Transferring to Ivy’s, Stanford, MIT, etc

Transfer Students
1

Hello, I’m an incoming freshman at the University of Michigan and know that I will be applying to the ivys, MIT, Stanford, other colleges/universities. I know that it isn’t good to already want to transfer at this point, but UMich was never my first choice. After spending a month at MIT for an entrepreneurship program this summer, I now know that I want to pursue a Computer Science degree. Here are the colleges/universities I’m looking to transfer to, my stats, and other info.

Colleges/Universities:
Harvard
Yale
Princeton
Columbia
Cornell
UPenn
Dartmouth
Brown
MIT
Stanford
USC
NYU
Carnegie Mellon

  • Since I plan to pursue CS I would focus on MIT, Stanford, Harvard, USC, and Carnegie Mellon.

My background:
White
Male
Upper Class? (~$500k+)
Resident of Michigan

My current schedule at UMich:
Academic Writing and Inquiry (all 1st years have to take a first year writing course, one semester long)
Fundamentals of Programming
Cognitive Science
Calculus I (got a 4 not a 5 on the ap exam, ■■■)

HS Stats:
SAT // 1440 (750 Math & 690 Reading)
ACT // 31 (35 Math, 33 English, 30 Reading, 25 Science)
W GPA // 3.9
UW GPA // 3.8ish
*I’m currently studying to retake the SAT again in October, I’m focusing on reading right now, I believe I can get a 1500+.

HS ECs:
National Honors Society (2 years)
Key Club (Vice President, 4 years)
Link Crew/Student Mentor (2 years)
Science Olympiad (President, 3 years)
Social Studies Olympiad (Vice President, 1 year)
High School Varsity Soccer (Co-captain, 3 years)
Competitive/Travel Club Soccer (Captain, 15 years, 10th overall in state)
Spent two summers at UMich studying computer science and app development
Online courses such as Dartmouth’s ‘3 box method’ (business) and Harvard’s CS50 Mobile App Development with React Native
Photography/Filmmaker (was paid to edit YouTubers’ videos, etc)
Serial Entrepreneur netting over $500 senior year (Shopify)
Peer Tutor
150+ volunteer hours

HS Classes:
7 APs (4 AP Lang, 4 AP Gov, 3 AP Chem, 3 AP Micro, 4 AP Physics C: Mechanics, 3 AP Lit, 4 AP Calc AB)
Took Honors courses
*Went to a bad public high school that didn’t offer many AP classes (couldn’t take my first one until junior year) or other programs or ecs.

Awards:
AP Scholar with Distinction
Principal’s List (4 years)
Credit from Villanova for completing UMich CS courses over the summer
3 Gold Varsity Letters

Things I’ve done this summer:
Accepted to MIT’s LaunchX Entrepreneurship Program where I and 70 other students from around the globe learned about entrepreneurships and created startups. At the end we pitched under MIT’s dome to investors.
CS and Media Intern at Deepblocks (using AI for Real Estate)
Launched two companies. One is a new tech device to keep children safer in cars and the second one uses Virtual Reality to treat certain illnesses (we aren’t public yet so that’s confidential). I’m currently working with researchers and professors, possibly a Stanford professor and a Harvard professor (reaching out and discussing with them).
Launched a Podcast with a networked friend from the MIT program that discusses and explores GenZ. We have talked with Nadya Okomoto (co-founder of the PERIOD. movement), Casey Nachenburg (co-founder of Norton Security and professor at UCLA) and we are trying to find a time to talk with Lynda Applegate (high up at HBS and founder of HBS’s entrepreneurship sector).
I’m currently taking more online courses and looking to somehow dual enroll in CS this year at Harvard (Harvard extension school offers this?).

Additional things I’m going to do this year:
Get SAT score up
Get 4.0 GPA
Do research with and get close to professors at UMich and other schools
Try to get an internship at Google in Ann Arbor
Continue to network

I realize that these schools are stretches but they’re what I see in my future. Please don’t tell me that I shouldn’t transfer blah blah blah. UMich doesn’t fit me for many reasons, I picked it because I was corned through being rejected by these other schools.

I didn’t know my true passion until I was at MIT this summer. It pushed me to do a lot in one month, and I won’t ever forget or leave this new passion behind. I’m interested in Tech, but am still open to other routes (hence the other liberal colleges listed). I also would have listed other colleges but I either don’t want to take up more space or they only accept junior transfers (such as UCLA and Berkley) and I want to transfer ASAP. I will be sure to write about my experience and how it is influencing me to transfer when I write my essays.

If you have any tips, want to discuss more, or have any comments, I would be very appreciative.

Before I leave this thread here I want to note that I also have:

Harvard Legacy
MIT Legacy

*Both from father, my mother didn’t attend college

Thank you

2

This entire thread is premature since you have not even started college. Many of these colleges accept very few transfers. Harvard and Princeton are about ~12; MIT is about 25. Successful applicants are often coming from colleges that don’t have the academic opportunities available, which nobody will say is the case with UMich. Additionally, if you applied to these colleges the first time around, your application would need to offer something different to expect a different outcome.

MIT does not consider legacy and Harvard only considers children of Harvard College alums as legacy.

3

Harvard legacy didn’t help you (enough) first time, and for transfers they want a specific academic reason to transfer. You don’t have one.

To me, your list says ‘I want that Ivy name’ more than ‘I want the best CS’, as you have left off several colleges that are better for CS than some of the ones you list.

4

Thank you both for your comments. I’m sorry I did not include this but I didn’t apply to either MIT or Harvard because I didn’t think I would get in. Knowing that now, what else should I do to boost my app? Thank you!

5

As a practical matter, the high school academic credentials that presumably fell short for frosh admission are likely to hold you back for sophomore level transfer, since you will not have much of a college record, unlike junior level transfer applicants for whom high school academic credentials are less important due to having more of a college record.

But you really should reconsider why you want to transfer. Michigan CS is regarded more highly than many of the other colleges on your proposed transfer application list. And you are getting it for a lower price as a Michigan resident (even though your upper class parents with $500k+ income could presumably afford a higher price, saving them some money is still a nice thing). What are the “various reasons” that Michigan does not fit you?

6

I’d like to additionally add that I’m interested in tech but am still open to the liberal arts - part of me even wants to be a filmmaker.

I’m not leaving Umich because it doesn’t have resources, I’m leaving it because the school doesn’t fit me.

I want to go to Harvard because it offers better CS and the business school is there as well - a mix of students who together foster entrepreneurship.

I want to go to MIT because of its network of entrepreneurs and its resources as well.

In addition, the mix between the two schools being so close is amazing for outside projects, something I’ve been looking to do.

7

Many schools don’t consider an SAT taken after starting college.
If it means so much to you to go to one of those schools, defer your admission to Mich and try again for the target schools next year. I think you’d have a better chance in getting in after a gap year than after 1 year at college.

8

Do the schools on your transfer list even accept SAT scores taken after HS?

I agree with ucbalumnus that it’s going to be a very hard sell to transfer after your freshman year. 7 AP courses in HS is fine in terms of rigor, but you got 3s and 4s on the exams. Transfers to these schools are much harder to come by and one year of college courses is not going to erase 4 years of HS.

IMO, your best bet is to try as a junior transfer after you have two solid years of college GPA under your belt and hopefully some internships (not so easy to get as a freshman so not something you can absolutely plan for, especially at a company like Google).

9

You won’t get into Harvard or MIT. Move on and make the most of Michigan or find lower tier schools you prefer.

10

You have an awful lot going on right now with your businesses. Truly, a gap year is in order. Focus on these projects. College can wait a year or two, and your options then may be quite different than they are now.

11

“I picked it because I was corned through being rejected by these other schools.”
1-Any of the colleges on this list that rejected you as a freshman will reject you again.
All of them keep application records for 2- 3 years, and they refer to those records when making decisions.
2- Your SAT scores and AP scores indicate that you do not measure up , compared to the students they did accept. Taking those tests again will not make a difference
3- The transfer acceptance rates at the above colleges, with the exception of USC, are a tiny fraction of their single digit freshman acceptance rates.
And you would have to discover a cure for cancer for either MIT or Harvard to consider you given your HS GPA and test scores.
I suggest you go ahead and apply to USC, because you might have a chance of acceptance there. But its best not to fool your self into thinking or hoping that the other colleges will give you a second glance. How much you want to be there is of no interest to the admissions committees .

12

If you’re planning to do computer science, you’re wasting your time and money seeking for prestige. In tech, your worth is judged on what you know and how well you can do the job. I’ve worked with great programmers who went to big universities and with college dropouts. I’ve been doing programming for several years now and I haven’t once been asked where I went to school. I went to a regional state university. In my most recent job search, I interviewed at Amazon, Google, GA Tech, University of KY, Universal Studios, and Alamo Colleges. I turned down interviews at ASU, Target Corporation, Stanford Medical, and UNC-Chapel Hill.

If you’re worried about employability and making a great living, I promise you’ll be fine at Michigan. You don’t need the extra debt for those other schools. It won’t benefit you.

13

OP- you sound like a nice kid.
I think you’re going to blow your chances at being happy at Michigan AND transferring if you spend Freshman year retaking SAT’s, pining away for a different college, writing essays, etc.

Why not focus on the here and now, and put a red circle on the calendar for a date out in the future where you do some thinking about transferring?

And going to Harvard as an undergrad because you want to collaborate with the B school is probably the single worst reason for going to Harvard that I have ever heard (and I thought I’d hear them all). There is zero chance that you will work on entrepreneurial activities with B school students or faculty. Zero.

Focus on your classes and doing well at Michigan. Kick the can on transferring down the road for now. You can apply to Sloan and HBS for grad school…

14

If you go into the workforce with that attitude, no one will hire you no matter how smart or skilled you are. What employers want to see is how you can take something and turn it into something better. It’s life skill you’re expected to master in college. Seriously, if ranking meant anything at all, Michigan is one of the highest ranked CS programs in the nation.

15

Retaking a test, that is conducted for HS admission purposes, just smacks of desperation and prestige-seeking.
You’re overall scores in both your testing and your grades just aren’t at the caliber expected at those prestigious schools. I agree that those aren’t the best CS schools. You didn’t pick according to subject, you picked according to the name of the school.
Your EC’s will not make up for your stats.
Also, how can you be a legacy of either school if NEITHER of your parents attended and have a history of activities or donations?
Do you have siblings at H or MIT?

16

@coolguy40 I would have to disagree to some extent. I know that companies like Google don’t care about where you went to school, at least for entry-level positions, but from what I’ve heard, it will matter a lot when trying to reach a management position. Also, if you’d like to create your own startup, venture capitalists will take you much more seriously if you’ve attended a brand name school.

One area where prestige is extremely important is quantitative finance. If you’re not from a top 25 school (preferably top 15), even getting an interview will be a huge uphill battle. I’m sure this field is highly desirable for CS majors. The pay is quant finance significantly better than the pay at FAANG. You can make millions if you’re good, but you probably won’t make it past $300-400k per year if you work at FAANG.

@“aunt bea” I completely understand why he’s going for prestige over program quality. Read what I wrote above.

For example, UIUC has a much better CS department than Dartmouth, but Dartmouth has better connections and a better name. Having a brand name on your resume will go a long way when seeking highly competitive jobs and venture capital. For this reason, I’d argue that a CS degree from Dartmouth is better than a CS degree from UIUC.

17

OP, I’m in the same boat as you. I’m also an incoming freshman at a top ~30 university looking to transfer to a similar school and I completely understand your reasons. Unfortunately, I have to agree with some of the other posters on this thread about a few things. Transferring to HYPSM is near impossible if you don’t have some type of hook. They want people who don’t have access to the same opportunities that you do. However, what they’re not acknowledging is that other top ~20 schools take a lot of transfers (e.g. UPenn takes over 200). AFAIK, most transfers at non-HYPSM T20’s have no hooks and come from upper-class backgrounds. They likely got in due to high-GPA’s, cool extracurriculars, compelling essays, and the ability to pay. If you absolutely kill it during your first semester of college and get straight-A’s, you’ll probably have a decent chance of getting into at least one top 20 school (USC and Cornell CALS are pretty safe bets).

I’d probably hire a consultant to help with this. It will probably cost ~$10k, but it’s an investment that will benefit you for life. And given your family income, it’s probably not a huge sacrifice. Essays are extremely important when transferring and can make or break you. You need to articulate why you should be accepted and a good consultant will help you come up with a compelling reason.

18

@coolguy40 Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg both went to Harvard. Jeff Bezos went to Princeton. Elon Musk went to Penn (and he was a transfer too!). And I can think of countless other examples. If prestige doesn’t matter, then how can you explain this?

Sure, there are exceptions like Mark Cuban, Jensen Huang (NVIDIA), Tim Cook, and Satya Nadella but they really aren’t the majority.

19

LoL. No.

20

@collegemom3717 I’ve heard that getting into the contract colleges at Cornell isn’t too hard as long as you have a high GPA and a great essay. Of course there aren’t any guarantees, but it’s far from impossible.

Here are my estimates for his chances at each school (assuming a GPA above 3.7 and very compelling essays):

Harvard - 1%
Yale - 0.5%
Princeton - 0.1%
Columbia - 20%
Cornell - 50%
UPenn - 25%
Dartmouth - 2%
Brown - 20%
MIT - 0.5%
Stanford - 3%
USC - 65%
NYU - 70%
Carnegie Mellon - 35%