<p>Transfer from Top 10 to Williams?
Well, never thought I was going to be back on here after my senior year, but here goes the gist of it. If I decide to transfer, I'll be taking a gap year finishing up my remaining courses required for pre-med, which will allow me to take a wider breadth of courses should I continue my studies at Williams. </p>
<p>I don't want to get into too many details of why Williams, in fear of giving out my identity, but in general I'd like a smaller, quieter, more rural school while maintaining the intellectual stimulation a school like ________ provides.</p>
<p>1490 SAT (out of 1600), 3.5 HS GPA
3.7 - 3.8 college GPA (Biology major)
Large amount of research experience, with quite a few pubs.</p>
<p>As stated previously, I may not be returning for my third year at ______, instead taking courses to finish the pre-med curric at my state school (or alternatively doing some volunteer work abroad, not sure which one would be more worth my effort / advice would be appreciated).</p>
<p>I knew one kid who transferred to Williams from the University of Miami (he was also pre-med). Williams accepts about 15 transfers every year from a pool of 200. It is so tough because Williams has a low attrition rate and doesn’t have the extra rooms to house all the people who want to transfer. </p>
<p>With all of that said, I think you are competitive. If you have strong personal reasons for wanting Williams and explain how you will make use of opportunities/resources at Williams, then I think you have a decent shot.</p>
<p>In general, it is tough to get into top LACs by transfer because attrition is so low. The acceptance rates are even lower than through regular admissions. So you might want to apply at multiple schools to increase the odds of acceptance.</p>
<p>I’d push your research experience and pubs, and your desire to continue research at Williams–they support considerable numbers of RA’s in the summer, and Williams students have won a couple of awards for undergrad research. They’re proud of it and you ought to play to it. That said, getting in via transfer is tough, for the reasons noted above.</p>