<p>I want to apply to Yale and other prestigious universities as a transfer student (yes I know how long the odds are.) but what I really want to know is if I apply this year, my freshman year as a transfer will it hurt my chances for admission next year.</p>
<p>Note: I will have more extremely notable activities to add to my transcript by next year(which is why there will be such a difference.)</p>
<p>...If I wasn't clear above the basic point is if you get rejected as a transfer student will that count against you if you reapply the following year</p>
<p>Actually, I disagree. I have never heard of anyone getting rejected one year and accepted the next. The admissions people have much better memories than one might suppose, and once they say “no” to someone, a few extra activities won’t change their minds.</p>
<p>As a transfer applicant, you essentially have no shot at Yale anyway. No one does . . . except that turns out to be wrong in a few cases. I believe (with no systematic evidence) that a large majority of those cases fit into one (or more) of four boxes: people who were accepted at Yale, went elsewhere, and regretted it; athletic recruits; people coming out of some high-prestige special program like Deep Springs or Juilliard; and people who are just tearing in up in every dimension and are clearly going to outgrow their current institution. Even if you are in one of those categories, you still need luck; outside of them, luck is everything. But, practically speaking, at most you have one bite at the apple, not two.</p>
<p>Except that every application I’ve ever see asks if you’ve ever applied before and when. I’m not sure exactly how colleges use this information, but one has to think that they ask for a reason.</p>
<p>D1 is a transfer to Y and fits into one of JHSs categories. From what she has told me, I would add Service Academies into group 3 and call it good for 99% of accepted transfers.</p>