I’m a freshman at a four-year university in California. I am planning of transferring after two years at this school to an Ivy School( or after this year if possible). Does anyone know any successful transfers? What are the most important factors for doing this beside gpa, extracurricular activities, community works…? Thanks:)
You may want to search this site for threads relating to transfers to ivies because this has come up a few times before. Princeton does not accept transfers, the other ivies do, and the transfer acceptance rate is usually lower than the freshman acceptance rate (e.g., at Yale it is in the 2% to 3% range). Those admitted usually have high everythign and in addition to what you mention it appears that high school record and test scores are still required and are still important, i.e., it seems those admitted are most often those who have high school stats in the same range as those admitted as freshman.
Minimal chance at the Ivies except Cornell where transfer success is slightly better.
I think an important thing about transferring is articulating what an Ivy can do to help achieve your ambitions (through their extensive resources) that a University in California cannot.
I believe part of the reason for Cornell’s higher transfer admission rate is articulation agreements with NY CCs which don’t apply to the OP. http://admissions.cals.cornell.edu/apply/transfer/transfer-agreements
You’ll have better chances if you transfer after freshman year. Exceptional grades and a rigorous freshman year program are essential.
I know many kids who have transferred into Ivies. They’ve all come from top schools, though (Pomona, Middlebury, WUSTL, Reed, Northwestern, UMich, Emory, Tufts), though, and the one thing they all had in common was straight A’s at their first college.