<p>It's a common statement from the high-class schools (Ivy-league level) that they will consider the reason for transferring as much as the excellence of the applicants. If that's truly the way it sounds, then doesn't this mean that the students who want to transfer to an Ivy League from another Ivy will probably have the same or less chance than those who want to transfer from a generally less known school? This is my analysis:</p>
<p>Ivy League schools (and pluses), however related and grouped they are, are essentially at the similar level, except maybe for HYP and MIT/Stanford whose brand values are pretty up there. If so, then a student from say, Yale, will have probably a quite shallow basis for transferring to say, Harvard, since the student will have a similar level of education, faculty, prestige, and so on.</p>
<p>So this is my conclusion: saying that transfer will be hard because of the applicants from already prestigious schools seems pretty illogical, unless there is some secret business going on between the Ivy League. Moreover, I don't think there are that many students transferring from such schools since these schools generally provide above-satisfactory experience for the freshmen applicants anyways. The students would hardly want to take the hassle of making another application and moving to another place.</p>
<p>But these are just my thoughts. What do you say? Please discuss in an elaborate manner. :D</p>
<p>Because the population of transfers is so small (except, I guess, at Cornell), it’s really hard to know unless, like the admissions office, you actually have the data.</p>
<p>But I know this much. When I was a senior at Harvard, I roomed with two transfers. One was a pre-med biochemistry concentrator who had come from University of Michigan. The other was an economics concentrator who had come from Williams. It isn’t a lot of data, but it doesn’t really support the lesser-known school hypothesis.</p>
<p>Actual data: D1 was a soph transfer to Y. In her 3 years there, most transfers came from other selective privates, top publics, military academies and Deep Springs. Sure there were some exceptions, but that did not include any transfers from CCs. I will add one more thing about transfers to Y that D1 noticed and I have seen the past couple of years here on CC, a fair number of Intl. transfer students.</p>
<p>I personally know someone who was a fr at H and it didn’t fit him well, he took a year off and then transferred to S which he liked much more. While there obviously aren’t large differences between selective privates academically, there are other differences that an applicant can address.</p>
<p>S is somewhat different from HY from what I’ve seen here on CC in that it appears that a fair number of their transfer class are NT and CC students.</p>
<p>entomom, thank you for your data, but can you please elaborate on these international transfer students if you know anything about them? Like, the estimated number and the countries/region they were from, etc… Coincidentally I’m an international transfer applicant for 2013 Fall transfer. :P</p>
<p>You really need to work on your english, a lot of what you said wasn’t very clear.</p>
<p>Transferring to an ivy is incredibly hard, not only because they require extremely high gpa (college and highschool) and sat scores, but because they also look at the academic level of the college you went to. A 4.0 at an unknown university is not the same as a 4.0 at a top university, this is why transfers who went to top universities have a advantage over others, assuming all other factors are equal.</p>
<p>^ I went to an “unknown” college (not in the top 100), and got accepted to Columbia College with a 3.67 college GPA and 3.44 HS GPA. Also, my SAT score was 2150.</p>
<p>melody10511 - I can tell you first-hand that Ivy transfer is more complex than just the school you come from. Do your best on every part of the application and hope for the best! You are welcome to message me if you have further questions.</p>
<p>Mandy: thank you for sharing your experience. I love columbia and its definitely up there among the schools I dream of going to. If you don’t mind answering one trivial question, hows the dorm system in columbia compared to other schools?</p>
<p>Walter: I think you just got derailed by the replies. The point of OP is that if the motive of transferring is as valuable as the excellence of the student, then the already-ivy students might have not a very greater chance of getting in since they probably have a shallower reason for transferring from an already prestigious and accommodating school. But of course this is just a speculation.</p>
<p>The “already-ivy” students who want to transfer will have reasons other than prestige. Each Ivy or t25 school is very different from the other, a person who was at harvard may have developed a love for finance and want to transfer to wharton at UPenn, someone who’s at yale may have developed a love for computer science and entrepreneurship and thus would want to transfer to stanford. I honestly doubt anyone would state “prestige” as their reason for transfer.</p>
<p>Transferring from a top school to another top school is easier, not harder, compared to transferring from a unknown school to a top school.</p>
<p>Among the schools cited (from which the transfers came): Deep Springs, Brown, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, Clark, McGill (woot! :P), Pontificia Universidad (in Chile).</p>
<p>I was recently accepted to Dartmouth from a Community College. The OP has some validity, however, I also agree with the assumption being made about applicants coming from top-notch schools. </p>
<p>With so few transfers being accepted at most of the Ivies, it really comes down to an individuals circumstances, experiences, and articulated future plans. </p>
<p>For me, the only option I realistically had was starting at a Comm. College. I doubt my attending there “helped” me, but it must not of hurt me either. This is only opinion though.</p>
<p>That’s awesome glozzy. Did you really hope to get in there or was it somewhat out of nowhere and totally unexpected?</p>
<p>calgirl, well, Harvard is quite a unique case since the admitted body is so small that it’s pretty much impossible to generalize anything.</p>
<p>Walter: prestige was just an example. Obviously, if they were admitted to top schools, they wouldn’t be so stupid as to state some dubious and shallow reasons. But I think their reasons won’t be as urgent or heartfelt as those in less renowned schools. This is just a personal comment though, and the admission officers might think quite differently, especially if they’re more on “We’d obviously want to have a HYP student in our school!” rather than, “This student is really caged in a limited education. He will be a much greater person in our school.”</p>
<p>Besides, UPenn and Cornell have pretty big transfer body, so I doubt admitting a few HYP students would hurt others’ chances greatly. Yale to Stanford might be a little harder in my opinion.</p>
<p>Yeah, Stanford seems to be the most unpredictable Ivy-level school according to the data I gathered in CC. Well, I wouldn’t know until I apply. :P</p>
<p>I’m transferring to Penn, a relatively friendly uni but still around 10%, and although my stats were average for the freshmen at Penn I’d say what really got me in were my essays. They gave me 3 opportunities to really tell them who I am; so definitely dont blow off the essays, but also dont give them something you think they want to hear. Everyone applying to these schools are “perfect” people on the page, and I believe sometimes it’s stronger to show them that you acknowledge your faults than to highlight your accomplishments. Dont take this as a “must”, but be creative with your essays and definitely dont make it about being the perfect student for reasons x, y, and z. It might be better for you to recognize that you aren’t perfect. To sum it up…ESSAYS ARE KEY</p>
<p>^ UPenn was supposed to be one of my reaches until I found out they require specific courses to be taken prior to transferring to SEAS and Engineering. I barely meet the course requirements, so I doubt they would let me in when they probably have thousands of applicants who have completed the course requirements. I’m sad. :(</p>
But I think their reasons won’t be as urgent or heartfelt as those in less renowned schools. This is just a personal comment though, and the admission officers might think quite differently, especially if they’re more on “We’d obviously want to have a HYP student in our school!” rather than, “This student is really caged in a limited education. He will be a much greater person in our school.”</p>