<p>i'm a freshman at a top 10 school (according to US news and world report). I was wondering, if I were to be compared for transfer to Harvard against someone with the same relative stats/ECs/etc., but whose school might not be considered as high as mine, would that give me an edge. Believe me, I know this is a pretty terrible question to ask, but having no experience with transferring, I'm just trying to understand a little better. Thanks</p>
<p>its a perfectly valid question:</p>
<p>yes, i would say this would most likely give you an edge, if everything else were held equal.</p>
<p>most of the transfers do come from pretty decent schools - not all top 10, but well ranked.</p>
<p>a caveat: i only say that this applies to harvard, there are some other schools that give preference to other things for example, i think that stanford seems to prefer CA schools, and yale seems very much to like admitting people from CC (community colleges not college confidential), all of the UCs also like Cal CCs -- but best to ask people at those schools to find out what they do top10 might also help you there, but without firsthand experience or knowing any transfers at those schools i just dont know.</p>
<p>Yes, it helps.</p>
<p>In some ways, it would be pretty surprising for Harvard to admit transfers based on the assumption that all colleges are created equal. I don't think it believes that about itself (if an institution can be said to have a state of mind). But the transfer philosophy varies a great deal school by school. Some universities that have similar philosophies when it comes to freshman admits, like Harvard and Princeton, have totally different transfer policies.</p>
<p>Princeton having non-existent transfer policies. lol</p>