I desperately want to go to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, or Columbia but unfortunately I was either denied or did not apply. If anyone can offer advice to get in as a transfer in a year or two or can help mitigate the disappointment I have had for this admissions cycle it would be greatly appreciated. I got into Northwestern, Notre Dame, UCLA, and USC all with some sort of scholarship. WL at Berkeley and I am hoping to get in off of the waitlist.
You are disappointed because you didn’t get in after not applying? The schools that you say you got into are just as good as these.
Give up. Excel elsewhere.
What do you know about the transfer rates of these schools? (one of them is ZERO by the way).
Now explain to us how this isn’t your emotions are leading you vs. your intellect. You must have some given the FANTASTIC schools that want you. Seriously. People would give their left arm to get into some of those schools. Frankly, hurry up and decline those not at the top of your list so you can ease the pain of waitlisters on those schools.
You can’t see the bird in your hand and instead are focused on two in the bush. Sorry – but you get no sympathy nor advice here…
‘It is characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things’ Thoreau
Princeton doesn’t have transfer admissions!
Wait…
So you’re telling me that you got into some fantastic schools, who are by the way in no way inferior to HYPC in undergraduate education, but you want to go to HYPC because of the name?
I can see why they denied you.
In all honesty though, its not what school you go to that defines you. There are idiots admitted to Harvard and Yale, while there are geniuses at USC there because they got unlucky during the admissions process. College is what you make of it, nothing more, nothing less. Please, enjoy being a wildcat or leprechaun or bruin, and stop dreaming about what you’d find as a crimson.
There are also geniuses at USC (and many other schools) who are there because that’s where they want to be!
@sherpa I bet there are! Its just during this years admission cycle, there were so many brilliant people I know not getting into top 20 schools that I had to say that( Think major science awards such as USAMO and Intel STS and perfect scores!)
No, no you can’t. I’m 95% sure that the admitees also applied because they loved the school, atmosphere, and prestige, just like OP.
Instead of putting down OP like an a**hat, answer his question and just tell him the reality of transfer admissions - that it’s next to impossible.
And saying “Northwestern, Notre Dame, UCLA, and USC” are “in no way inferior to HYPC in undergraduate education” just shows your ignorance. NW, ND UCLA, and USC are amazing schools, but if you look at the results of their undergraduate education (employment %, median starting salary, etc), HYPC has better results. Plus, employers also like the “name” of HYPC. Going for the name isn’t something to be ashamed of, it’s logical.
GranTurismo330:
Guess what? You have no idea what you are talking about. I don’t believe you can prove any of what you assert, especially if you do an apples-to-apples comparison of people with similar test scores in similar markets with similar demographic backgrounds. All of the other schools are bigger than HYPC, and UCLA is much bigger. All of them educate a broader range of students than HYPC, so it shouldn’t be much of a surprise if they also have a broader range of post-education outcomes, but that doesn’t mean that comparable students at the various schools have different outcomes.
Also, salaries and living costs, both, are lower in Chicago and Los Angeles than they are in Boston and New York, so relatively small differences in starting salaries are more likely to reflect the colleges’ locations and differences in their graduates’ dispersion patterns than any difference in quality or perceived quality of education, or for that matter in whatever sort of happiness extra money buys.
But it’s all meaningless because there are no reliable statistics to begin with. All of the studies I have seen have one or two major flaws: relying on incomplete, self-reported data, and excluding people with graduate degrees. The latter makes all of the statistics worthless: about 5% of my Yale class never picked up a graduate degree (or three) in the decade after college, and one of the top reasons for not getting a graduate degree was stepping into a family business (which is fine, but not much help to students who don’t have family businesses to step into). And most importantly of all, I have never seen anything remotely credible that separated out HYPC from other elite, highly selective private colleges. The best study I know of looked at people who had been accepted at that sort of college but who had chosen to go to college elsewhere, and there was very little difference in terms of career earnings between graduates of the top private colleges and graduates of the top public colleges (like UCLA).
Finally . . . employers don’t care. They really don’t.
GranTurismo, if name was the only thing employers cared about (which they don’t. They primarily care about experience), the unemployment rate would be much higher. Actually, it would likely be in the 80% range. Name is not a logical reason to transfer, ESPECIALLY not from these schools and no school will accept someone as a transfer for that reason.
Maybe you should get over yourself and be happy with the schools you’ve gotten into because some people would die to get into those schools? The quality of schools you have gotten into are just as good as the schools you didn’t get into. If your mind is set on transferring from the beginning your college experience won’t be what it could since you are stuck daydreaming on the impossible. It’s the drive of the student that makes the college experience not the other way around. If you also didn’t get into these schools when applying in high school the probability of you getting in as a transfer is even lower. Those schools you want to transfer in only really admit valedictorians in their high school class and even a lot of valedictorians are rejected so unless you think you will be at the top of your college class by a large margin you should give up now and be thankful for everything given to you.
" I got into Northwestern, Notre Dame, UCLA, and USC all with some sort of scholarship. "
WHOA. You got into - count 'em, not 1, not 2, not 3, but FOUR of the top 25 schools in this country and you’re disappointed? Shame on you. Any ONE of those acceptances is hitting the metaphorical jackpot and you should be jumping for joy.
I swear there’s always at least one of these complaints in every thread that expresses a modicum of disappointment of getting into a good school.
His expectations aren’t the same as others’. His goals aren’t the same as others’. His chances at getting into each of these colleges aren’t the same as those of slackers who would “kill to get in” since they have zero chance of being admitted in the first place since they’re incompetent and/or didn’t work hard enough during high school.
With the complaint about how OP should be ashamed of being disappointed because “some people would die to get into those schools”, that would mean if a hypothetical STEM student who had a passion for engineering was offered a full scholarship to a top-tier liberal arts school (for some random reason), he would HAVE to be “jumping for joy” because other students who would want to actually go to that Liberal Arts school would “kill to get in”?? Nope.
You can’t tell someone what to be happy about. OP’s chances and expectations were clearly better than Ivy-daydreamers who do nothing to actually increase their chances. Why should he HAVE to feel “privileged” to get into UCLA, NW, etc.?
Face it, OP wanted to get into HYPC more than UCLA, NW, etc. Now he wants to try one last time to get in (it’s not like he said if he didn’t get the transfer that he would just reject these schools because they’re not HYPC). He was disappointed from not getting into HYPC: he was NOT disappointed because he got into UCLA, NW, Notre Dame, and USC.
Princeton does not accept transfers
It is harder to get into Harvard and Yale as a transfer than as a freshman.
http://admissions.yale.edu/transfer
Edit: The website I tried to link to keeps getting blocked - so I will just say that in 2012 the transfer acceptance rate at Harvard was 1.04%
You got into some amazing schools. Pick your favorite and I bet in two years you will have completely let go of the HYP idea.
Good luck!
I can’t wrap my head around the concept that the OP is disappointed they weren’t accepted by schools to which they didn’t apply.
.
Yeah, the mediocre ones don’t.
Goldman-Sachs? Google? Other top companies noted for paying well and having god work environments and prestige? They do.
There was even an interview with a Goldman-Sachs hiring manager who admitted that an Ivy League education is preferable for many reasons (environment, education). In fact, UPenn is the number 1 feeder to these top Wall St. companies. Same goes for Comp Sci. Google would MUCH rather have a Stanford undergrad than some other college like Notre Dame or USC. I know THAT from a family friend who graduated from UCLA and did not get into Google.
Clearly you don’t know jack about what employers look for. Of course they look for experience and prize that more than education, but when comparing two 22 year olds that just graduated and neither have any experience or internships, of course they’ll be more interested in the top-tier school that the company has had good hiring experiences with before.
I’m an employer and I will reiterate that they don’t care. We look for people with a good college record and pertinent experience. We see a lot of qualified students from top tier universities because they are pre-selected in that manner, but we also see quite a few who found their stride in college.
And, I have to mention that Ivy applicants and the like have an even higher standard to meet, so it can work against you.
@JustOneDad
you’re an employer for what company?
I’m 99% sure that at least a lot of finance firms discriminate heavily upon undergrad college when hiring.