Transfer Chance Me: Duke, Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Wharton, Cornell, Stanford

Transfer Students
1

I am a freshman applying to Duke, Columbia, Wharton, Yale, Harvard, Stanford, and Cornell.

Proposed Major: Business
Current University: Top 20 US University College
GPA: 4.00
Midterm GPA: 4.00
ACT: 36
SATII: 800 - Math 2 800 - US History 800 - Spanish
High School Unweighted: 3.7 (super upwards trend though, 3.0 freshman year, 4.00 sophmore and junior, senior year kinda meh)
Weighted: 4.45 (took 22 APs in high school at a top high school)
Rank: Top 10% (High School Only Reports by Decile)
AP: 5s on 21 Exams. 4 on Seminar.

Extracurriculars that relate to Business: Student Consulting (As a freshman, already have a leadership role). This club is huge and nationally recognized we work with really cool Fortune 50 clients and I will be leading an interaction with one)
Three internships within business (two at Private Equity firms; one during the year)
Founded a pretty big event at HS that still continues - related to business as well and my interests within it (raised $7,000 from corporate sponsors; changed Literature curriculum; featured in local news etc)
Some other smaller ones that show passion for Humanities (President of HS Debate Team; etc)

Essays: Why Transfer?: Specific to each school; all academic or professional reasons; specific: I thought it was pretty good and I worked hard on it. Compared to average probably 8/10.

Recommendations: Have had lunch with both of these college profs; we are super tight :slight_smile:
First Rec: Econ teacher: 10/10: She had about 500 students. Wrote about how I got the highest grade in her class, was super motivated, and need more of a challenge
Second Rec: Writing teacher: 10/10: Wrote about my struggles in her class (and overcoming them), hard work, personal characteristics, etc. Definitely really personal as well as academic.
Extra Rec: From HS teacher. 10/10. Had three classes with her. Organized event with her. Said I was the best student she has ever had and that she’s never seen such dedication.

Ethnicity: Asian - rip Gender: Male

Strengths: College Grades, Grade Improvement in HS, Rigor, From a Top 20 University, Extracurriculars show passion within business (and other fields as well), Recs, Overall Strong Essays

Weaknesses: Asian male, HS grades, Ivy League Acceptance Rates lol.

2

As you probably know, transferring as a rising sophomore will place an emphasis on your high-school grades. With that said, if you provide the specific reasons (as you mention) about things you can find at their schools and not at yours, you’ll be a pretty strong candidate. You’ve maxed out across almost the entire board :))

I’m assuming that you applied for Fall 2018? So you’ll find that “chancing” for transfers is a little more complicated than for freshmen, so all that can be said is that you’re a strong candidate applying to colleges that can fill their transfer classes 5 times over with strong candidates. You might be in one of those classes, May will tell!

3

Congratulations on your fantastic academic start to your college journey! Do you have aspirations for MBA or law school? With your grades, I would advise you to stay at your current school. If you can maintain a 3.8 GPA and do well on your LSAT, you can get into Yale, Harvard or Stanford. MBA schools don’t look at scores as much as work experience. You would also be a strong candidate for top MBA schools. Unless your social life at your current school sucks, I would stay and look forward to a more impressive professional school acceptance results. Good luck.