Transferring out from UC Berkeley. Should I? Chances?

Transfer Students
1

<p>Hey all, </p>

<p>I'm a 2nd year international student at Cal and
recently I'm considering about transferring to other schools..
hopefully to one of the IVY schools. </p>

<p>My stats are: </p>

<p>High School -
GPA: 3.94/4.00
SAT 1: 2260/2400
SAT 2: 800 (math 2c), 660 (French)
AP: 5 on 2 subjects, 4 on 4 subjects
+ and a decent list of EC's, I would say.. </p>

<p>College -
GPA: 3.71/4.00 ; Honors-listed throughout the first year</p>

<p>I don't have much of EC's yet, but I just joined a club this semester..
(can't write out here tho, i don't want to let ppl identify me here)
I devoted last summer for an internship and got a guarantee for an excellent rec.,
and I'm planning to go to south america for volunteer-trip this winter.. </p>

<p>I started thinking seriously about transfer options this year, as situation at UC's is getting pretty crazy. </p>

<p>First of all, because i'm not from California, I pay 4 times the in-state tuition. That is as much as most of east-coast private schools, and adding up the hilariously expensive cost of living at bay area, I think I spend a good amount of money that equals going to schools like NYU. I wonder if that's worthed at all, spending $50000 or more to struggle hard to get in to a lecture packed with 700 students and waiting for three weeks to talk to a professor in office hour. </p>

<p>Even worse is that a major, major tuition increase (32%) has been proposed by the university executives. Employees and researchers are being laid off and many professors had their salaries cut. Students, professors, and staffs all alike are fighting really hard against the university for all the craziness though... If 32% tuition rise happens I have to pay $20000+/yr for tuition only, and THAT IS RIDICULOUS.</p>

<p>Besides the financial reasons, international students are quite outcast here at Cal.. Also the school seems really homogeneously Californian, that makes out-of-state students feel quite isolated a bit... Well, i'm not sure, maybe it is just me feeling this way..</p>

<p>Lastly, I don't want to live in California right after graduation anyways. I'd rather go work in more competitive, metropolitan places like new york and hong kong.. But it seems like Berkeley's prestige is not as high outside California.</p>

<p>Well, but, the problem is that I like my life here, and I feel like I'm quite settled down, besides certain moments when I realize that I'm not californian like my friends as mentioned above. I love the Californian weather (except for couple of months in winter), and I got to know so many amazing people and some of them will be greatest friends ever in my life...</p>

<p>Wow, I'm being really wordy. Sorry for keeping it long.
So, here are my questions: </p>

<ol>
<li><p>My first choice school is Yale. They offer need-blind FA for internationals. But I know it will be super competitive. What are my chances for Yale?</p></li>
<li><p>Should I give a shot for any other schools? I'm considering Columbia (college) and Brown as well, but i'll have to pay as much as I do here.
I thought of Dartmouth and other liberal arts colleges with international FA but they are often really rural.. Any suggestions? or, if you were me, would you ever write application for any other schools besides Yale? </p></li>
<li><p>How good should my GPA be? I took notoriously rigorous classes at almost maximum workload (20 units) last year, so my grades suffered quite a bit. I think I'll be able to get better GPA this year, somewhere between 3.85-4.0ish, and I hope to get average of 3.8~3.9 GPA by the end of my sophomore year. Is that good enough? People say Berkeley is well known for the gpa deflation, and I wonder if transfer admission officers ever take that into account.</p></li>
<li><p>How much would EC's and internship count? Should I get a recommendation from my old boss at internship for transfer? </p></li>
<li><p>From when do people usually start preparing for transfer admission? Am I ever behind the track? Should I get closer to my professors and GSI (graduate student instructor ; TA equivalent) from now on and ask for rec. at the end of semester, or can I just start worrying about all that from next semester?</p></li>
<li><p>Would the fact that I'm a non-citizen make it harder for me to transfer?</p></li>
</ol>

<p>I know there are lots of questions, I know.
Thank you all sooooooo much for reading this long long thread. </p>

<p>I would deeply deeply appreciate your efforts to help me out.</p>

2

<p>

</p>

<p>The transfer deadline for Y is March 1. Next semester starts in Jan and you need to give some advanced notice to the people you’re asking to write you LORs, so that gives them too little time to get to know you. You should either be asking people who have taught you in previous classes or be getting to know profs/TAs this semester and ask them at the end of the semester.</p>

3

<p>If you’re truly serious about transferring, you will want to send in applications to places other than just Yale. If you have your heart set on Yale, definitely apply. You have great stats and would definitely be considered. However, Yale accepts such a small percentage of the applicants (according to Collegeboard, only 24 transfers were accepted) that you will need backups incase you don’t get in.</p>

4

<p>^Yes, and 24 was for the Fall of 2008 (CB is always a year behind), 18 transfers were accepted for Fall 2009.</p>

5

<p>entomom, by any chance do you know if the 2009 rates have changed drastically for any schools from 2008? I’ve been hoping a new topic would be made about 2009 rates, but haven’t seen any, so 2008 seems to be the most recent I can get. I’m looking more specifically for info about NYU (Stern), Georgetown, Columbia, and Brown’s transfer info, but any info you could provide would be wonderful (or if you could point me in the right direction even).</p>

6

<p>1) Sure, go for it, but understand that Y accepts few transfers each year. However, I strongly disagree with your assumption about Cal’s pretige. On the international stage, Cal is extremely well-known, particularly in Asia.</p>

<p>2) Of the Ivies, Cornell is the most transfer-friendly, particularly if you apply to colleges other than Arts & Sciences. Cornell is need-blind in admissions, but I don’t beleive that they meet full financial need for internationals. Dartmouth’s D-Plan enables transfers to easily assimilate but yes, it’s rural, and quite frankly, reputation is not probably that high internationally.</p>

<p>3) Your gpa should be as high as it can get. Cal’s mean gpa’s belie the notion of grade deflation, so few colleges will take that into account. They will look at your courses, however, and realize that science courses tend to grade harder than humanities courses. And, they will note that you took more than a normal courseload.</p>

<p>4) ECs count at the private colleges.</p>

<p>5) Professors are better than TA’s.</p>

<p>6) Yes.</p>

<p>btw: Yale is only 9% international.</p>

7

<p>akalboy,
I don’t know of any major changes in transfer rates for 2009. There was a relatively recent thread that mentioned rates for Vandy going up, but it was more conjecture than fact I believe.</p>

<p>I’m going start a new thread for 2009 transfer rates and sticky it to the top of the forum.</p>

8

<p>I would say no.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Too much hassle. Just concentrate on your study to finish your BS then apply for MA/MS if not PhD. You will have only 2 years to know professors at other institutions.
You also need to watch your GPA. There is a huge difference between GPA after first year a GPAs in other years.</p></li>
<li><p>May be upper division classes will be smaller and relationship with professors will be better.</p></li>
<li><p>Could you check if 32% fee increase apply to international students too?</p></li>
</ol>

9

<p>thank you all for reply :slight_smile:
it truly helps!!
and… </p>

<p>bluebayou / is Cal’s mean GPA not lower than other schools? Wow… that’s intense. Where did you get the info? and… how much would EC matter for private colleges then? Oh, and fyi, out-of-state students are about 15% and int’l students are 3%ish out of total Cal students… </p>

<p>coolweather / yeah, it is, according to the recent sf chronicle article that i’ve read… yudof (or the regents, not sure) suggested two consecutive 15% increases for both in-state and out of state students…</p>

10

<p>littlebear:</p>

<p>yes, I know the UCs well. Look at it another way, Cal has more international students (in total number) than Yale. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t apply to Yale, but do it for the right reasons – and more “prestige” won’t work. Anyone at Yale KNOWS that Cal has more prestigious professors than they do. Heck, Cal has more top-ranked grad programs – which generates prestige – than Harvard!</p>

<p>Check out UC statfinder for Cal’s mean Frosh gpa. Of course, nothing is as high as Brown’s mean four year gpa (at 3.6), but Cal is no longer in the 2.5 category. It just has a rep for grade deflation relative to that Junior University in Palo Alto. :)</p>

11

<p>PS – Don’t forget, that some/many of the California “residents” are also international in that they are not US citizens. They just happened to graduate from a Calif high school to avail themselves of instate tuition.</p>

<p>fwiw: I strongly recommend that you look into the International House (I-House).</p>