Should I even dream about Ivy Transfers?

Transfer Students
1

<p>Hi, I am currently a freshman at Duke University looking to transfer to Stanford,Harvard,Yale,UPenn and UChicago.Im an engineering major, but I am switching over to economics next semester.</p>

<p>My problem is that I have a GPA of 3.5, basically because of the hard sophomore level classes I have been taking.Also,though I was involved in a lot of strong EC's in school(some of them at a national level),I havent done any in college-replacing them with 3 jobs that take up around 10 hours of my time every week.</p>

<p>Another problem is that I slacked off in the last months of school (stupid thing to do,I know..),which resulted in my GPA crashing from a 4.0 to a 3.3, and me ending up with a rank of 52 in a graduating class of 120. </p>

<p>Is it still possible for me to get in to these colleges, considering that I had previously applied to all of them in highschool, but got rejected from all?</p>

2

<p>You don't have a very good chance without any extra curriculars (though working counts for a lot) and being rejected so recently. Was your final high school gpa a 3.3??
Listen, cc opinions should not determine what you do or do not do. If you feel like you REALLY wnat to get out, work on making a great application, and if you dont get in to where you want, be a great student, enjoy your time, and try again next year or make the best of what you have :)</p>

3

<p>Harvard, Yale, and Stanford will be very tough (they accept few transfers), likely not happening. Chicago will happen (but why transfer, Duke in my opinion is better and as connected if not moreso), and Penn is a maybe.</p>

4

<p>You got rejected from Chicago but accepted to Duke? Do you live in Bizarro World?</p>

<p>Chicago's retention rate is really low, so I assume you'd get in there (why anyone would want to go there, especially over Duke, is a mystery to me). Stanford took about 5% last year, so don't get your hopes up there. You should still apply there if you really want to go. The worst thing that can happen is that they laugh at your application and reject you. H and Y take few transfers, but again, apply there if that's where you really want to go. Penn I don't knwo about.</p>

<p>My advice is to stay where you are, because you won't find a place much better than Duke (except Brown, of course).</p>

5

<p>I'd like to say that Chicago is not THAT easy to be accepted to, in spite of the numbers. Their SAT scores are very high, and they put more emphasis on essays than just about anything else, so it is possible for someone to have a weaker application to UChicago than to other schools. They accepted 27% of students for transfer, making it comparable to Brown. That being said, a 3.5 GPA from Duke with upper-level classes is not THAT bad of a GPA, and even ivies (minus HYPS) will consider you.</p>

<p>Clearly the above poster was focusing on party-scene when determining how good schools are.</p>

6

<p>Not quite, ecape, I just wouldn't want to go to a school where everyone eats breathes and sleeps school. Chicago has a rep for being the place where fun goes to die and where the library's always packed on a Saturday night. Not my idea of a good college environment. I'd rather go to a college where I can get a great education AND have fun. The two aren't mutually exclusive.</p>

7

<p>I agree. </p>

<p>How about Brown? (Although I still don't get why you would want to leave Duke that badly).</p>

8

<p>rockofeller- my final GPA wasnt a 3.3,only the last semester one.</p>

<p>slipper,brown - the main reason im thinking about transferring is because of the social scene-there's just too much emphasis on basically getting drunk over the weekend.I guess im not into that kind of fun:(</p>

<p>edit- My GPA just went up to a 3.7-I got a A- in a course i expected a B at.Does that change anything?
Also,its not like I havent participated in EC's as such,I just dont have any leadership positions to show for them...</p>

9

<p>I think you will be okay, its hard to become a leader immediately. The 3.7 will be a big boost. I still think Stanford, Harvard, and Yale are such a crapshoot for transfers depending on the year that its impossible to predict. You never know.</p>

<p>You will likely be in good shape for Penn and Chicago. Be aware that drinking on the weekends is a part of any school. I actually transferred out of Columbia because I realized that even in the city that is what 90% of the people did, except now they were paying for it. </p>

<p>Also, Penn has a heavy drinking culture (it and Dartmouth are the party Ivies) so I wouldn't imagine it to be that different. You may find Brown more to your taste.</p>

10

<p>Brown has a lot of parties for an ivy. UChicago is a pretty party-free school. I imagine Cornell would also have fewer parties.</p>