<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>S is different from HY in who they accept as transfers, about half their class every year are CC or NT applicants:</p>
<p><a href=“Transfer student experience offers rewards, challenges”>http://www.stanforddaily.com/2013/09/17/transfer-student-experience-offers-rewards-challenges/</a></p>
<p>Given their very low acceptance rate for transfers, coming from ANY college is extremely difficult. There is NO clear cut better route.</p>
<p>From my experience with transfers to highly selective schools (D1 was a transfer, admitted to Y, B, D, Amherst (H not taking transfers that year), denied at S; and I have known transfers from S>B (wanted Y), H>S, CC>Y, UMd>Y, etc.), I don’t think that trying to figure out the system and picking a school on perceived odds of transferring to S is in your best interest. My advice would be to pick the school that you prefer from the options you currently have (which are incredible) rather than trying to project what you might do in a year or two. </p>
<p>Also, keep in mind, that while transferring is a viable/necessary option in some circumstances, it’s never easy. There are academic as well as social issues to consider: getting to know a new system that others have been navigating for a year or two, leaving friends and making new ones, applying while taking a full load of classes, getting to know profs/TAs well enough to ask for LORs (especially for soph transfers), etc.</p>
<p>Best of luck, these are difficult decisions, as I can attest to from having a kid that transferred after fr year!</p>
<p>Adding: If you’re contemplating attending a CC because you think your odds are better, you might want to consider why S accepts so many CC students. They are looking for students who add something different to their community from the typical high achieving HS students they accept as fr; IOW, those who have taken a non-traditional route and/or have overcome obstacles to excel in college.</p>
<p>Stanford transfer acceptance rate is approx 2% (40 accept / 2000 apps) in past. So basically it’s even harder to get accepted as a transfer than you had this past round. Also if I had to guess, the strength of applicants in the transfer pool is higher than frosh because some frosh whose stats are lowish may be just adding Stanford as another common application school. </p>