<p>I've been at a top 10 British university for the last two weeks, and while I have been enjoying the EC side of uni, and got involved in a lot of things, the academics copletely suck. Before coming to university, I was told that I could take certain classes, but now that I'm here, it turns out that I can't 'because it's too much admin works for us'.
Some of my classes here are too easy and hence boring as well, but I can't switch to more difficult ones. For example, my maths professor told me to switch because I won't learn anything new in her class, but again, because someone behind a desk isn't willing/able to put in some extra effort, I'm stuck doing basic math.
On top of that, there is a complicated reason as to why I didn't apply to American colleges last year and having studied in the UK for the last two weeks, I feel like the American system may suit me better in general.</p>
<p>I'll be sitting the SAT soon, and if my mock-paper results are anything to go by, I could get a 2300+ with a bit of luck. I was 2nd in my HS graduating class.</p>
<p>I know about transfer admissions statistics for the Ivies, but I need to give it a go anyway. Does anoyone have any advice as to what I can do to increase my chances of admission? Or can you let me know what non-Ivy schools offer financial aid to internationals? </p>
<p>OK, why Ivies? In other words, what do you want to do in life?</p>
<p>Many LACs actually offer pretty good fin aid to internationals, though I don’t know about international transfers.</p>
<p>For a number of reasons. Most generally, I want to go to school with people who actually want to be there and who are smart enough to provide a challenging environment for me. I want to take classes that will teach me something rather than make me regurgatate information I already know. On top of that, there are a few professors spread out across the Ivies who really inspired me to study what I’m currently studying so getting to attend their classes would be AWESOME. I’m considering a career in either diplomacy or law, so especially if I were to go with the first, the Ivies would provide me with some good networking opportunities but more importantly, let me study what I need to get to where I want to be, in an environment that can provide me with the skills I’ll need once I end up in my chosen career… </p>
<p>Pretty much the only LAC that I looked at was Amherst but if there are any others, could you let me know?</p>
<p>Look through the International forum and do research with Google. Not that hard.</p>
<p>If the transfer thing doesn’t work out, try not to get too stressed out; things will improve (get harder) in time. Two weeks is a bit early to write off an entire degree course. Have you talked to any second and third year students to see what their experiences have been? I appreciate that it’s disappointing to feel you’ve been promised somthiong that hasn’t materialised.
What are you studying, exactly? Straight mathematics, or something else with mathematical elements?
BTW - you will find that a lot of Ivy star profs get a lot of time away from teaching to do research; much of the teaching, especially in the first couple of years, is likely to be by grad student TAs. Even if you can skip directly to upper level classes you may be looking at it through rose coloured glasses. Don’t rush into anything irrevocable. You don’t want to go from frying pan to fire and get disappointed again.</p>
<p>Thanks for the reaply, Conformist 
Yup, I have spoken to second years doing my course and from what some of them said, it doesn’t get much better. I’m doing Politics, Philosophy and Economics so math is just a part of my course, but please, in the last lecture we ‘learnt’ how to add fractions. Yes, ADD FRACTIONS.
Also, the vast majority of people on my course are just doing it because they ‘have to’, not because they want to, so the classroom discussions don’t get all that deep and challenging, and it’s just not the best environment to study in.
And speaking of classes, there are very few of them at UK universities in general and I feel like the US system may be better for me. I wanted to apply to different US colleges last year, but there are complicated financial reasons as to why I didn’t (partially because I’m not actually from the UK).</p>
<p>I get what you mean about making a hasty decision, but I know that it’s better to think about these things in advance. I just know that when you try to transfer you need a ‘legitiate reason’ for doing so and I’m still not even sure if being bored to tears because of fractions (amongst all the other things )would be a legitimate one :P</p>
<p>I see the problem now. You’re not studying math, so the course is just for what basic math requirements are need for economics. You may be able to skip lectures - depends on the specific university, but it was common where I went for many students to do so as seminars and tutorials were required but lectures were optional. It’s a shame you can’t do more advanced math courses if you were pong to be able to, but it’s part of the payoff for the way the British structure degrees - it’s not a math degree, so you only cover what you need to augment the main course offerings. (It’s possible that whoever you talked to before being admitted didn’t understand what you wanted/expected, but I’m not surprised it wasn’t possible to accommodate you, I’m afraid.</p>
<p>I only just spotted your reply, so this may be a bit late, but how are you getting on now you’re a few weeks further in?</p>
<p>You have to give your current school a fair chance before considering transfer. Your experience is atypical of a freshman admits. Being top U in Britain has its own position academically, don’t underestimate it.</p>
<p>OTOH you are trying to focus on the 1% chance of an Ivy transfer which by itself is unrealistic. If you were to transfer, you should apply broadly, not only Ivy schools and Amherst. </p>
<p>@Conformist1688 It’s not like I ever wanted to do a Maths degree, it’s just that economics requires slighlty more advanced things than factorising trinomials 
So lack of proper Math isn’t bad per se but I was just really looking forward to doing ‘real’ economics, and I’m still stuck doing the same stuff that I did in high school. </p>
<p>As for how I’m getting on, the term is coming to an end and I’m still not very happy here academically (though overall I’ve settled in well and I’m doing a LOT of cool stuff). They allowed me to take a more advanced Math class next term, but I don’t really like the environment here either. Some professors are better than others, but I can’t complain about that, because I bet that even Harvard has some who are good at what they do but suck at teaching it. Still, class discussions are really bad. In all our classes, 3 people out of about 30 ever make the effort to speak, and the discussions still aren’t very stimulating. The problem for me is that I learn through discussion and through having my ideas challenged which doesn’t happen here. People seem to be doing their degrees just to get a piece of paper with a qualification on it and do the bare minimum, but I always try to stretch myself and that can feel v. alienating sometimes.</p>
<p>But now comes the fun part. I’m doing combined honours in Politics, Philosophy and Economics, but over the last couple of months I found that I LOVE computer science to bits. I’m starting a CS-related society here and spending every bit of my free time learning CS and I’m thinking it would be great to be able to study it at uni. I know this is probably crazy but if I were to give a main reason why I’d want to transfer, it would be CS.</p>
<p>As for @artloversplus said: this is kind of paradoxical because the least realisitc is the most realistic for me. I know that there’s a 1% chance to be accepted (slightly more for places like Dartmouth) but the only way that I can get funding for my degree is if I get into an Ivy/Amherest. I’d have to pay all my fees myself, and there is an organisation in my country that funds studies in the US but condition to get the funding is that you’re at an Ivy+Amherest/Oxbridge in the UK. So I know it’s insanely difficult, but if I want to go to America at all, I’ll have to go with the 1% chance.</p>
<p>I am sorry that it is sound harsh on you, but on CC, everyday we got questions about Ivies. Most don’t make it. </p>
<p>If you really want to come to US, you should apply broadly, start with those automatic full ride scholarship schools such as Alabama, which you may not want to hear, because you are in a higher vantage.</p>
<p>@artloversplus I know that you get these questions every day, and I know that ‘you won’t make’ is the typical answer to that. Fair enough, call me stupid but I will still apply so anything that I want to hear is advice that will move my chances as far away from the 0% towards the 1%. But wow, I did just sound like a defensive a**hole, apologies for that.
I don’t really see a point in coming to university that is worse than my current one, plus scholarships in the US are a huge problem for me, because I am an EU national, so most colleges won’t even consider giving me one.</p>
<p>Depends on how much you want to study CS.</p>
<p>What are your career goals and region you want to be in after graduation?</p>
<p>Ok here is an advice.</p>
<p>The best way to go to Harvard is start a revolution and get your face on to the front page of Time Magazine. There were two students this year. You could be the third.</p>