Transferring to Harvard from an Elite university

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

Hello,

Im currently in my first year at the London School of Economics studying economic history, although I am from northern New Jersey originally.

I always really wanted to have the American college experience but my gpa just wasn’t really good enough to get into the really elite schools in the US (like Harvard) so I ended up applying to schools in the UK instead.

My stats after completing high school were as follows:

GPA: 3.68/4 (Weighted)

ACT: 32 composite, 35 English, 34 Reading, 28 math, 30 science, 36 writing

AP tests:

European History: 5
World History: 5
English Language and Composition: 5
Environmental Science: 5
Biology: 5
micro + macro economics: 4,4
English Literature: 4
Psychology:4
US History: 4

SAT II:

World History: 700
US History: 740
Biology: 720

My extracurriculars were also pretty minimal, hence why I chose to apply to a system that didn’t take them as seriously as they do in the US

I was the class president for all four years, and essentially did nothing else but I’m sure that I could make some stuff up or get some things done while I’m here that could potentially be impressive (I’m writing a movie script that I’m hoping might get picked up by a studio)

I have several questions.

One- my reasons for wanting to transfer to Harvard are largely social, and I know this presents a bit of an issue as Harvard requires a real academic reason for transferring. I’m not sure what I would say as I’m already coming from a pretty renowned university- perhaps something to do with the need for a liberal arts oriented degree program?

Two- will Harvard accept my credits? I recognize that there are potentially problems with transferring from a school that does not match up entirely in terms of teaching methods, however I still think there is hope as Harvard never explicitly states that schools from foreign countries aren’t suitable for transfer applications.

Three- how much does the fact that I’m coming from a great university already help or hurt my application? I know that its close to impossible to get into Harvard as a transfer applicant- the only reason I really thought about it was because I know that I will have a big leg up (potentially) on students applying from institutions of a lesser quality.

Any other tips? I’ve been thinking I might try and get buddy buddy with one of the Nobel prize winning economists here- surely a recommendation from a Nobel laureate would help my chances? :wink:

thanks for the help

2

The top Ivies admit only a handful of transfers and they look at you secondary record.

This will hurt.

Also they are looking for academic reasons for transferring, not social reasons.

3

First off: In years past, Harvard has received about 1500 transfer applications for approximately 12 available transfer slots. That’s about a 1% transfer acceptance rate.

Secondly, it’s been suggested on CC that about a third of those transfer slots (4 students) go to recruited athletes who are unhappy with their given playing time at their current university (12 slots - 4 athletic recruits = 8 academic transfer applicants). So, the transfer rate for a non-athlete is really < than 1%.

Thirdly, in the past Harvard has selected transfer applicants who could benefit MOST from Harvard’s resources – meaning those admitted transfer applicants were not attending a school like the London School of Economics, and were more likely attending a community college, state school, or another private school that lacked the resources for their area of interest.

Fourthly, this academic year (2017-2018) Harvard was over-subscribed, meaning too many students accepted their offer of admission. So, next year Harvard is UNLIKELY to accept any transfer applicants as they will not have the available beds to house them.

Lastly, Yale used to have this disclaimer on their transfer website and I think it applies to Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, MIT and the rest of the ivies.

So, wanting to transfer for social reasons (your reason) is not a sufficient reason to be admitted to HYPSM et al.

The question you must answer for yourself – and any university you wish to transfer to is – what educational opportunities (read academics) would Harvard (or YPSM et al) provide you with that you cannot get at the London School of Economics or anywhere else?

Given all of the above, coupled with your lackluster HS GPA, I think your chances fall below the line (sorry). Best of luck.

4

I understand how the admissions process works. The fact that my personal reasons for considering a transfer are PREDOMINANTLY social doesn’t mean that they’re entirely social. Caliber of school does not equate to satisfaction of education. I think I could very easily make a case for why I think that Harvards liberal arts style is better suited and more valuable to me than the specialized one that I’m currently experiencing at the LSE. Essentially what I intended to discern from posting here is what kinds of extra-curricular involvement would be necessary and whether The fact that I’ve done well at a university ranked first in the world for my degree and second in the world, behind Harvard, for the discipline in which it specializes (social sciences). The fact of the matter is that I feel like I would do better at Harvard than where I am currently (socially and academically) and probably better than a good chunk of the existing class.

I would also like to add that I understand entirely the difficulty and improbability of ANYONE from any school and with any stats successfully transferring to Harvard. I merely wanted an indication of whether my chance is as good (or potentially slightly better) than anyone’s.

5

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The fact that I've done well at a university<<<<<<

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       You are a first year and term started on Sept 21? Is that right?
6

No your chances are NOT good. IMHO, your chances are far BELOW that of most other transfer applicant’s to a college such as HYPSM. WHY? Because your unweighted high school GPA of 3.68 is significantly below the average Harvard freshman’s GPA of 3.9!

In other words, what do YOU bring to the table with your lower high school GPA? Based upon what you wrote in your initial post . . .

. . . what have YOU accomplished in college that would make an elite school like Harvard ignore your lackluster high school performance? Maybe you have accomplished something extraordinary in college, but you didn’t choose to highlight it in your initial post. Or, maybe as @Sybylla suggested you haven’t had a chance yet to accomplish something great in college as you are a 1st year college student who just started school last month.

7

In answer to another of your questions . .

. . . the fact that you are already coming from a great university that has many of the same resources and courses as HYPSM does not by itself help or hurt your application – it’s a neutral. It’s all about what is on Harvard’s’s transfer applicant web page: https://college.harvard.edu/admissions/application-process/transferring-harvard-college

If you have all three of those elements, and you’ve written that you have . . .

. . . I would think if you have a 3.9+ unweighted college GPA showing that you’ve matured since high school, can identify what academics Harvard would offer you that are not obtainable at The London School Of Economics, and have glowing recommendations from your college professors, then I think you might stand an “average” or slightly “better than average” chance.

8

It has been 3 weeks. Were you surprised to be accepted by LSE? Is that part of your hankering for “better”? Because aside from H, you probably had other rejections, right?, The fact that LSE looks past your ACT and GPA, and you can be full pay international (not to be sniffed at) has worked nicely for you. . I think you should be thanking your lucky stars really. A 32 and a 3.68 doesn’t do much at all in many US schools.

9

I was pretty transparent about the fact that my high school stats were lackluster, I’m not exactly sure why people seem to be making the assumption that I’m saying that I seem to have a right to get into Harvard becuase I’m at the LSE. Everyone that has said that I haven’t been here long is entirely correct- I’ve felt good about the work I’ve done so far but that isn’t necessarily an indication of what my final results will be at the end of this year. If I merely pulled a 2:1 and didnt do anything extraneous that could be considered extraordinary, I wouldn’t apply for a transfer. Similarly, If I wasn’t pulling a first here I wouldn’t be applying for a transfer. I wasn’t saying that I have already done well, I was just saying that If I end up making an application (which I probably will not) that will require my grades to be stellar.

10

I’m also kind of surprised at the unnecessarily scathing comments on here. I understand I seem like a bit of a tool after thinking about it for thinking about transferring essentially right out of the gate, especially when transfer slots should usually be reserved for the people that are going to get the most out of them, but this post was written out of curiosity. I obviously haven’t decided that I want to transfer, I simply wanted to get an idea of whether it might be worth it to give it a shot.

11

“I know that its close to impossible to get into Harvard as a transfer applicant”

Entirely correct.

“… I know that I will have a big leg up (potentially) on students applying from institutions of a lesser quality.”

No. I don’t think that this is true at all. There are hundreds of universities in the US with very strong academics. If you want to ever get into Harvard you are going to have to wow their admissions yourself, and not expect a “big name” university to do it for you.

I might add: If you fail to focus on doing well where you are now, then you are likely to run into trouble where you are now. Don’t expect LSE to be easy just because you managed to pull off a 3.68 weighted in high school (frankly I am surprised that this was enough to get you into LSE).

12

Not sure why you feel the need to be unnecessarily rude. LSE didn’t ask for my high school transcript, I proved that `I was of high enough quality to succeed at the school in other ways. Thats why I applied.

I agree that it is a bit dumb to expect that I would have an advantage simply off of the name of the school I’m currently at.

I simply feel like I would enjoy Harvard more both socially and academically and I think that I have the tools to succeed in the environment. Which is why I set out to learn more about what it would take. I never said that I had expectations of getting in, I never even said that I had made the decision to start making an application.

BTW, not that this really matters, but my unweighted GPA in my junior year was a 3.94. The number I cited is cumulative including lacklustre (but not terrible) freshman and senior year grades. I wasn’t dumb in high school, I just wasn’t as well suited to the American system as the UK one.

13

I don’t think the responses here are rude or scathing, honestly, and I have commented in the past when I did see that happening.

My own view is that Harvard is less concerned with stats once they meet the benchmark, but EC’s are important, and you only have the class presidency. I am not a fan of accumulating EC’s and I appreciate the importance of that class position. But Harvard assembles an interesting mix in each class and is most interested in how you could contribute to it.

It does seem as if you see the London School of Economics either as a way to achieve prestige when you could not get into an Ivy, or a stepping stone to an Ivy. I think that may be the reason you are running into the tone you are running into.

Why Harvard?

Have you given LSE a chance? Obviously not. Did you ever want to go there?

If you do end up wanting to leave, there are a gazillion schools to consider. What are your main interests, both academic and extracurricular? Size, location, vibe? If you want to study in the US, we can make suggestions. Don’t get fixed on Harvard, where your chances are so slim as a transfer, slimmer than if you had applied in the first place.

14

IMHO, go to the Harvard School of Business after you graduate from LSE.

But, if you do not like it there in England, well, having Harvard as your only transfer option seems a bit silly. Here is a line to the top US colleges:
https://premium.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities

PS - I’ve met Nobel laureates, and I’ve known folks who have had similar level recommendations. You cannot be serious that with so few transfer admits that any letter from a Nobel laureate would matter. Honestly, if you were the Nobel laureate’s kid, maybe. Or you have several patents or journal articles to your name.

I’m feeling like the OP is being facetious but I could be wrong.

15

I think it would be a good time to reflect back on the rejections from the first time around (US and UK), because that should only highlight how fortunate ending up at LSE is (and all hail brexit, and full pay international status). What did your acceptances look like in the US? Your HS record is still going to be the biggest reference point. essentially you have no idea how you are progressing at this point at LSE. Call that scathing if you like. Your are high school plus 3 weeks at this point. You don’t HAVE an LSE record to transfer. Look at your acceptance list in the USA and whatever you didn’t like about that will not have changed.

16

I think your odds of successfully transferring to Harvard are lower than that of the typical transfer applicant for the following reasons:

I would consider any transfer applicant’s chances essentially nonexistent unless they had at least two of the following:

A strong likelihood of acceptance out of high school,
A compelling reason to change academic environments,
A hook.

It seems you have none of the three.

I hope you don’t see this as “rude” or “scathing”. Like the others here, I’m trying to give you realistic information.

17

Seriously I’m surprised you got into LSE, but your chances are dismal for Harvard. You should try for something other than Harvard that takes more transfers.

18

Apart from any other consideration the current first year class is over-enrolled by something like 30-40 students.

19

I just wanted to clear some stuff up because I agree I sound like a complete tool rn.

The only reason I was interested in Harvard is because it wouldn’t make sense to transfer anywhere else.

I’m enjoying the classes I’ve taken so far and I am well aware that I (and anyone else at LSE) am fortunate to have gotten in.

I have gotten the impression so far that socially the system here is very different than the US. No sense of school spirit, no real sports teams, no greek life, etc.

I understood these things before I applied to the LSE but I didn’t think that their nonexistance would have effect on me that they have had thus far.

I will concede that the way I went about phrasing the initial post was probably misguided. I was really asking whether, given great grades and great ec’s and great recommendations etc. at the end of the year, whether it would be worth pursuing even in the slightest.

I am now getting the impression that it is not.

I agree with a lot of what people have said here- yes my high school transcript was crappy and my ACT composite leaves something to be desired. And I agree that to even think about transferring to Harvard your record has to be flawless- which mine is not.

What I do think is unnecessarily rude is people saying that they’re surprised that I got into the LSE. My AP grades and my personal statement and my recommendations were what got me in. I don’t think anyone on this forum has read my recommendation letters or my personal statement, and the one thing people haven’t criticized me for are my APs.

I would also like to note that I wasn’t being serious when I made that comment about a recommendation from a Nobel laureate. They have better things to do than worry about some undergraduate that wants to transfer to Harvard.

And to the person that pointed out that I may have been trying to use LSE as a stepping stone into the Ivy League- that would be a really dumb plan wouldn’t it. I’m at the LSE because I liked the school when I visited, I liked the curriculum, I felt it would be a good fit, and at the end of the day it was the best place that I got in. I always wanted the US college experience but the choice between UMich and LSE tied my hands from the perspective of both price and potential career prospects.

Essentially what I’m saying is, I apologize for being a jerk. And thanks to your well-meaning(?) advice, I’ll try and take my mind off of my Harvard aspirations and spend more time socializing with the comparatively limited apparatus that I’ve been supplied with.