I am a freshman at Temple University, a state school in Pennsylvania. I just finished my first semester with a 4.0 gpa, I have joined a couple clubs, and I am currently looking for an internship for next semester. I graduated from high school with a 3.88 gpa and several awards. I was also very active in ECs. My only real issue is that i have a 1740 on the SATs. Do I have any hope of getting into a top tier school?
Yes; however, Temple U is very good school too.
Only a handful of transfers are admitted to the Ivies, except Cornell where most transfers are NY residents. If the only reason you want to transfer is the prestige then no chance.
Here is what you should know-- the seats at Ivy-plus schools (Stanford) that are available for transfers is largely tied to attrition. Since attrition is almost non-existent in the top Ivy schools, so are the seats available. By way of example, recently, Harvard had over 1500 applicants and admitted about 15, and Yale had over a 1000 applicants in which about 2 dozen were offered seats. Brown is close to 5%. Princeton takes no transfers. Stanford accepts close to 1-2%. So, while being qualified is certainly a criteria, the other portion must convey why these schools; typical reasons are that these schools offer programs and/or degrees not offered at your existing institution. Transferring because of the desire to attend a more elite institution is NOT consider a valid reason for transfer.
Cornell had the most open transfer admission rate, close to 20%, but the figure is misleading as most of the seat are reserved for NY state CC students.
Second, that you could have obtained admission as a freshmen applicant. Third, that you have perfect scores at your current institution. Long story short…it is much more difficult to obtain admission as a transfer than as applying for a freshmen seat…
I am starting at UPenn in the fall.