Stanford University Fall 2019 Transfer Thread

Colleges and Universities A-Z Stanford University
21

Hey, my name is Alexis and I’m a super sophomore at a California Community College (CCC)! Here are my stats:

Academic Stats:

CC GPA: 3.89

After these next two semesters I’m hoping it’ll go up to 3.93. So:

Possible CC GPA: 3.93

SAT: 1530

Member of my school’s Honors Program, completed 5 classes in Honors and both of my transfer degrees will be Honors degrees

Classes in honors:

International Relations (POLSC)
-I took this work to UC Berkeley and presented “Democracy for Which It Stands: Linking the Flaws within Democratic Systems That Facilitate Destabilization and Terrorism within the Global South.” in May of 2018. This paper will be published next year.

Political Science Research Methods (POLSC)
-Project on Political Tribalism, work in progress!

Ethnicity and Culture in America (SOCIO)
-Project: “Arab After 9/11”
Introduction to Western Religions (HUMAN)
-Project: “A New Age of Spiritualism: Eastern Religion in Western Society”

World Regional Geography (GEOG)
-Project: “Boundless: Political Geography in the Age of the Internet”

  • Member of Phi Theta Kappa Honors Society
  • Member of Sigma Chi Eta Honors Society

Activities:
Associated Students of Modesto Junior College Vice President 2018-19
Associated Students of Modesto Junior College Director of Political Development 2017-18
Associated Students of Modesto Junior College Senator 2016-17
Member on the Pathways Implementation Team MJC
-This is a group where I sit alongside our College President’s and VP’s to make decisions for our college according to state policy
Liaison to the MJC Academic Senate
2016-2017 Member of the MJC Instruction Council
MJC Freedom Forum 2016-2019
Patterson Progressive Alliance
United Patterson (Education Initiative)
Keynote Speaker: Hispanic Education Conference 2018
-One of the 5 Members of the first ever all Latina Executive Council at MJC
Student Director of the California Pathways Initiative under the Chancellor of CCC’s Office
Church Involvement, 15 years at Calvary Baptist at youth, college, and women’s groups

Work Experience:
2 Years at TEACO Amusements, a traveling carnival company
2 years of seasonal work for Fantozzi Pumpkin Patch and Corn Maze
2 years at Pilot Flying J’s as a cook and cashier
1 year working for Josh Harder, a congressional candidate in CA-10, as a field organizer. (after primaries I became a volunteer instead)
1 year working for my college’s library (current)

Currently working for the Governor of California as a Board Member on the California Community College’s Board of Governors, deciding policy for California’s Community Colleges. I am the student board member for the next two years. Governor Brown chose me out of hundreds of applicants after many interviews and I was very recently sworn in.

Volunteer Work:
Taught English in Bali, Indonesia for a month and a half in the summer of 2017.
2 College Fundraisers for the MJC Foundation a year
Voter Registration
Volunteer for a Congressional Campaign
Children’s Sunday School

Possibly notable High School Activities:
Tennis
Basketball
ASB all 4 Years
Theatre
Art
Started selling art

Recommendations:
1 honors professor
My honors director
(Optional Rec) Dean for my Division

Certifications & Awards:
-MJC Leadership Award 2017-18
-Project LEAD certificate
-Honors
-Communication Studies

  • Ethnic Studies
  • First place at the Stanislaus State Art Show
    -Soroptimist Violet Richardson award
    -CETEC Google Entrepreneur Challenge, 2nd Place
  • Faculty Emeritus Scholarship
  • Charles Mullins Memorial Scholarship

I have no idea how I’m going to fit everything into one application, but I will die trying LOL, a little info about me~

I came to CCC right after High School and this is my 3rd year. I’m getting my AA-T in Political Science and Geography with certificates in Ethnic Studies and Communications. I have been in leadership for 3 years, 2 of which I spent working on Pathways at my college (California CC’s are undergoing many changes). My experience in this led to me being chosen by Governor Brown to represent 2.1 million college students. I now sit on the Board of Governors. I’m on lots of committees and volunteer. I go to school full time and I usually maintain 1 or 2 jobs outside of that and leadership because I come from a low income background. I am Cherokee (my grandparents lived on a reservation and I have an ID card) and Mexican, my dad came to the US when he was 12. I am not first generation, my mom got her BA, but I’ll be the first to get anything beyond that when I do (which I so will, because I LOVE school)! I want to get my BA in International Relations and Masters in either Security Studies or Democracy Studies and PhD, well I’ll decide when I get there. I love to write and research so I want to do that forever, get involved in public policy, get published, and beyond. I can’t speak another language (my parents didn’t want me learning Spanish because they wanted me to fit in more) but I’m working on Persian. I can’t wait to freak out together <3

22

@Faexpopuli presumably that would mean you don’t have as long in college, so those tests would mean more.

23

Dear @mjr2013,

I first want to thank you for all the assistance you have given previous years of Stanford Transfer Applicants. We who populate the Stanford University Fall 2019 Transfer Thread are lucky to have you with us along for the journey!

If you have time, I have several questions about the transfer process. My questions start general and get steadily more individual.
  1. I read somewhere that previous transfer students are invited to offer input as to the makeup of the next year's accepted transfer students. Is that true? And if it is true, what are transfer students looking for (in your year or in general)?
  2. Among fellow, future, and past transfer students, (and yourself!) how was the prompt: Please provide a statement that addresses your reasons for transferring and the objectives you hope to achieve, approached? (ie. imaginatively, straight forward, optimistically, ect. Did you write about only the specifics of transferring, spin a story, or talk about something else entirely?)
  3. How accepting is Stanford to someone taking time away from university to get mental health under control? In your opinion, would talking about a struggle with mental health in the application be detrimental to someone’s chances at getting in?
  4. I also read somewhere that there is only one, student accepted from a UChciago type institution per transfer year. Is there any validity for that statement? And if so, if you know a student like that, and they don’t mind you informing us, could you share their reasons for transferring?
  5. Finally, I am applying to Stanford with the intent of studying marine biology (hopefully at the Marine Hopkins Station) as my school is in the center of the country with no degree for those wanting to pursue the marine sciences. As soon as I found out about the amazing marine biology programs Stanford has to offer I knew I would fall in love with the school fast and hard. However, I also learned about the statistics and now know that my odds of being accepted are very, very low. I just wanted to know if there have been any other students transferring to Stanford with the same intent? If so, could you share more about them?

Please don’t feel obligated to answer all the questions; once I got writing the words just poured out of me. Thank you so much, I am sorry for the onslaught of questions!

24

@waterperson Thanks for reaching out, happy to help.

  1. It's not really true, no - it's only the AdCom making the decision. With that said, many of us meet the AdCom rep for our area over coffee or tea, because it's such a small percentile. Typically, each rep may only have 0-3 transfers from their region accepted. I was the only one accepted from my region my year. They care how we do at Stanford, and they remember our applications, so to some extent I could see our success (or lack thereof) influencing future classes, but not directly.
  2. I haven't spoken with other transfers about the prompt, but I answered it pretty directly - my path from graduating high school to going to community college to seeking transfer after gaining an Associate's, and what I wanted to get at my transfer institute. I don't think there is a "right" answer here, it's a personable question you should tailor to yourself.
  3. To the first part, a person having mental illness, or taking time off for mental health, in and of itself will not detract from an applicants worth. If grades tanked due to mental health, I could see that being a different story, in that they'd want to see improvement. It will be read basically identically to having physical health issues (as it should).

With regards to mentioning it on the application, it all depends on how you frame it. Most any application advisor would probably tell you to steer away from it because the application is your only chance to sell yourself and an essay like that (mental or physical health issues) can easily turn to you focusing on what hasn’t gone great rather than what you would bring to your new university. Now with that said, in my opinion those advisors will steer you away from it because, to be honest, that essay is harder than the prototypical essay. If you can frame it in a way to categorize your strengths and demonstrate your value to the transfer institution, then go for it. It’s just tricky.

  1. To some extent it is true. The bulk of the transfer class the last few years have been community college students, but there are always one or two top 25 transfers a year. I know of one from Harvard my year and one from Cornell this year. There are likely one or two more. While I don't know either of them well enough to know their exact reason, I can promise it went beyond, "Stanford has a better CS program than is offered here" (i.e. #1 rather than #3).
  2. The same exact intent - no I do not. But there are students who study a lot of various programs for a lot of various reasons, and I would tell you what I tell everyone considering applying to transfer - forget the stats, and give it a shot. While yes, only 26 or however many are accepted yearly, we do exist. If I had listened to the people who said you'll never get in, I wouldn't be typing this in a Stanford dorm right now. You never know unless you apply.

Hope that helps.

25

@mjr2013 Your reply and kind words of encouragement absolutely blew me away. Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions and pass on your wisdom. Stanford is lucky to have you!

26

Thank you @waterperson ! Best of luck to you!

27

Hey everyone! I will also be applying for Fall 2019! I am a freshman at a pretty good LAC with pretty good grades but hope my mediocre high school record doesn’t drag me down haha. Best of luck to everyone!

28

I suppose Stanford does not accept Junior transfer. But indeed they take a small number of transfer applicants and most of them are from either CC or athletics

29

@logen123 Stanford does accept Junior transfers.

30

`@mjr2013 Okay sorry for that! I thought most schools do not accept transfer students. What is your plan for this year?

31

@logen123 All good, just wanted to make it clear. I’m still in school here. I was accepted as Junior, but will take three years to complete. Partially my own choice (soaking it up), partially degree requirements.

Almost all schools take at least some transfers now. Princeton hadn’t for a while, but re-instated their program last year. I can’t think of any schools off the top of my head that don’t take any, though I’m sure they probably exist.

32

@mjr2013 Cool! So you currently study at Stanford for what major?

33

Really want to ask you some questions! I really really want to transfer there for my sophomore year :slight_smile: Hope can get some useful advice from you!

34

@logen123 I’m studying Psychology. Feel free to PM me.

35 
Hi everyone, first post on this discussion. I am currently a freshman at my community college. I've been wanting to apply to Stanford for transfer for a really long time now and I have a few questions. But first some backstory to my question. I originally went to community college because of how I had bad grades in high school senior year, before that, I had straight A's. The reason I got bad grades my senior year was that my dad was hospitalized multiple times in critical condition during college application season. This affected my work ethic and took a hit on my SAT studies, AP class grades, scholarship, college applications and working at the same. It was especially hard because my family is very poor and I have two siblings, one with autism and one with down syndrome who need attending going to school in the mornings (something my dad usually helped my mom with). This happened during my first semester grades (Fall 2017), which were the grades that would be sent to schools I had applied to. My grades were horrible including an F and C's and D's, I sent emails trying to explain my grades and situation. I don't know if any of the schools got the emails. By the time college results came back, I was disappointed to find I was rejected or waitlisted by mostly every school. By then my dad was out of the hospital and back to his routine. With my family situation getting worse I decided to attend community college with hopes of perfecting my grades at a community college and hopefully applying as a rising sophomore to transfer schools including Stanford University. 

 A few weeks ago my dad once again was hospitalized and this time did not survive, he passed away. Due to the issues that surrounded my family again, this time around my grades once again took a hit and was forced to drop 3 out of 5 classes I was taking this fall (my community college only allows max 5 classes). My main concern now is that I will not have enough classes or grades to be able to back me up in a college transfer application, much less to apply to Stanford transfer no matter my extracurriculars. I am very disappointed that I might have to consider going to community college another year here because my mom wanted us to move after going to school here one year.

In conclusion,

Should I even consider applying to Stanford for transfer this year with grades for only 2 classes here at my community college?

Let’s say going a second year here at my community college was ruled out, what option would there be for going to another school?

In short, I really don’t want to keep living here nor going a second year here at my local school, neither does my mom. And I really like Stanford. What should I do?

Sorry if this was long or something I wrote might have been confusing, there is a lot more that’s happened then what I wrote.

Id also appreciate if you could give some feedback @mjr2013

Thank you

36

Hi @affinity79 -

First of all, I’m truly sorry to hear about your father. It sounds like you’ve been through a lot in these last couple years, and I give you a lot of credit for your perseverance to attending higher education. A lot of people in your situation would find it much easier to call it quits on their aspirations, and that you haven’t is admirable.

To answer your specific questions - I don’t believe Stanford would admit you at this time. This is not a mark against you, your situation, your grades, or anything at all. It is a note that there are 2,200+ persons applying to transfer to Stanford every year. What you have told us within this post indicates to me you probably would have no issue overall with the coursework here at Stanford. With that said, the lack of consistency would be concerning to an AdCom that is looking to find the 1-some % of applicants they’re going to admit.

MAJOR CAVEAT - I think you sound like a fantastic candidate for Stanford and all top-tier schools, and I think a semester or year of work back at those underclassman high school years would make you a competitive applicant, depending on the entire body of work of course. I just think right now, there is so much going on that you would be perceived as a risk, if they were to add even more change to that.

I really don’t want to discourage you from pursuing your dreams. I think a lot of what you’ve described was actually pretty similar to myself one year out of high school. I had a 3.2 in HS (As in 9th, As and Bs in 10th, Cs in 11th, and Ds by 12th), was dropping more difficult community college classes, had significant family issues. I barely knew up from down, and I’d be happy to give you the details in PM. With this said, if I had applied to transfer to Stanford at that point in my life, I would have been rejected, and I wouldn’t have been ready for that kind of change anyway. Four years later, I was, Stanford saw it, and I was accepted.

To your point about not wanting to stay at your local college - by what you’ve wrote, your high school grades should be good enough to be admitted to a state school, no? I don’t believe many schools will evaluate you harshly on your first semester of college. Lots of people struggle with that transition. They will mostly look at your high school stats. If you line up, you should be admitted without issue. Granted, finances could be an issue with a state school.

Please let me know your thoughts on what I’ve written here, either in reply or in PM. I truly hope it doesn’t discourage you because that is not at all the intent. It sounds like you are smart, have been through a lot, and could be a fantastic candidate, at the right time.

-Matt

37

@mjr2013 do u have any tips for transfer applicants majoring in biology. I am a CCC student and will apply as a sophomore transfer, my gpa is alright, but I have a lot of ECs. I know stanford is a competitive school, but i’m applying anyways

38

Yo guys, I also plan on applying to Stanford as a transfer. So it looks to me that Stanford likes to pick wild cards. What makes a good wild card lol?

39

Hi! Does anyone know if Stanford requires you to be a full time student at the time of transferring?

40

Hi! @mjr2013 I am NOT yet another another applicant trying for my luck to Stanford.IT IS MINE.I BELONG THERE.That’s my heart says all time whenever I listen or see word “Stanford”.Looks like an idiot?Ya!
Anyway,I am happy and feel lucky that there is someone who I can put as standard and talk to!
I am a student from India.I currently read in a private college.I am sophomore pursuing Computer Science.
My Stats:-
SAT 1490(CR+W 700 MATH 800)
ACT 36(All sections Perfect 36)
TOEFL 120
IELTS 9
SAT physics 650
SAT math 2 670
HS GPA:-3.2
COLLEGE GPA:-4.0(on US gpa scale on my college level 99.2%)
CS course load is pretty much heavy and science coursework equivalent to Stanford required and A+ in all courses(except one in humanity A)
Recommendation Letters
Academic letters are brutally honest just indicating my academic capability
Personal letter written is written by my uncle indicating my story
Professional Letter:-When I worked at orphan child help centre indicating my work ethic
Essays(Writing Section):-Are just being nailed
College Report:-Am almost sure that my instructor will grade me perfect on most areas(Let’s be it!Hope)
ECs:-
Did not choose too many I know because they value quality not quantity.
1.Worked in orphan children NGO
2.Was senior instructor at Yoga class(That’s quite interesting will explain latter)
3.Worked at Anti-Dowry organisation
4.Gave free tuition to needy children at an non profit org.
5.Worked as Head team strategy planner at my local soccer club and led an group for anti-reservation system in education.(Also has started a blog aiming for quality)
I know these ECs may not appear as “World Class” but these are the most burning topics in a developing country like India and I utilised sources that I had.

MOST IMPORTANT:-MY STORY
I belong to a village.Here(generally in most of India) Education is valued more than sports,ECs or something creative.Quite right though because india is “relatively very new” democracy as compared to US so earning and survival is most important thing.I grew up in village there.I was quite extraordinary as compared to my peers at academics(Here considered everything/most important).Basically they called me “Einstein” of my area.I was called “mini supercomputer” because I was very good at math.Whenever we played cricket(most famous sport in India) they asked me all the time scores.I was very happy.I topped all grades with svoring 99% in my every grade.All people considered that this guy is gonna big someday.In 10th grade I stood 5th in my whole state scoring 99.2% among half million candidates.I dreamt to get in IITs(Most prestigious colleges in India).THEN CAME STORM WHICH CHANGED MY LIFE FOREVER.
I was diagnosed with schizophrenia.I fell in depression.I was afraid going outside home my hands trembled my heartbeat flew away to 200/min always.I hoped maximum for survival let alone scoring in HS and getting admission into IITs.But it taught me every lesson of life which most don’t learn in lifetime.But I am not gonna discuss that there but will write in my common app essays.Thats why my HS GPA fell to 3.2 and I gave entrance exam for iit but failed it(which was totally expected).I recovered fully when I graduated from high school.My mom was biggest support from childhood for me.She sacrificed everything for me.She then advised me to take a year or two gap and explore humanity and mathematics and physics as she revealed deeply how science is related to intellectual vitality and universal order.I was criticised for this decision by my community and everybody said you are finished.But my mom backed me and I did research on human behaviour and explored math and physics and wrote articles and also obtained research paper.Then after two year gap I again gave entrance exam(after one year you can not apply to IITs but apply to state colleges) and ended getting seat in my area famous college.I then started my Computer Science education pretty seriously as I had always tech start up enthusiasm (My heart had a “Mini Bill Gates”) and then I researched online for my startup dream as I wanted to prove myself again and then I learnt that you can apply for US colleges as a transfer applicant.THATS WHERE MY LOVE WITH STANFORD STARTED.As I learnt about it being a tech hub university since then I started preparing to apply.Although I wanted to apply as a freshman transfer but my dean adviced me to apply as a sophomore as then I would have pretty much CS area experience and cover up my low HS gpa(I first time in my life accepted someone’s advice lol) which I now not regret pretty much.I gave standardized tests and scored and scored good but not on sat subject tests but I have quietly researched that they matter very less.So I have prepared and will write my story in essay and the CS coursework has been pretty heavy but I am now ready.I from day one have a VERY STRONG feeling that I will get admitted.But it is Stanford!I will have many compettors literally geniuses but I am hopeful yet.
NOTE:-I am currently working on an my CS coding skills and have strong idea in Artificial Intelligence for startup which will NOT be JUST ANOTHER APP but a gamechanger.
I hope I get admitted!Let’s hope so.I wish everyone here best of luck.
So what are my chances according to you? I know it’s tough but…You are like gold standard here as you passed this “Biggest Hurdle” Mr. mjr2013!