Official Harvard 2011 Transfer Thread

Transfer Students
41

<p>Well poo on you guys, I’m posting my stats anyway! :)</p>

<p>Current School: A CC in Missouri </p>

<p>Major: meh, don’t really have one- if I actually do get in I’ll be working intensively with department heads to create an interdisciplinary major, which I expressed the desire to do in my essay, but I put my “intended field of specialization” as social studies</p>

<p>Entering as: Should be a Junior since I’ll have my AA, but I indicated Sophomore because I’d need extra time to create and then complete the requirements for an invented major</p>

<p>High School GPA: N/A (out of high school for 10+ years), GED score: 3410</p>

<p>College GPA: 4.0</p>

<p>SAT/ACT Scores: Oh, this is embarrassing- 1940! Yeah…I was deathly ill on test day, which just sounds like a pathetic excuse, so I didn’t even bother mentioning it…hopefully something else about me will seem compelling or amazing enough to get me in…? lol we’ll see I guess! Who really thinks the ability to squeeze out an essay or 20 answers to math questions in 25 minutes is an absolute indicator of someone’s potential anyway, right?? ;)</p>

<p>SAT II Scores: N/A</p>

<p>Significant ECs: Founding member of Honors Program at my CC, VP of Honors Student Council, Phi Theta Kappa member and volunteer, guitar player for local band, and proud mother of four</p>

<p>Hooks: I’m a non-traditional student, as you’ve probably surmised, and I have a pretty bizarre life story. Unfortunately I was only able to supply 2000 characters worth of it to the Harvard supplement, but…maybe that’ll leave 'em wanting more ;)</p>

<p>US/Intl: US</p>

<p>Given the fact that they only accept negative six applicants from the transfer pool, it’s a pretty long shot…not just for me, for anyone, you know?! That percentage is just depressing! But seriously, I’m not holding my breath but I had to at least give it my best shot. If I get rejected because I’m not the best applicant, that’s fine with me, as long as I know I did everything I could.
I just realized how afterschool-special that sounded…oh, well. :)</p>

<p>Anyway, I wish all of you the best of luck!! I don’t think it’s “showing off” to post your stats, and I was honest about my negative points, so I’m obviously not trying to get some kind of ego boost, lol. The deadline has passed, so it doesn’t matter, and we have a unique opportunity here to see at least a small portion of the applicant pool the Harvard adcoms will have to pick from, which is at least a fun way to stay engaged while we’re all glued to the edge of our seats for the next 2 1/2 months! So, I’d like to see yours if anyone else is willing to post them, but if not that’s cool, too. I wouldn’t mind some conversation though, if nothing else…refer to aforementioned edge-of-seat status</p>

<p>@BostonCrmPie- I got my confirmation as well. If you still haven’t gotten yours, I wouldn’t be too alarmed. They are slammed right now, and you sent in a paper app- those of us who got our confirmations surely all submitted online apps, which means they can send an auto-conf. Yours has to be physically located after being sorted from, I’m sure, a mountain of other mail Harvard is receiving right now. I know that I sent my offline school forms via snail mail QUITE some time ago and they’re still not showing up as “received” on Harvard’s application-status-check site.
Stay positive!
:)</p>

<p>*speaking of which, I stumbled upon “The Secret” a few weeks ago- I highly suggest we all make “vision boards” and set aside an inordinate amount of time each day to envision the arrival of our acceptance letters!!
hehehe</p>

42

<p>My SAT score is lower than yours…and we applied to the same concentration! ;)</p>

<p>Thanks for the reassurance. I’m really glad I sent transcripts and such ahead of time.</p>

43

<p>^Let me be clear, I have no issues with anyone posting their stats. It’s just something I don’t do.</p>

44

<p>I know they don’t explicitly require it, but did any of you send the midterm report? My GPA has marginally improved, so I’m considering sending it…</p>

45

<p>@BostonCrmPie- Oh no!! I feel like such a jerk now! I guess I should’ve warned- I suffer from perpetual foot-in-mouth disease, and it seems to be a terminal case. :wink: And I didn’t even realize we were applying for the same concentration- I don’t want you to see me as your “competition” or something! I was really hoping to make friends here, lol, we all have this stress-inducing goal and process in common, I just wanted some people to talk to about it!</p>

<p>Either way, shouldn’t see me as competition anyway. For one thing, I’m a non-traditional with a pretty checkered and bizarre background- I guarantee I’m a horse of a completely different color! If I even do make it into some kind of “to be considered” pile at Harvard, it would most likely be with a handful of other “weird” candidates, does that make sense? Your application, I’m guessing, would be evaluated against the other great and “normal” students’. And I made it pretty clear in my essays and short answers that I was only putting social studies for a lack of anything else that fit in with my goals- my real concentration would be an individualized program of study. </p>

<p>I really wish you the best of luck! </p>

<p>And I’m glad I could help ease your mind. I’ve heard that they’re still dealing with the freshman applicants, so we’ve got awhile to wait before we should even start being concerned about missing documents, etc. Did you leave an email address on your paper app, though? So that they will be able to start sending you electronic notification about your received material? I would hate to have to wait for ALL notification and reassurance by snail mail!!</p>

<p>@eyethink- no hard feelings! If I sounded rude at all, please refer to the perpetual-foot-in-mouth-disease comment above. :slight_smile: I would love to know more about my potential transfer peers, but if you don’t post that stuff that’s a personal decision, of course, and I meant absolutely no disrespect.</p>

<p>@Swaggerer- I am planning on sending my midterm report; I’m just waiting for my school to finish posting the official midterm grades. When I called a few weeks ago, the Harvard admissions department said to make sure they weren’t sent untill “official” midterm grades had been posted. So I would suggest not sending them until your school’s “official” midterm grades have come out, but when they do (if they haven’t already), I would DEFINITELY send them, ESPECIALLY given that they will demonstrate an improvement in your GPA!! That’s great! I’m really happy for you. I know they haven’t even begun reviewing the transfer files yet, so they’ll definitely get there in time to make an impact on your application, so kudos! That has to at least help ease your mind a little, eh? :)</p>

<p>I have a question about those, though- since they did say they wanted the offical grades, I was going to have my school just send out the collective midterm transcript, so to speak- so that would be sans-common app form. Does anyone know if that’s okay? Or are we required to send the common app one, filled out by our teachers and such? Also, if anyone happens to know anything about the midterm requirements for Cornell or Stanford, that would also be greatly appreciated.</p>

<p>Thanks to all, and again, good luck!</p>

46

<p>No worries chasethecarrot. As I’ve mentioned to BostonCrmPie, I don’t think any of us are competition. We’re all just fellow travelers. The adcoms are who we have to convince they can’t live without us. :slight_smile: </p>

<p>What school at Cornell are you applying to?</p>

47

<p>That’s a relief. :slight_smile:
I applied to the ILR college. And Cornell was pretty much the only school on my list that I hadn’t contacted, well, in the sense that I never gave them my name when I talked to them to ask logistics questions- but about a month before I submitted my app, I got a pamphlet and letter from ILR encouraging me to apply- is that considered recruitment or something? Isn’t that a good sign?
If that seems like an incredibly stupid question or something, I apologize, lol I’m really on my own here and there’s a lot about this process that I’m uneducated on.</p>

48

<p>I applied to ILR as well. Looks like WE ARE competition. ;-)</p>

49

<p>Lol, okay, gloves off, I’m taking you down!
;)</p>

<p>So what do you make of the mailing they sent me? Did you get anything like that from them?</p>

<p>Actually, that sparks a whole other topic- one that I would be interested to get some info on-
How many of you received “recruitment” stuff from schools, and where were they from? As I understood it, places like Harvard and Yale don’t do any recruiting, period, but I’d also heard that about all of the Ivies, so I was pretty surprised to see the letter from Cornell in my mailbox. Honestly, other than them I’ve only received paper mailings from places I’ve never heard of before. I’ve gotten emails from Sarah Lawrence, American U, Columbia, and a few others, but to me paper mailings seem more significant…</p>

<p>So, anyone wanna share their experiences/knowledge in this department?</p>

50

<p>LOL, chasethecarrot. I was just teasing. :slight_smile: I’m nontraditional in the other direction, so we shall see! </p>

<p>I stopped thinking seriously about “competition” after I kissed the last of my application materials goodbye. Just as eyethink said, we’re all the best of friends. </p>

<p>I also requested an email decision. I shudder just thinking about such otherworldly emails suddenly popping into my inbox, but it beats checking the mailbox. </p>

<p>(Oh, and Stanford doesn’t require a midterm report. It’s not on their instructions checklist or mailing labels.)</p>

51

<p>Oh yeah, and I got some generic automated emails from Columbia, another set of automated ones from Stanford chastising me from my procrastination, “come look at our pretty zombie-ready campus” ones from UChicago, and strangely, one from Duke. I think I signed up for all of their mailing list and forgot. :></p>

<p>Your letter sounds to be significant, but I don’t know enough about the bureaucratic nature of colleges to give you an answer.</p>

52

<p>@BostonCrmPie- I know what you mean about the email decision. None of the other schools I applied to had that option; I found it kind of odd that the biggest dog of them all would offer such a thing…but yes, when it starts getting closer to d-day I imagine I’ll be holding my breath to the point of blacking out every time I log in to my email account!! Lol</p>

<p>And thanks for the Stanford info! I still need to find out if my midterm report plans for Harvard will be okay…guess I should just call…if not I’ll have to wait until next week- I can’t even go around and get reports from each individual teacher because we’re on break right now.</p>

<p>As for the emails from schools- I was also chastised by Stanford, which I laughed at. The automated email was something along the lines of, “this is just to remind you that, as of today, we have not received the following materials, and the deadline is right now, you idiot:
Common Application
Payment
Supplements”</p>

<p>So basically, you sent me an email to remind me that I’m “missing” …uh…everything, lol. I couldn’t help but laugh. :)</p>

<p>I know the majority of email “recruitment” stuff I received was generic, automatically sent just because I’m in Phi Theta Kappa. But those paper mailings seem pretty cool…like I said, though, Cornell was the only significant one I received. Everything else in my mailbox has been from schools I’ve never heard of, and a couple of them didn’t arrive until two days after or three days before the application deadline for the school! Great planning on their part, eh? Lol you can’t want me THAT bad if you basically make it impossible for me to actually apply… ;)</p>

53

<p>You all are receiving recruitment materials from colleges as transfer applicants? Did you inform the particular schools that you’re interested in transferring? I highly doubt colleges would try to “steal” students from other colleges (e.g. Harvard emailing Cornell freshman/sophomores asking them to apply as transfer applicants).</p>

54

<p>I’m at a community college, so it’s pretty obvious that I have to transfer somewhere. Again, most of the emails I got seemed automated- sent because I’m a Phi Theta Kappa member (that’s the International Honor Society of the TWO YEAR College, so anyone who is a member is either finishing at the AA degree or will be transferring somewhere…). </p>

<p>But as far as the paper mailings, I think it had to do with the fact that I created a profile on Collegefish.org. My profile showed my 4.0 GPA, Phi Theta Kappa membership, etc., so if they WERE going to recruit transfers, that would be an excellent place to start. And like I said, I’ve received TONS of mailings (paper, even) from schools across the country, that seem like good schools and everything, but aren’t the “top” schools- Cornell was the only one that I received anything from that I’d actually heard of before (and not only that, but was actually already planning on applying to). I was surprised by that because I had heard that the Ivies don’t do recruiting, period, because…well, they don’t need to, duh. :)</p>

55

<p>@chasethecarrot LOL! I’ve accepted that the application process means falling down the rabbit hole (and never coming back up). </p>

<p>@SwaGGeReR I’m also a community college student. Everything I got was automated. </p>

<p>Some emails I got might have been due to the PSAT. Due to various circumstances, the colleges might be assuming that I’m a freshman applicant. Then again, my HS classmates were inundated with peeving emails and I was neglected despite scoring among the highest at my school. Who knows. :)</p>

<p>My college doesn’t have a PTK chapter. :(</p>

56

<p>^BAHAHAHA! Lately I’ve fallen down the College Confidential rabbit hole, too!! Anyone else becoming a total addict now that you’re just anxiously waiting on replies from schools??</p>

<p>I picked this screen name because it’s been kind of my theme for the last couple of years- I feel like I’m on a treadmill, with a stick taped to my back, dangling a carrot on a string in front of my face, JUST barely out of reach…and I can never catch it! runrunrunrunrunrunrunrunrunrun but I kinda feel like I’m never really getting anywhere lol. At least, that’s how it DID feel…I am happy to say that it’s finally starting to look like a future is approaching! There may not be an end of the tunnel in sight, but by george I think there’s a light up there somewhere! Lol</p>

<p>If I had to guess (which I don’t, but I will! haha), I would say your classmates might have gotten emails from schools because they created some kind of profile, too. I mean, just because that’s the only thing that makes sense, with you being in the top scorers at your school but not receiving anything while they did. When you take the PSAT you still register on the college board site, right? Did you ever create your college board profile? Personally, I screwed that up- apparently I started it at one point but never finished, lol, but I really think it’s like collegefish.org- schools know to look there and check stats for promising students. If schools were going to recruit students, surely they would want reliable sites to check for potentials, and they’re not going to go hunting all over the internet- but the college board site is a pretty safe bet.
Just a hunch, though, I could be wrong.
It REALLY sucks that your school doesn’t have a PTK chapter though! That is REALLY helpful in this process. If you have an interview or something maybe you should mention that you aren’t a member because your school didn’t have that option. Wait, if you do that they might ask you why you didn’t start a chapter for your school…okay, scratch that… okay, WAIT, even better- make some calls and try to get the ball rolling on starting a chapter at your school, THEN you can say you’re in the process of “establishing your school’s first ever PTK chapter” AND add that to your resume for any schools you haven’t applied to!!
or not. Lol I need a nap.</p>

<p>CAN I PLEASE GET AN ENVELOPE FROM A SCHOOL NOW?? I can’t stand waiting ALREADY and we still have months to go!!! I am slowly going crazy 1 2 3 4 5 6 switch…crazy going slowly am I 6 5 4 3 2 1 switch…</p>

57

<p>Has everyone received confirmation that Harvard has received your application?</p>

58

<p>Yes. I checked and Harvard received all my stuff. I sent my app in on the due date (if that helps in anyway).</p>

<p>When are you guys sending in your midterm reports? My grades seem to be pretty great at this point and I don’t want to wait any longer and risk doing worse. I just had a midterm and 8-page paper due that won’t be graded until 2 weeks from now probably… and I do not know if I did that great on them =(</p>

59

<p>@chasethecarrot</p>

<p>Urgh, I feel the exact same way. I don’t believe I created a college board profile. I went back and checked my percentile on the PSAT, and my score was among the best overall in the nation. How did I not do better on the SAT? :frowning: </p>

<p>Oh, and I’m part of the state honors society for community colleges. I suppose that’s why there’s no PTK, though it would be nice to have its application process benefits. </p>

<p>@smarts1 No, I mailed a paper app. It should have been received on the 3rd, so it should be waiting to be processed. </p>

<p>@thabxborough Since there’s no requirement, I didn’t feel the need to do so.</p>

60

<p>Ugh I sent my in like mid Febuary but they didn’t send me anything.</p>