<p>What intimidation? Since when did top schools become intimidating?</p>
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<p>How much weight/time would you give to each of those? I can’t imagine anything directly related to the application taking that long except the essays, which someone (I think Ace) said he spent 20 hours on, which is about 2 hours/day over 2 weeks. It’s entirely manageable. Keeping up the A’s can be hard but doing an application on the side doesnt make it that much harder.</p>
<p>^
Agreed! I spent more then 20 hours on my essay, but suspect it is because Ace is a better writer. :D</p>
<p>@DreamingBig: Right on point man!</p>
<p>My latest stress, for anyone who cares:
I’m applying under Virginia’s Guaranteed Admissions Agreement, so I know I’ll be getting into my first choice as long as I do well this semester. I’ve found an apartment for next year and will be putting down a security deposit soon, but I don’t want to sign a lease until I have my acceptance letter (just in case). Additionally, I have an interview for an internship in MY area, so I will potentially have two rents to pay over the summer 
I don’t know anyone from my new school since I’m a transfer, and I can’t look into subletting just yet anyway in case I don’t get the internship…Ah, moving!</p>
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Well, I don’t know about you, but every time I come on this site to the transfer boards, there’s a plethora of posts with people stressing/freaking about how Dream University X only accepting 1/2 a transfer student and how they think high school/test scores/ ECs or whatever else will prevent them from getting into that school. </p>
<p>Just because you are unfazed by something doesn’t mean others aren’t. </p>
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Filling out your name, SSN and birth date isn’t the “hard” (or, the annoying part). I never, ever said the essays weren’t “manageable”. What I said was that it’s not as easy for everyone as some people said it was for them. There’s a difference.</p>
<p>And I don’t know where you go to school, but at mine, the counselors are ZERO help. Even getting someone there to fill out the College Official’s Report is a hassle because they’re that incompetent…and deadset on getting everyone to transfer to this one school in particular (damn where we want to go…ugh) and get huffy when you tell them that’s not where you want to go.</p>
<p>@NotAClue, I agree.</p>
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<p>Everyone’s posting history is public record, and well it should be on an internet discussion board where members have the ability to state anything they choose. Sorry if direct citations and facts bother you. </p>
<p>What bothers me are people who make statements that are not supported by the facts. You have gone to great extent to pontificate about how easy it is to apply to top schools and state that you are applying to “highly selective schools”, but the facts show otherwise. I have not problem with the schools that you are applying to, only with your insistence that anyone who is stressed or thinks that it takes time to apply to a selective school is not organized, procrastinates, plans poorly, etc. You have neither applied to a highly selective school nor have you been accepted by one, so it seems more than a little premature/unfounded to come to such strong conclusions.</p>
<p>The information you re-posted didn’t bother me, the reason it was posted did. Your posts had nothing to do with the topic and was solely an attempt to spite me. (Again, I would expect better of a moderator.) From the very first message you posted you seem to have the misconception that I am pontificating, haughty and pretentious. If you mistook my posts for pontificating then I apologize for that. It was made clear my opinion was based on my experience alone and I consistently acknowledged others whom said their experience was quite different. (That was the point of the ongoing conversation, discussing our opinions.)</p>
<p>You seem to come off really insecure. Perhaps your misunderstanding can be attributed to me describing the process as quite easy and for you it probably is hard. It has nothing to do with the schools we are applying for as the processes aren’t radically different. Not once, in any post did I insist that anyone was disorganized, procrastinating or anything else derogatory. I spoke of my experience alone, which I repeatedly stated it as thus. I again apologize that you continually misread it.</p>
<p>Maybe the schools you are applying to are more selective then mine, but then again you have been on College Confidential for over 6 years. Just because my schools do not have 5% and below acceptance rates does not imply they are not highly selective per your objective opinion. (Multiple rankings websites would contradict you as well.) If you really want to continue this useless ****ing contest then just PM me. There are people in this thread whom are actually contributing useful information based on their experiences.</p>
<p>Agreed with all your points, Johnny.
You’ve been accused of not posting facts, but who’s to decide that 36% for Columbia GS or 40% for UT-Austin isn’t highly selective? I don’t see why anyone would take issue with your posts.</p>
<p>johnny…</p>
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<p>what kind of reaction are you expecting from comments like these?? it’s because you’re clearly mocking others based almost solely on your individual experience that people are curious about where you’re coming from.</p>
<p>remember the topic of this thread. the OP explicitly references schools with acceptance rates hovering around 10% and below. he’s already defined what he means by ‘top schools.’ of course, everyone, entomom included, isn’t arguing that the definiton of a ‘top school’ doesn’t vary from person to person. she is only pointing out that your experience isn’t what is the subject of this thread, which the OP has already defined. selectivity is at the core of this discussion… trying to transfer to a school where it very often feels like you have no chance of getting in is obviously a different, more stressful experience than applying to schools where it’s reasonable you will get into one or more.</p>
<p>I was expecting comments like these:</p>
<p>“its alot harder than HS lemme tell you that, in HS my counselor did 1/2 the work!”
“As a freshman taking a load of classes (18 credits and I’m an engineer major) it’s not easy applying to colleges as a transfer. Also its hard making decisions whether it be financially or whatever else it may be.”
“^I wholeheartedly disagree. Transferring from a university is not easy.”
“Agreed Johnny. It really isn’t hard to get recommendations.”</p>
<p>The vast majority responded with their own experiences or feelings, whether agreeing or disagreeing with me. They didn’t respond with angry, empty retorts of the minority such as:
“Translation: Johnny is better than all of you.”
and
OK Johnny, top public to Y, good enough for ya?? More than a “relatively high GPA with a good courseload” necessary. Really glad your so on top of things! </p>
<p>Did you really not look at the OP’s post? It clearly states, “Why aren’t there more transfer applicants to top schools?” OP later mentions schools like Cornell with an 18% acceptance rate, so where are you getting this 10% and below? Did you also not notice at the end of the first page the thread transitioned to people’s experiences with transferring? The topic of this entire thread says it all. Out of 2+ pages of people talking about their experience, you single <em>me</em> out to say that my experience is not the subject of this thread. Please. entomom knew exactly what she meant to say, which was not what you implied. The transfer process itself, (Ordering transcripts, filling out the application) is 99% exactly the same as mine so stop giving that bogus “it is more stressful” line. It is only more stressful because of either personal factors unrelated to the actual process or if one over-stresses how small their chances are. It doesn’t make the process itself more difficult to complete. Stop mindlessly white knighting for your friend, it is painful to watch.</p>
<p>In any case, this thread is pretty well derailed at this point. Respond however you wish, I’m not going to continue so maybe if the OP is lucky he/she will get some more good information instead of this tit for tat game.</p>
<p>Cant we just be friends</p>
<p>^^^Thanks Ace, the voice of reason.</p>
<p>lol wow…what happened here…? Aren’t we all supposed to be comrades in this awful transferring nightmare?.. We’re all going through it together…</p>
<p>In response to the original post, I think it’s mostly the intimidation factor. Personally, I have a 4.0 GPA at the completion of my AA degree, and even I wasn’t considering transferring anywhere but my state school, not even for a second, until a friend of mine started putting in apps to Cornell and the like. I just hadn’t thought it was possible for me. Once I did a little research and discovered that every school I would want to go to met 100% of financial need to accepted applicants, and my stats put me in the running, I was off to the races.
This was last year.
Now I’m almost done with the process (fiiiiiinallllllly!!!), and I can say it has been an INCREDIBLE hassle! I don’t think it really has anything to do with the selectivity of the school, either- unless you’re talking about applying to schools that simply don’t require essays or recommendations, or something like that- I’m sure that would be easier.</p>
<p>But if it’s the traditional transfer process, it doesn’t matter where it is- for me, anyway- it’s a freakin HUGE pain in the butt, plain and simple!! Yes, asking for two recommendation letters was a cinch- hallelujah, I got to pass the work on to someone else for once! WOOHOO! That part was kinda nice, I’m not gonna lie. 
But literally everything else has been a nightmare. Sending off for transcripts, both from secondary and college, wasn’t a big deal, but it was yet another item on the miles-long to-do list, so each of those individual “not a big deal” tasks suddenly begins to add up to, “oh my god, will I ever sleep again…?”</p>
<p>For me, the Common App itself was another nightmare. Having to track down my mother and brothers’ information, filling out all of my BASIC info, that wasn’t a big deal of course, but time consuming nonetheless. Then came the “activities” page, and I don’t know about you guys, but I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss a SINGLE thing that could look good on my app, so that took a considerable amount of time to compile. Then I had to write a two page essay to explain my “interruption of secondary education” (I realize many transfers wouldn’t need to do this, but I did), and I ended up with another two pages in the “additional info” document as well. Add to that a two page “why you want to transfer” essay, and that’s a good couple of weeks I lost, especially since I also had to keep my 4.0 up, play shows in my band, take care of my kids, etc. etc. etc. (again- this won’t apply to some, but I’m betting you all have varying responsibilities of your own that are equally time consuming, whatever they may be).</p>
<p>FINALLY, we get to the freakin supplements! EACH SCHOOL IS DIFFERENT!!! I have, seriously, written upwards of 45 essays, short answers, quick takes, etc., collectively for my app supplements. Some schools required two additional full-length essays on top of the standard Common App one. Some schools required one full-length and 10 short answers…you get the idea. That stuff adds up REAL quick!</p>
<p>Then add to that the college official’s report, midterm grades, everything has to go to a different place (I think I’ve paid the annual salary of several employees at the post office by now…), and finally, getting those app ID#'s and constantly having to check and make sure this and that arrived, and oh, what? It didn’t? Well now I have to go track that down… </p>
<p>It’s been a nightmare, lol, have I made that clear? For anyone who hasn’t had an experience like this- congratulations, I promise, you should consider yourself lucky!! And I mean that in no argumentative, disrespectful way, in any fashion, I’m just saying- count your blessings, because it could’ve been much worse. I’m not really sure why it ended up being so much more difficult for me, but…well, actually, two of the schools I applied to didn’t even use the Common App, so there were two entirely different app processes on top of everything else I mentioned…I don’t know, point being, it really does add up fast.</p>
<p>But back to the original point- I watched my friend go through all of this last year and still subjected myself to the torture this year, so I don’t think the daunting process has much to do with it (at least, for some people). Like I said, for me it was the fact that I had no clue this was even a remote possibility for a former bad-girl-homeless-going-nowhere-loser that turned her life around and now raises a large family and busts *** academically. But I can’t speak in any concrete fashion for the rest of the population, so who really knows…</p>
<p>People used to say transferring was easy,but once i got in and got my GPA to a 3.9/4.0,no teacher wants to write me a recommendation.To make it worse ,top schools want 2 to 3 such recommendations!Transferring is almost viewed as betrayal</p>