Transfer from the UK to the US

Hello everyone,

I am a freshman at a top 15 British university. Whilst I do like it here, I can’t help feel like I am not completely satisfied. My dream would be going to Stanford or Columbia.

Before heading to university, I went to an international school. Here I have taken the international GCSEs (in which I achieved 3A*s 4As 2Bs) and later on I did the IB, in which I scored much lower than I could have, due to personal circumstances (30 points, I was predicted to score 37). For whoever does not know, the IB is marked out of 45 points.

I am currently doing a B.Eng. in Materials Engineering, a 3 years course (like most European degrees). Would it be possible to transfer out to a four-years institution at the end of my second year?

It’s not easy. How about attending US schools for graduate program?

@4kidsdad I have considered that, but if it were to be possible, I would rather enroll as an undergraduate. If it helps I am a minority (mixed white-black African) and first generation. However, the majority of my extended family on my mother side was involved with Columbia in some shape or form (some have taught, some have done undergrad or grad school there). How hard would it be to transfer?

Your minority status is probably not too relevant unless you are a U.S. citizen. Stanford and Columbia have transfer acceptance rates of 2% and 6% respectively so you can see for yourself how likely it is to be able to get in. This is not to say you should not try but if you really want to transfer to a university in the U.S., you might also wish to apply to a university which accepts more transfer students.

You have not explained exactly why you wish to transfer but you should realize that there are many excellent engineering programs in the U.S. You might look into the private technical universities which are part of the [url="<a href=“http://theaitu.org%22%5DAITU%5B/url”>http://theaitu.org"]AITU[/url]. All of them specialize in engineering and have good placement rates in graduate school and industry.

Look at many state flagships for top notch engineering. Purdue and Ohio State would give you as good or better of an education in engineering than Columbia or some of the other Ivies. Do not get hung up on Ivy prestige.

@xraymancs I do have reasons to transfer, but I don’t think it is worth disclosing them on here. I am well aware that those two schools have very low admission rates, and I am planning on applying to less selective schools as well. However, I am not willing to settle for a school that is ranked lower than the institution I am currently at (Overall top 15 in the United Kingdom, ranked no. 2 for my course after Oxford in 2014). I was thinking Cornell, Northwestern, UC Berkeley and UCSB (they got an absolutely brilliant program for my field).

@TomSrOfBoston It is not much about getting hung up on Ivy prestige, but under a certain threshold I might as well stay at my current institution

I perfectly understand. You have personal reasons for transferring. However, if you want to get into these highly selective schools as a transfer, you will have to convincingly articulate them to the admissions office. Personally I do not think that any of the commonly cited rankings define the quality of education one can receive, particularly in engineering. There are plenty of top notch engineering programs that admit more than 5% of applicants. In fact, my guess is that your current university would be just as good as any you might find in the U.S. and you would finish a year sooner. Good luck!

Can you afford these schools? US schools are very expensive.

I agree with @xraymancs, your current university would be just as good as any you might find in the US.

How are u planning to fund this? UCs are public universities and aren’t going to give any money to undergraduate int’l students. You’d be looking at USD 55k/yr, not including travel costs from the UK.

Cornell & Northwestern are going to have limited funding for undergraduate int’ls.

Funding for GRADUATE students is a whole different matter. Fully funding for int’l graduate students may be possible at ALL of those schools.

@xraymancs Good point. If I were to move to the States, I would have to study for an extra year to be entitled to receive a Bachelor degree. However, I read somewhere that in order to qualify for a PhD program in the US you need 4 years of undergraduate education, which in my case would translate in getting an M.Eng, losing out on the one year advantage. Of course I could be wrong, and maybe different rules apply to students in the United Kingdom.

@“aunt bea” @GMTplus7 Financially, I should be able to completely pay for UCs. From top privates I will ask for minimal financial aid (especially Columbia, being in NYC).

Are you assuming that your two years will equate to 2 years at all of these colleges? that might not be true for at least 2 reasons: first, you might not get ‘full’ credit for all the courses you have taken, and second, you may have a lot of other requirements to fit in.

@collegemom3717 Actually, since in the UK we take all the core requirements to become an accredited engineer + electives within 3 years, while in the US similar requirements are met over 4 years, I believe that, even if not all credit transfer, it’s safe to assume roughly 2 years worth of credits should transfer.

@samMIT, you may well be right- just be aware of how courses line up, and be sure to check out the graduation requirements (including non-engineering courses, such as Columbia’s English classes).

@samMIT, yes, the Bachelor’s degree in the UK and in most of Europe is a 3 year one now after the Bologna process has been implemented. This is equivalent to the US 4 year Bachelor’s because in the US we spend 1 full year of courses on General Education and basic Calculus requirements which are all included in European secondary education, not university. When I was running the graduate admissions office at my university, Illinois Tech, we had no problem accepting European 3-year degrees for entering Ph.D. students. I believe that this will be more and more common throughout the United States as time passes. It is possible that many of your target schools already accept the Bachelor’s from the UK. To me it is a no brainer.


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Overall top 15 in the United Kingdom<<< What uni is that? 15th in the UK? Where do you think that stacks against top US schools? If your IB was 30, I assume you are not talking global top 50 UK schools, right?

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@Alfonsia I am talking about local rankings. World rankings often do not accurately represent the quality of a school (just look at how QS used to rank LSE around no 70 in the world, whilst it is one of the finest schools in the UK and in the world). Same happens with our University, we have great departments for Engineering and Business&Management, but the rest is not as well known. Admission is competitive (36 points), but due to compelling reasons I was admitted with a lower score.

     You cited rankings though, right? There you go, you answered yourself why transferring to a equal school in the USA is a pointless exercise, because Stanford= Cambridge, UCL=UCB and you were lucky to be admitted to engineering at any decent UK school with your IBD score. There is no good reason to pay to go to the USA when you can be finished your undergrad in 3 yrs,  The US has tons of engineers from the UK, come when you have your UK bargain priced engineering degree in the bag. 

Stay where you are, focus on doing well, and apply to US grad schools. Transferring takes a lot of energy- researching, applying, moving, adjusting- can interrupt your flow. Chances are low anyway. As an international, forget even “minimal” financial aid from Columbia. Also Columbia Engineering has to complete liberal arts core curriculum requirement which is time consuming.