Transfer from Berkeley to Stanford/Harvard/Yale

Hello, I am a current CS student at Berkeley and I would like to transfer to a top private school I am currently interested in Stanford, Harvard, and Yale in the Fall of 2018.

I currently have a 3.35 GPA and received two C+s one semester. After that semester, I took a break from school and focused on my health.

Since then, I have received As in harder and more advanced courses. Do I stand a chance at transferring to a top college if I maintain an upward trend?

I will also be interning at a tech company in silicon valley this summer and I plan on applying to work at the college newspaper. This fall, I would also like to begin working on research projects.

In high school, I received a 34 on the ACT but never took any subject SATs. Will taking these tests now help, or would this be a waste of time? Additionally, I received a 5 on the AP Literature and AP Human Geo tests, and 4s on Macro/Micro econ and APES. I have 2 or 3 extracurriculars that are worth keeping as well.

I knew a student who tried to transfer to Harvard, Brown and Stanford from Berkeley. Problem is there is so much grade deflation at Berkeley, that compared to other say LACS, it’s tough to stand out. Good Luck!

Your GPA is on the low side but maybe you can explain that you had health issues which affected your grades. Harvard, Stanford, and Yale are obviously extremely difficult to transfer into, and you need a specific academic reason for Harvard. I wouldn’t bother retaking the ACT at this point since your score is already good and the ACT will matter less and less the more time you spend in college.

@preppedparent Thanks for replying. Did that student receive any acceptances?

@Dontskipthemoose I agree, my GPA is sort of on the low side. I have 7 more classes to take before I apply and if I am able to receive an A in each, my GPA will increase to a 3.6-3.7. Do you think this is more in line with Ivy transfer students, or would this still be below the GPA threshold?

@transfer21495 Nope. And the student is a Regents Scholar. The grade deflation really hurts. You would think these schools would know about Berkeley’s grade deflation, but I really think its easier getting into these private schools after a gap year or from a LAC.

Please explain why, as a CS student at UCB with a respectable GPA, you want to transfer.

While your GPA is respectable, it is likely to be unrealistic in terms of transferring to super-selective schools that take very few transfers. For example, Stanford takes only a few dozen transfers per year, and its press releases make it seem like many are non-traditional re-entry students from community colleges.

@ucbalumnus While Cal is a great school for CS, my undergraduate experience so far has been terrible.

I did not receive proper housing my freshman year, had all my grant money revoked without explanation, and had my tuition status change from in-state to out-of-state (costing my family around $40,000 extra) despite the fact that my parents have lived in California and paid California taxes for 10 years. I have spent countless hours on the phone and in CSC, but I will not be allowed to return to in-state status until at least Fall or Spring 2018, at which point my family will have spent around $100,000 on public school education.

Additionally, having classes with 1000+ students and very little opportunity to talk to the professor is terrible. My math classes are almost entirely handled by GSIs. The only time I see the professor is when he recites the textbook twice a week in front of the auditorium.

I believe that I will be a lot more successful at a school that allows me to focus on my academics and less on the bureaucratic aspects of college.

Take a year off then return when you’re back to resident status.

"Additionally, having classes with 1000+ students and very little opportunity to talk to the professor is terrible. My math classes are almost entirely handled by GSIs. The only time I see the professor is when he recites the textbook twice a week in front of the auditorium.

I believe that I will be a lot more successful at a school that allows me to focus on my academics and less on the bureaucratic aspects of college."

I’m not sure why you are not looking to transfer in to a LAC in that case rather than some research U’s that also have big lecture classes.

Anyway, your chances are miniscule.

So, I know that many of you will be rolling your eyes, but I want to transfer from UNC Chapel Hill to UPenn(Wharton), or to MIT. This week I got into UNC Chapel Hill (safety school) and rejected from MIT, Penn(both reach). Right now, waiting for my waitlist decisions from Duke and UChicago(but I think that there is a very small chance). I am a hard working student who finished high school with a perfect GPA; however, my SAT is only 1350. By mentioning that I am hard working I meant that If I will study at UNC then I am going to work hard in order to get a perfect GPA. Also, a quick disclaimer - I genuinely believe that UNC is an amazing school with a vibrant environment and diverse community. Prestige and caliber do not mean a lot to me; however, I do care about work opportunities, recruiting and salaries after the graduation.

I am a business major and that is why UPenn(Wharton) seems very reasonable to me.

I have read many blogs about transferring students and I have to say that all of the information that was provided was about transferring from community college to elite universities. Soooo, in my case, I am already at a very good school and I just wanted to know whether it is okay to transfer from top 30 to top 10.

Why don’t you consider a liberal arts college? You might have a good chance at a selective (but not top 10) school such as Occidental or Grinnell (I know Oxy has about a 20% acceptance rate for transfer students). Both will offer much better faculty relationships than Ivy League universities, albeit without the prestige and brand you might crave.

Berkeley is much stronger in CS than Harvard and Yale. Of course it lacks the ultra-elite cachet of those schools.