<p>I have just completed my first year at Georgetown University SFS. Getting into the School of Foreign Service was a not a breeze, due to the fact that i had average high school stats. I like Georgetown, however it has always been a dream of mine to attend Harvard, or any other Ivy League. I understand that I should not base my college education off prestige. I am very fortunate to have been admitted to such a good school. I hope I don't come off as arrogant or cocky, because I am truly blessed. I understand that all of the ivy league schools have very low transfer admissions rates. What do you think my chances of getting admitted into an ivy league, coming from Georgetown SFS? Any feedback, would be deeply appreciated. </p>
<p>High School GPA: 3.4 UN-weighted
3.8 Weighted</p>
<p>ACT Composite Score: 27</p>
<p>College Stats: 4.0 Freshman GPA</p>
<p>Involved in seven different clubs.</p>
<p>I will not go in depth on my extracurricular activities. I am simply just looking for an answer. Once again, thank you for taking the time to read this thread. </p>
I can’t speak to the rest of the Ivy family, but Yale can be very difficult as a transfer. Much of this is tied to what attrition looks like, and subsequent openings at the school. With current attrition at less than 2%, I think the acceptance rate for qualified transfers is less than 5%—so very few openings. Think along the lines of a 1000+ transfer applicants, with maybe 20-30 obtaining admission. Also, Princeton does not accept transfer students…
You could try and transfer to Cornell, Penn or Dartmouth with probably a high likelihood of success, but frankly those might be step-downs for you.
For a place like Yale or Harvard, you are going to have to write a compelling case why your academic needs can only be addressed by some unique aspect of your target school that is lacking in your current school.
This will likely be difficult for you, as the real reason you want to transfer is actually pretty poor so you’re pretty much going to have to BS your way through the essay (and perhaps an interview as well).
@BranchWarren - no chance at Yale or Harvard - you would have never been accepted to either out of high school and one semester of college grades is not going to convince them otherwise. Perhaps next year - if you maintain the 4.0 and wow them. Cornell, Columbia and Penn accept a relatively high percentage of transfer applicants. They would probably be your best bets - again you need to present a really good reason why the should accept you.
SFS at Georgetown is as good as being at Harvard. Stay there. It’s not worth it for you to apply to Harvard or Yale after just one semester (and you, yourself, recognize that you’ve been very lucky to get into SFS.) Getting into such a prestigious program as SFS and wanting to transfer for a program that’s arguably not as famous nor better wouldn’t make much sense to adcoms, and they’d be highly suspicious of an applicant who manages to get into one of the top programs in the nation but wants to switch to their school- they’d suspect “prestigiosity attack” and would NOT like that. Don’t put yourself through this difficult process for basically nothing. Enjoy your time in Georgetown and make the most of it.
No offense, but considering your Stats you should feel extrememly fortunate that you got into SFS at all. And playing the prestige game and wanting to get into Ivies just so you can say you go to one is…well…ridiculous.
Beyond that, it doesnt get much better than SFS (as far as prestige within your fied), so I dont know why you’d think HYPS is better.
If you’re having a great time at Georgetown then stay there!
@soze Do you think that having a 27 ACT score would hurt my chances of admission at Cornell, Dartmouth, or Penn? I understand that you need a compelling reason to transfer, and I look forward to writing an outstanding essay. Once again, thank you very much for your reply.
I would say that you can get into Cornell,dartmouth,penn, maybe Columbia. Why not just stick it out at georgetown and try and go to harvard yale or princeton for post grad?
But WHY in the world would you want to go to Cornell or Penn for IR when you’re at SFS, which is BETTER (and better connected)? It’s as if you wanted to transfer from MIT to Harvard for engineering…
You should count your blessings every day that you got into Georgetown with your stats. Pretty much a miracle with your ACT and GPA. I’m sure they turned away many more deserving candidates and all you can think about is the name of some other school you can’t get into. Pretty lame.
@mnm111 I appreciate your honesty. I understand that I am VERY fortunate to have been accepted to Georgetown SFS. I noticed that my head/ego had gotten much larger, while i was at Georgetown. I am just trying to maximize my “utility”, and see how far i could push my luck. Once again, I appreciate the reality check.
@BranchWarren youve already maximized it. SFS is as good as it gets for IR. There’s literally no reason for you to be searching for more prestige. And when you’re searching for “more” prestige when your stats (at least the ones that you provided) were way low for georgetown and hyps, it comes off as entitled and obnoxious. You shrugging off Gtown as inferior to the ivies, when your own stats were low for Gtown is what’s so ridiculous.
In the same breath, I hope you enjoy your time at Georgetown or wherever you end up.