<p>I currently am attending a top 25 school. However, my financial aid at this school was not as generous as I hoped. I do not want sustain a high level of debt. My college also generally doesn't change its financial aid from year to year (according to the office of financial aid) and my parents income will be constant most likely.
I'd like to apply to:
Harvard (rejected for a freshman applicant)
Yale (rejected for a freshman applicant)
Columbia
UPenn (rejected as a freshman applicant)
Stanford
MIT
CalTech
Duke</p>
<p>H.S. Stats:
GPA 93.5 Weighted (out of 100)
SAT: 2170 (M:800 CR: 68 W:690)
SAT2: Math 1: 720 Math 2:780 U.S.: 750<br>
Numerous awards
A lot of leadership positions in clubs (most in my school)
A lot of work/internship</p>
<p>College:
Majoring in Economics (minor or double major Compsci)
Going to Join 2 clubs
Goal GPA:3.8
Taking a winter class at local college</p>
<p>What would my chance of a transfer as a rising sophomore be? rising junior?
Any advice?</p>
<p>My main reason is financial aid and my school is notorious as the worst top 25 school for financial aid.</p>
<p>This is based on your fr rejection from Penn which has about the highest admissions rate of the schools listed; except perhaps Duke, but D has a very low transfer rate. This does not bode well for a soph transfer with even lower acceptance rates than for fr.</p>
<p>Your chances depend most on your college performance, so you should start thinking about where to transfer after your first semester. To consider a transfer to any Ivy League college, a 3.9 and above is what I recommend for introductory courses, while a 3.7 and above is sufficient for upper-level courses. As you may know, most top 15 colleges have single-digit transfer acceptance rates below 10%, including all the schools you have listed. Getting in as a freshman is easier than getting in as a transfer.</p>
<p>Since you are concerned about financial aid, the [list</a> of no-loan colleges](<a href=“Student financial aid in the United States - Wikipedia”>Student financial aid in the United States - Wikipedia) can be a starting point. There are several schools on the list which are much easier to transfer into, but are also much less prestigious. Once again, you (and all other freshmen looking to transfer) should come back after your first semester.</p>
<p>I disagree with the above posters on the sentiment that its simply not worth applying to transfer because their transfer acceptance rates are lower–thats a silly way to look at it IMO. (Well, except for Harvard. Its impossible to transfer to Harvard. They only accept about 20ish each year.)</p>
<p>Also, you should know Columbia explicitly prefers Sophomore transfers, not Juniors. They say its because it will be too difficult to fulfill core requirements on time otherwise.</p>
<p>Both of us specifically answered the OPs questions about the difficulty of transferring to the schools listed given their HS record. Neither of us said anything about whether or not the OP should apply.</p>
<p>I’m gonna tell you what I think, no icing included. It is very very difficult to transfer into an Ivy. As you know, their transfer acceptance rates are really low compared to freshman admissions. Also, if they rejected you in freshman admissions, then they either saw something they did not like or they didn’t think you were the right “fit”. So in either case, your chances haven’t gone up unless there has been a significant change.</p>