Soph transfer to Yale?

Transfer Students
1

<p>I'm a sophomore at Georgia Tech right now, and I'm wondering how hard is it to transfer to an Ivy League school when you're a sophomore. Yale is the only place I'm considering.</p>

<p>Major: Biomedical Engineering
College GPA: 3.65
College Activities: Newspaper (news editor), Dance Marathon (events chair), Freshman Student Government, Christian Fellowship, TA for Freshman Orientation, Research
College Awards/Honors: Omicron Delta Kappa Freshman Leadership Award, President's Scholar, Dean's List, won the Carbon Reduction challenge and got to lobby the GA delegation of Senate (I'm one of the kids on the Admissions website), PURA research grant</p>

<p>High School GPA - 3.85
SAT - 1410, ACT - 32
High School Activities: Academic Bowl, Newspaper editor, fencing team captain
High School Awards/Honors: Not much.</p>

<p>What are my chances?</p>

2

<p>High reach for Yale. I believe their transfer admission rate was something around 4% last year.</p>

3

<p>I hate to be blunt, but I’m gonna go out and say that’s a flat out rejection.</p>

4

<p>Why would that be a flat-out rejection? His GPA isn’t the highest and his scores arent the best, but I don’t think that deserves a flat-out rejection :P</p>

5

<p>Well I’m pretty sure a high reach (hardly any chance) is basically the same as a flat-out rejection. In short, you really shouldn’t have much hope of getting accepted. Damn, I come off as kind of harsh here, huh?</p>

6

<p>Haha, high reach is still a reach ;)</p>

<p>It’s possible…</p>

7

<p>I guess you’re right. I’ve seen crazier things happen.</p>

8

<p>^indeed – thus, high reach. :)</p>

9

<p>The problem is that transfers into top schools are WAY more selective than for freshman entry. Looking at your stats Yale would have been a high reach for that alone, and with your GPA of only 3.65 I dont even think the application would be worth the money and the effort. You might stand a shot if you ace one more year and aim for junior entry.</p>

10

<p>I second Seiken. I’ve heard that to be a successful transfer applicant the minimum, unspoken GPA is 3.7 (realistically it’s more like 3.9).</p>

11

<p>^^^Agree with the last two posters. That 4% translates to from 20-30 transfer acceptances. And of those, you can be sure that sop transfers would have been Y material in HS and will have continued that path their freshman year. For jr transfers there is more room for those who show a marked improvement over their HS record.</p>

12

<p>Also, why would you want to do engineering from Yale? Its engineering programs aren’t as good as cornell or columbia…</p>

13

<p>^ And Georgia Tech is a great school for engineering. Remember that you’re really going to need to show a compelling reason as to why you want to transfer to that school.</p>

14

<p>my suggestion is to do well at Galtech… give a try at Yale only if you have a great reason (like wanting to change ur major…). Good luck!</p>

15

<p>“I hate to be blunt, but I’m gonna go out and say that’s a flat out rejection.”</p>

<p>As if Josh knows what the admissions people at Yale are looking for :P. After talking substantially with transfer students at Yale and the dean of transfer admissions, I can assure you that you’re not in that “flat-out rejection” category. Some of my fellow Yalie transfers had around a 3.7 GPA. I think it’s important you try and push it over the 3.7-3.8 hurdle, however, if not, I think it’s not necessarily grounds for rejection on its own. The transfers here (like many of the non-transfers) are generally people who have done really cool and interesting things. They tend to be very passionate about what they do. I think that speaks a lot louder than some arbitrary GPA cut off. That being said… unfortunately they -do- only take a handful each year… so every little advantage you can muster together helps. Good luck!</p>

16

<p>Would it be intrusive to ask you why you want to transfer?</p>

17

<p>A small extension of what Magi said – GPA is obviously important, but transfer admissions in some sense is less* about 4.0s and 2400’s and more based on what you’ve done and how well you present yourself. Especially as a junior transfer. </p>

<p>*- in comparison to freshman admissions.</p>

18

<p>True. In other words, you need a damn good reason to transfer. Emphasis on damn. And good.</p>

19

<p>^^^</p>

<p>Sort of.</p>

<p>I didn’t have a compelling reason other than I liked the social and academic environment of Yale.</p>

20

<p>From whence did dost transfer from Magi?</p>

<p>(Sorry for stealing your thread)</p>