Transfer from Dartmouth to other top schools

Transfer Students
1

Hi everybody,

I’m currently a freshman at Dartmouth, and will have around a 3.85-4.00 after this quarter. Am applying as a transfer to Harvard/Yale/MIT/Berkeley EECS/UChicago/Wharton/Stanford. Over this quarter, I’ve simply felt that Dartmouth was too insular: there are no startups here, the tech scene is non-existent, and the classes are heavily grounded in theory as opposed to application. The environment is also not a great fit for me - I came from urban, sunny, Silicon Valley California, and seriously cannot get used to the rural, freezing setting of Hanover. I know my reasons for transferring aren’t extremely articulate right now, I’ll refine them as I go.

I was named one of Dartmouth’s top mathematicians and received a $15k math research grant. In high school, I had:

  • 3.92/4.00 GPA, top math and science student in senior class
  • 36 ACT, 240 PSAT
  • International entrepreneurship experience with NASA/SpaceX/Google, have spoken at Johnson and Kennedy Space Centers
  • Won Pulitzer Prize for high school journalism
  • Interned for 7 months as a software engineer at a large Silicon Valley tech company, making 5 figure income
  • Some piano competitions and art exhibitions in museums

My professor recommendation letters will be good - one is from my research advisor, and one is from another professor. I was admitted to Cambridge Maths and UChicago last year when I applied as a first-year (not sure if this helps at all).

I would appreciate all opinions on my transfer chances - I am seriously hoping to be at another school by sophomore year.

1 Like
2

What were the decision factors that led you to choose Dartmouth over UChicago or Cambridge?

The winter isn’t even properly underway, and you are ready to bolt. Cambridge (MA) is not rural, but what (besides the prestige of the Harvard / MIT names) makes you think that the weather will be any more tolerable to you? Ditto Chicago.

What homework have you done to discern how true / not true these factors are for the schools you are thinking of?

I’m asking poking questions b/c your list of schools looks like simply a list of the big names. If after less than a term you can’t bear Dartmouth, why do you think that you will love Yale?

3

Like collegemom noted, five of those seven names are still in the northeastern US. Guess what that means… Winter!

4

Why did you choose Dartmouth over other schools?

Berkeley transfer applicants should be junior level (which is probably about 18 Dartmouth courses’ worth) by the time they transfer (usually having completed their first year and are applying in their second year). Most Berkeley transfer students come from California community colleges.

Some students dissatisfied with their initial choice of school and want to transfer to a UC first transfer to a California community college, then apply to transfer to a UC.

5

I’d be wary of thinking you’ll find huge start-up communities at the schools you’ve mentioned besides MIT/Stanford. Both of those schools are very difficult to transfer into. (As are all the others you listed, of course.)

I’m at Penn right now, and there isn’t a start-up community here, really. I know a few friends who are developing companies, and the select few who have taken time off, but they’re very insular and I wouldn’t say the companies really have any impact on the school’s culture.

If you stay at Dartmouth, you’ll probably be a stand-out. You already have great ECs and undoubtedly you have connections if you’ve been working for big-name companies since high school. Dartmouth has a small start-up community, so why don’t you find a few like-minded people and rake up all the funding the school has? If you want to be a small fish in a big pond, go for it, but there are alternatives. Mindy Kaling said that she attributes part of her acting success to the fact that she was one of the few people doing theatre at Dartmouth. Before you transfer, maybe adopt that ethos a bit.

As previously mentioned, most of the schools you mentioned are freezing. If you don’t like Hanover in December, you sure won’t like Massachusetts or New Haven. I’ve gone to school in Boston, New York, and now Philadelphia–trust me, it’s cold until you hit Virginia. And all the schools you mentioned in New England have a traditional New England feel (besides MIT). If you loved Silicon Valley, I’d probably aim to transfer to Stanford. But with the 2% (or something) acceptance rate for transfers, you’ll need to seriously consider exactly you want out of transferring.

6

Thanks for all of the response - another reason why I want to transfer is that I did Big Data analysis last summer and loved it - I decided that I want to major in stats. Dartmouth doesn’t offer stats :frowning:

7

All I can say is this: your essays better not mention the words “weather”, “hot”, “cold”, or anything along those lines. Not once.

Keep it strictly academic, and I think you’d be fine for some schools except Harvard/Yale as they are less than 1%. Always expect a no from those two.

8

"I decided that I want to major in stats. Dartmouth doesn’t offer stats "

This is your academic reason for wanting to transfer. Focus on this in your applicationi.