisions start coming in!</p>
<p>I'm a bit apprehensive of applying because I'm a Canadian student who has not taken her SATs yet (will do so in January). Thus, it's tough to gauge how competitive I am...</p>
<p>I'm at Western right now on full merit external scholarship. I agree about your comments on partying at U of T... it goes the same at Western, as our reputation shows. But at least our schools rank at the very top of Canadian universities in terms of academics, research, etc. :) Which residential college are you at?</p>
<p>Also, do you know how the percentage system works in Canadian schools vs. GPA? My Dean said that UWO doesnt operate on GPA conversions.</p>
<p>I'm applying to Barnard College at Columbia for Spring '06 and probably Brown next Fall. Good luck on your SATs, adriana, and I hope everyone ends up where they want to be.</p>
<p>thanks justwondering! i havent done much research yet for columbia... (so far only for HYS) and its really naive but could you explain the process of applying to columbia: is it a centralized system or by individual college like at oxford?</p>
<p>rockofeller: why yale and stanford for sure before harvard and brown?</p>
<p>adriana86:
my reason for choosing Yale is that it has the best course offerings and professors in my chosen field (ancient history). In addition, the intellectual atmosphere on campus is vibrant and I like the idea of the residential college system. Stanford I choose because I love the area (My home is 20 minutes away), the weather, and the feeling on campus - it truly is a happy place to live.<br>
harvard, while having an excellent history department, does not offer the same quality of life I think I would experience at Yale or Stanford.
Brown has a great history department (on par with Yale!). However, the area in which it is located is a negative (as with Yale) and the student body does not emanate "world changing" individuals to me the way Yale, stanford, and harvard do. What led you to your application choices?</p>
<p>Barnard is the all girls' school of Columbia. There are 3 divisions of Columbia Universitythat I know of: Columbia College, the engineering school and Barnard. Barnard is attractive to me for many reasons: first, they're obviously focused on women doing well, which is always a plus; second, you take classes with Columbia students, can live with Columbia students, get a degree from Columbia, etc, so essentially you don't have to deal with the drawbacks of being at an all girls' school; third, the acceptance rate for transfers is slightly higher than Columbia's... it's still a very competitive school, but if you're fortunate enough to be a female, it increases your chances; finally, I have lots of friends at both Columbia College and Barnard, and apparently Barnard students get much better advisement throughout their experience at the University... Columbia College students, in general, don't get intensive advisement until they start their major. I know for certain that Columbia and Barnard's applications are separate, and I would assume the same is true for the engineering school, but I could be way off on that one. Barnard requires the standard transfer items (college and hs transcripts, SATs, essays, rec from dean/advisor, rec from prof, etc) as well as mid-semester reports, which aren't that big a deal... you just need to go to each of the teachers of the classes you're enrolled in at the time, and they fill out a small blurb about what grade they would give you based on your work so far and whatnot. Hope this helps!</p>
<p>Sweet deal adriana86, I'm also applying to Stanford and Cornell and I am also considering all those other schools you are applying to. I also have to take the SATs. Since the tranfer apps are do in March and I have no time to take the SATs anytime soon, its a one shot deal for me in Jan I think=</p>
<p>Thanks for the posts! That clears everything up about Barnard vs. Columbia... I'm looking into applying for both, thanks for your help! Although I'm not sure if I'd normally be too happy with living in an all-girls area, being in New York (where there are so many diverse and interesting people) makes all the difference.</p>
<p>Yeah the SATs situation is the same for me... just one shot, especially since
I'm a sophomore and this is my last chance to apply. CardinalFocused, how are you preparing for the SATs? I have major exams even until January before the term levels off so I've been trying to figure out a good timeline for prep. </p>
<p>I keep wondering how important Faculty Recs are. My school is huge and impersonal, so although I know my profs pretty well it's not like I had the chance to do research or interact with them significantly outside of the 200-800-person classroom.</p>
<p>Rockefeller, those are great reasons for choosing stanford and yale over harvard. in terms of location and setting:
personally, i like yale's residential set-up a lot too. at the same time, boston and new york are amazing to me! yale and harvard have great programs in my disciplines of choice. columbia has a great program in one of my two disciplines of choice, and other is very, very good.</p>
<p>i like harvard's core curriculum and course choice much better than pretty much all of the other schools. after visiting my friends there and sitting in on classes, i was just so happy with the academic situation there (while it's obvious that academics at harvard is top, i wanted to visit and find out first hand)... i'm not one who really feels stress, even in higher-tension situations such as speaking in front of thousands of people or going on tv... so i think that while i would feel "new types of work-related stress" at harvard, it is something i welcome because it is something new to overcome for greater inspiration academically.</p>
<p>yale's beautiful campus and vibrant social scene is definitely a huge factor in my decision to apply. i come a university consistently ranked with the best student experience in canada, and so the social and extracurricular scenes at prospective schools are major considerations. yale's programs are just so interesting and compatible with just about anything compared to my school. </p>
<p>i'm looking to leave my school because academically i am not challenged even close to as much as i hope to be. i've been seeking out academic challenges here and filling up my time with non-school activities but school itself hasn't been very difficult (perhaps because it's only been my freshman and sophomore years!)</p>
<p>applying itself will be a challenge... hopefully it'll all work out for us! GOOD LUCK!</p>
<p>I am applying at Harvard (Government and Philosophy major)
and Yale (Political Science and Philosophy)</p>
<p>Apart from obvious facts that these two unis are excellent in both of my fields of specialisation (Bureaucratic Politics, Legal Philosophy and Foreign Policy Analysis) they are the only ones of the Ivy group that offer financial aid for international transfers. If anyone else knows by any chance whether there are any other prestigious unis with financial aid for foreigners, please inform me!</p>
<p>Hi every body! I am also planning to transfer to Yale or Harvard. As you all said above, both schools are excellent. I am very intersted in chemical engineering; so both schools are good for me. As for the ACTs, I haven<code>t taken yet them but I will in Ferbruary. So, I have only one shot but I am only a freshman in college so I can retake them next year if I don</code>t make it this year.</p>
<p>Eh, Harvard and Yale don't impress me much anymore. I'm applying to Cornell as a Junior transfer for next fall, and with a little prodding I think I may as well apply to Brown. Brown was my first choice out of high school but right now Cornell is.</p>
<p>I'm pretty busy with school and extracurriculars as well. I think I'm going to cram up for the SATs over xmas break. If you don't get a 2400 on the Jan SAT, don't sweat it--I think people here on CC tend to overemphasize the importance of obtaining stellar standardized testing scores =]</p>
<p>Thanks for the comments... I'm also going to cram over the break for the SATs! GOOD LUCK!... which materials are you going to be using?</p>
<p>stamatis, a friend from my university is applying for the same combination of programs as you. i don't think she has a problem getting in for government and philosophy, having pretty much taken over the school and national/international ecs.. but then again, it seems much harder to enter as a transfer. i dunno if she's done her sats or not. </p>
<p>im applying for social science and maybe government. i hope there're some chances of becoming admitted there. are transfer students admitted based roughly on how many current harvard undergrads leave/drop out from the faculty that the transfers applied to?</p>
<p>My personal tutor is slightly skeptical of me transfering to a US school; not because the universities themselves are not good, but because she thinks I'll have similar chances of getting in for postgrad.</p>
<p>I also told her that I really like London (where I study now) and I am really excited about spending my next year at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations and interning for the Disarmament Committee of the Russian Academy of Sciences. - She responded that I should carefully consider before I apply.</p>
<p>I want to apply, mainly because I want to see what is going to happen; on the other hand, I really like what I'm doing here (UCL - University College London) but my uni's reputation is nowhere close to Harvard's, Yale's or Stanford's.</p>