<p>OK. So I'm a Freshman at MIT. I'm planning on double majoring in Economics and Management Science at Sloan. As I see myself working in the finance/consulting field later on, I feel that I would rather have a broad-based liberal arts education to sharpen my analytical skills and make me more of a "scholar" - (as lame as that sounds, it's entirely true. I've joined the "Tech" - the MIT newspaper - just so my writing doesn't detriorate). MIT was not a first choice of mine - not even close - not because of a "lack of prestige" (obviously), but because I didn't think it fit me exactly. After spending two weeks here, I can see myself liking MIT fine, but I feel as if I would have to force myself to come to like the place - instead of naturally loving the school. On top of the fact that its humanities departments are pretty poor (Economics at MIT is basically math).</p>
<p>So, I was wondering how hard it would be to transfer out of MIT. A lot of schools seem to like CC or lower level college transfers because they have less opportunities than I do. But to be honest, the people at MIT are extremely "different" and the topics I am being forced to study (Chem, Bio, Phys) aren't my passions whatsoever. I chose MIT for its strong economics and undergraduate business school, but I am not sure if it's worth it. I am looking to transfer to Stanford, Yale, or Penn (Wharton). I know the amount of students that get into each school are very low, but give me your opinions, as I don't know much about the transfer process.</p>
<p>Sorry to hear you don't quite enjoy MIT. It's a fantastic school and I think you could go really far in consulting with a degree from MIT. I know a few very successful people who went to MIT for undergrad and ended up doing business and finance. I definitely think most employers would not be turned off by your lack of a broad education when you're coming from a school like that. </p>
<p>However, that being said, I definitely understand the need for a more general, liberal education. As for accepting transfers from lower level colleges, it really depends on the school. I've heard that Stanford prefers taking kids from lower level schools and community colleges. However, from my experience at Yale, that's definitely not the case. My transfer class at Yale was dominated by school in the top 40 or so universities (particularly Berkeley and Michigan... those two alone made up 20% of the accepted transfer student body). I can't really say much about Penn, however. </p>
<p>As for the transfer admissions in general... for the schools you're looking at, it's a lot more competitive than freshman admissions. Yale's admit rate my year for transfers was around 2, maybe 3%. The same goes for Stanford and Penn (although they might be a little higher, I can't say with certainty). In other words, unless you are willing to transfer to a school like Northwestern or Rice (which are still very good, but are much more friendly to transfers), you should make friends, join clubs, etc under the assumption that you will be staying at MIT all four years. Even from an excellent school, with excellent grades and awesome ECs, transfer admissions is based heavily on luck. I bet you anything that if Yale got rid of all the transfers in my year, and replaced them with the second-choice kids, they would be nearly identical in intellect, grades, etc.</p>
<p>I think if you just express the reasons for your wanting to transfer the same as you did here, you should have no problem in getting into most schools. Just be sure you do get all passing grades at MIT, and that you can get at least one recommendation from one professor there as to your abilities.</p>
<p>MIT is a highly regarded "prestige" school. Accordingly, you should be able to get into many other top-ranked schools--although whether you will be able to get into Wharton, Stanford (Economics), or Yale (Economics or Finance certificate program) is still an open question based upon their extremely limited spots.</p>
<p>I'm thinking getting into a place like UVA or Michigan or USC or even Georgetown or Cornell should be a cinch, though--so consider whether one of these top business schools--or whether transferring to another top Econ program (like Univ of Chicago or Northwestern or Michigan) might suit you better than MIT. Then apply to these places as well as the first three you mention.</p>