Hi all of the College Confidential community!
I am a freshman at UC Berkeley and am currently partaking in their Global Edge program, and I was wondering what the likelihood is of transferring into a different college from Berkeley is? I’m estimating that my GPA will be around a 3.65 - 3.85 - due to grade deflation - by the end of the year, and I was wondering how the prestige of Berkeley would impact my chances of acceptance into a school like Dartmouth, Brown, or Columbia? Does this affect my chances at all, or is it more reliant on other factors?
Why would you transfer to Dartmouth, Brwon or Columbia, where UC Berkeley is much better?
Hard to tell when you are estimating what your GPA will be. Even with a 4.0, it will be extremely difficult to transfer into schools like Dartmouth, Brown, Columbia, and other Ivies since they have very low transfer acceptance rates and high retention rates. A good GPA from a prestigious university like Berkley is certainly better than a comparable GPA from a lower tier school, but at the same time, prestige won’t excuse a low GPA. Also, as a sophomore transfer, you will only have one semester’s worth of grades. That means your high school record and scores will be weighed significantly. How were your high school grades and standardized scores?
Overall, your chances of transferring to an Ivy or another top 20 is very low, simply because it is extremely difficult and next to impossible for some schools. That being said, it doesn’t hurt to apply and see what happens.
@NASA2014 I feel like I have more of an East Coast mentality having grown up there; I originally wanted a change in moving to California but after experiencing two summer courses at Cal I feel like I would be happier on the East Coast, especially because grade deflation is not as much of a notorious issue at those schools as it is here.
@Dontskipthemoose Thank you for such a helpful response! My high school grades were good (4.6 weighted on a 5.0 scale) with a lot of APs, and my SAT was only decent (1400/1600 if I remember correctly), but I could retake it since I would need that score as a sophomore transfer. I was originally waitlisted from Dartmouth but their enrollment this year was so high that they did not take anybody off of the waitlist. Do you recommend instead applying as a junior transfer?
Hey @charcoalatey2021 I also want to transfer from Berkeley! I experienced my first semester at FPF San Francisco and after my spring semester on Berkeley campus I no longer want to stay here. Grade deflation, environment, competition, I just dont like it. I applied to transfer to USC with a 3.75 gpa (I much prefer LA over Berkeley) but I got denied admission…so its definitely hard to transfer to an Ivy. Keep me updated on what you end up doing!! It doesnt hurt to apply but its definitely a lot of work considering its pretty hard to get rec letters from professors here 