<p>Hey guys, so I was recently accepted to Yale and rejected from Stanford, and it looks like I might be going to New Haven next year as that is my best option right now. However, I'm just curious - if I was to transfer to Stanford from Yale after one or two years, how hard would that be? Would Stanford be less likely to accept me as a transfer from Yale just because I'm already in an Ivy League college?</p>
<p>Also, how would my chances for transferring from Yale into Stanford contrast with my chances of transferring from UC Berkeley or even the local community college into Stanford?</p>
<p>(I heard somewhere that it might be easier to transfer from community colleges into Stanford than it is to transfer from, say, Yale into Stanford - is this true?)</p>
<p>All of this, of course, is purely hypothetical - I might go to Yale and decide that I love it and that I don't want to transfer to Stanford at all. The only reason I'm asking this is because I want to know my options in the possible case that I might go to Yale and hate it (but, to be honest, it's hard to imagine ANYONE hating Yale haha...except Harvard peeps).</p>
<p>To be short, Stanford still holds a very special place in my heart - it's like home to me - so, while I am devastated by the rejection, I just want to keep all the possibilities open, if that makes any sense.</p>
<p>Stanford has a high freshman and sophomore retention rate, so there usually aren’t many spots for transfers, typically only 20-50. This results in a very low transfer admit rate. Last year, the transfer admit rate was slightly under 2%. A good portion of those admits are transferring because of non-traditional situations, such persons who have been pursuing military service or national level competitions, or persons who were unable to leave home after HS due to unique and difficult events in their family . There are also admits who fill a unique need for the class, such as recruited athletes; or admits who have very unique backgrounds, such as students who spent time accomplishing amazing things around the world instead of attending a 4-year college. In short, I wouldn’t count on being able to transfer to Stanford, and I certainly wouldn’t recommend going to a community college instead of Yale to increase odds of being able to transfer to Stanford. Yale is an outstanding college, and I expect you’ll be quite content there. </p>
<p>“I heard somewhere that it might be easier to transfer from community colleges into Stanford than it is to transfer from, say, Yale into Stanford - is this true?”</p>
<p>Does it matter?</p>
<p>Of course you should trade Yale for a chance at Stanford that is much lower than the one you had when you were rejected, shouldn’t you?</p>
<p>@disari21 Yes, Yale is an outstanding school - perhaps even better than Stanford, in some aspects - but for me, the cost of attending Yale would put a HUGE financial burden on my family. So attending a CC might actually be a viable option for me. But then again, Stanford would also be really expensive, even if I got in as a transfer. </p>
<p>Anyway, my question still stands: Is it true that it’s easier to transfer from a CC than from a private?</p>
<p>Skipping Yale and going to CC for the chance to transfer to Stanford could be the worst decision in your life. Even taking a gap year and re apply again will be better, though probably nothing will change.</p>
<p>It may be rude. But top private schools don’t want to equate their students to the CC students and their education to the CC, which by taking someone as transfer and confer a degree in the future, they implicitly do. You can forget about your chance once you go to CC unless there is really extraordinary circumstance which I doubt you have.</p>
<p>I would say go to UCB if you really don’t want to pay for Yale. You are saving money for less attention and safety net. You most likely still need to go to graduate school, and Stanford/UCB takes a lot from each other at graduate level. If you can’t rise to the top at UCB, then it’s a moot point.</p>
<p>@MikeNY5: Maybe the OP expected better aid, or started to dislike Yale after sending the application. The latter has happened to me(for a quite selective school).</p>
<p>“Anyway, my question still stands: Is it true that it’s easier to transfer from a CC than from a private?”</p>
<p>Easier is a poor way to describe it. The major difference is that, in the Stanford transfer application, you’ll be asked to explain your need to transfer. Community college students have a fairly obvious answer here - they go to community college. Students from a private four-year school are in a different boat, tasked with coming up with a legitimate reason for why they need to leave their four-year university. I’ve personally seen private school transfers, including some from Ivy League schools (even one from Harvard); all of them had incredibly specific reasons for their request to change schools. In other words, they weren’t people thinking, “I’ll go here for two years and then transfer to Stanford.”</p>