<p>I am going to be a sophomore at Vanderbilt this coming year. I'm not in love with the school and have decided to attempt to transfer to Harvard. I have a 3.96 GPA so far at Vanderbilt and have been quite active (intramurals, newspaper reporter and columnist, community service). I was accepted to Harvard out of high school, but turned it down because of financial reasons. Vanderbilt offered me a full-tuition scholarship and my parents made me give the school a try. I was also accepted to Stanford, Yale, Dartmouth, UVA, and Duke coming out of high school. My SAT composite is 1560 and I scored 800s on the SAT II Writing, Math IIC, American History, and World History tests. What are my chances of being accepted to Harvard? It is the school I have always wanted to attend. It just took me two years to convince my parents to allow me to do so. Thanks for your comments.</p>
<p>Probably one of the most important things is to have some valid and extremely compelling reason behind your desire to transfer.</p>
<p>Well you have a great chance just based on stats, but I would suggest you apply to more ivies, and as well as stanford, duke, etc. It really is a crap shoot for transfers as well.</p>
<p>Harvard only admits 5% of its transfer applicants. Your stats, while good for most schools, won't make you stand out in the pool at Harvard. Definitely give it a shot if it's your dream school, but make sure you do your best to stand out in some way.</p>
<p>Mention that you were already accepted as a freshman.</p>
<p>Ack, can't believe I missed that! Okay, yes, if you were previously accepted, you probably have a good shot. Go for it. :)</p>
<p>Why transfer? Just curious...</p>
<p>What does Harvard have to offer you that Vanderbilt does not?</p>
<p>well...i know for financial reasons you couldn't attend. But seriously, not many ppl give up harvard even if they have to take massive loans. That is one school that many ppl just don't turn down. However, the fact that you were accepted as a freshman already will BOOST your chances for admission as a transfer, these schools have already invested a lot of time into the decision that they arrived at. I was personally told by one of the schools i sadly turned away that if i wanted to transfer to it, i would have a really great shot.</p>
<p>I remember reading about a student who was waitlisted as a freshman, and rejected as a transfer. Upon receiving this informaton, the student called Byerly Hall and informed them that he subsequently was previously waitlisted, and they gave him a spot on the transfer waitlist.</p>
<p>I do not know if that is true, but I remember reading it. Perhaps giving them a subtle reminder of being accepted will increase your chances; of course, they may already know this because of the question 'Have you previously applied to Harvard? If so, when?', but when adcoms only spend ten minutes reviewing an application, rendering salient that detail will only help.</p>
<p>Edit: On second thought, it might be a good idea to include an addendum explaining why you did not attend Harvard.</p>
<p>Thanks. I think that is very sound advice. I am planning on including the reasons I did not attend Harvard in the first place in my application's essay. My parents believed it a bad idea to take out loans (they didn't want me to be indebted upon graduation), and--for lack of a better word--forced me to accept Vanderbilt's offer. Only now, after seeing that I am unhappy at Vandy, have they relented and decided to let me apply for transfer to Harvard.</p>
<p>Thanks for your post. That makes me feel at tad better. As I said below, I will make sure to mention my previous acceptance in my application. It could, after all, only help. It will definitely get my application at least a second look.</p>
<p>Don't forget to take personal responsibility for your decision . . . if you don't, you'll come off as whiny.
I was in a similar situation as you (though the folks would have paid for Ivy, I didn't want them to), and now I am lucky enough to be off to Harvard--but I was sure to emphasize that I knew in the end, it was my choice to end up where I ended up, and it was also my choice to try to leave.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice. I definitely agree--don't want to come off as whiny. Good luck at Harvard.</p>