<p>What do you guys think of transferring from Columbia College to Harvard/Yale? Obviously there is a slight lay prestige/grad school placement boost, but such a move would come at the cost of friends/relationships made at Columbia as well as loosing access to the City and unfinished parts of the Core Curriculum, but would allow the student to get more that traditional college feel/experience life in the residential house/college system.</p>
<p>Thoughts?</p>
<p>No, don’t transfer. Giving up NYC, new friends and the core curriculum for a residential house/college system is not what I would call reason enough. Unless you really on’t like it at columbia, don’t transfer. Figure out which school is the best academically.</p>
<p>yale has a 2.5% acceptance rate for transfers and I know Harvard has gone years without accepting a single transfer. firstly very few students actually transfer out of Columbia and when they do, it is to get a completely different college experience by going to a school like dartmouth. </p>
<p>Transferring definitely has its pains, so transfer if you are seriously unhappy at Columbia, there isn’t that much to gain from going to yale/harvard vs. columbia. </p>
<p>Are you a prospective or current student?</p>
<p>i think you should be realistic here about how unlikely the transfer might be.</p>
<p>that being said, i forget who it is on here, but he transferred from columbia to dartmouth, and doesn’t regret it (not for ill-will towards columbia, but as he notes, he wanted what it sounds you want).</p>
<p>i should caution and i do so often on here. the traditional collegiate experience honestly is bollocks, what you get at columbia is so much more…exciting. sure you may feel the bulge of nostalgia on a friday night, for uninhibited coed tension, but 10-20 years down the road, that will be immaterial, and the fact that you will know NYC better than your peers, you’ll be more hardened, smarter, more aware will be to your advantage.</p>
<p>most columbia students think about transferring, its natural, the environment is so rich it can sometimes seem claustrophobic. something our peer schools don’t really have a problem with (read: boring). in the end though - you will look at your life at columbia as a 4 year rollercoaster, of people, friendships, experiences that cannot compare elsewhere.</p>
<p>on the worst of days - think about that. columbia is a growing experience, and with such there will be growing pains. awkward to say, but true nonetheless, harvard and yale are safer choices, places that don’t really challenge you in the way a city education does. stay uncomfortable - it will make life that much less daunting.</p>
<p>Why did you choose Columbia in the first place if you wanted a so-called “traditional” college experience? If you’re just upset with typical Columbia annoyances (work, bureaucracy, social life, or any other such ********) transferring would be a big mistake. If you truly feel that you MUST get as far away from the city as possible, I’d suggest Brown or Dartmouth. Brown is probably the most similar Ivy to Columbia; the big differences are the very small city/suburban location and the lack of a Core. If you want a frat-centric, isolated experience, than I guess Dartmouth is best. It doesn’t make sense to transfer to Harvard or Yale since you stand very little chance of being admitted, and I don’t think you’d be very happy even if you were.</p>
<p>But don’t give up on Columbia so fast. Remember that you chose it for a reason, tons of students and alums love it, and if you stick with it, you’ll probably grow to appreciate it, too. If you transfer, you may regret it and have no recourse.</p>
<p>On another thread, the OP said he received likely letters from Columbia and Duke, and apparently is still in high school.</p>
<p>ennie, i was only speaking in hypotheticals in that post (again to weigh varying perspectives on the school and possibility of transferring).</p>
<p>i dont’ quite understand why the general reaction seems to be that the probabiltiy of transfer is low. both institutions take roughly 20-40 transfer applicants a year out of abou 1000, but i take it (somewhat presumptiously) that most of these applicants are not students of other ivy league schools with 3.8+ GPAs (those with high gpas are less likely to transfer, because by and by they also tend to be more able to handle the balance of varying aspects of school/social life).</p>
<p>if 4.0s from state schools seems to be the cream of the transfer crop, why shouldn’t a 3.8 gpa from columbia not stand a fighting chance.</p>
<p>harvard hasn’t taken any transfers for 3 cycles. it appears they don’t have the aviso on their website anymore (we will take none), so who knows, they might take a handful, but closer to the 10 kids that stanford takes. but my guess is they keep the transfer process ‘open’ so that they can admit development cases and legacies that they didn’t want to clog their first year numbers.</p>
<p>they are long odds harrison, by any stretch of the imagination.</p>
<p>perhaps in the end, you should consider sitting this year out, and reapplying next year. i wouldn’t attend columbia if your heart’s not in it. you’d just be taking up someone’s spot.</p>
<p>“why shouldn’t a 3.8 gpa from columbia not stand a fighting chance.”</p>
<p>Because you are already privileged enough to attend Columbia. Transfer admission favors non-traditional candidates who lack the same opportunities that you will have.</p>
<p>You would have to offer compelling academic reasons and present an exceptional academic record from Columbia to be a compelling candidate for Harvard/Yale transfer admission.</p>
<p>“It doesn’t make sense to transfer to Harvard or Yale since you stand very little chance of being admitted, and I don’t think you’d be very happy even if you were.”</p>
<p>It doesn’t hurt to try. Yale students are the happiest with their college experience, according to the Princeton Review surveys, responded to by the college students themselves. And, the prestige of Harvard would keep him afloat no matter now miserable he would be.</p>
<p>I advise enrolling at Columbia, and applying for transfer if you find yourself in an absolutely wretched position. If your plans fail, suck it up, and grind through your four years there. You’ll eventually find satisfaction.</p>
<p>I don’t believe the house/college system at Harvard/Yale provides a materially different experience than Columbia, if the “traditional college feel/experience” is what you’re after. To me, the traditional college experience is Dartmouth, Middlebury or the University of Texas. If you want a “traditional” college experience at Columbia, you can easily create it. My son did. Simply live in Carman, join a frat, and play rugby.</p>
<p>Is this some stupid hypothetical, or is this an actual scenario? Based on your posting history, it looks like you’re not a CC student. Hardly any CC students would ever post such a thing about “lay prestige.”</p>
<p>As a pre-frosh this talk of transferring is just plain silly (I tell this to kids who get rejected by Columbia every year and want to transfer back in). You should never go into a college with the attitude of wanting to transfer (unless you think you are much much better than what it has to offer). Basically when you enter your freshman year, your mindset should be to make the most of what you have and strive to make yourself happy and successful here. If you still fail miserably at this, then yes attempt to transfer, but transferring is a big change. </p>
<p>Harrison, you seem to have lost perspective after that likely, with 20-40 accepted out of over 1000 at yale, simply a 3.8 at Columbia will probably not cut it, the applicant pool isn’t filled with stupid kids buying lottery tickets, even if two-thirds of the pool is, your chance is still 9%, meaning 1 in 11 kids after cutting the fat. They could reject you if they think your essay isn’t stellar, how are you going to account for that? </p>
<p>Finally achieving that 3.8 at Columbia is not a cake walk no matter who you are, I’d imagine the same for Duke, so come back when you have it.</p>
<p>“You should never go into a college with the attitude of wanting to transfer (unless you think you are much much better than what it has to offer).”</p>
<p>THIS. The only time you should expect to transfer out of a school is when going toa Community College for 2 years for monetary reasons before transferring into a 4-year liberal arts college. OP, you’re just confused and having second (bitter) thoughts about Columbia and the admissions process. Don’t worry.</p>