<p>By the way, they accepted 28 out of 1000 applicants, I was told. And waitlisted about 10. I'm realllllllly hoping to get off the waitlist.</p>
<p>28/1000 ? These are some confusing numbers. I've heard at least three for the accepted number, and at least 3 for the applicant number.</p>
<p>I thought Yale was 30 accepted students out of 779 applicants...</p>
<p>It said 24/779 in mine.</p>
<p>congratsssssss. i wish i went to yale :]</p>
<p>My son got into Columbia, He is thinking of transferring to Stanford, Yale or Harvard next year. Does it make sense? How difficult will it be to transfer to these schools? What does one need to do to transfer? What are the schools looking for in transfer students? Does the typical transfer student transfer from another Ivy or from a no-name school? Thanks.</p>
<p>He needs a good reason to transfer.</p>
<p>Please elaborate on all the items in my questions. Thanks for your help.</p>
<p>May I ask WHY he wants to transfer?</p>
<p>I apologize for not making myself clearer. The first part is a general question: how difficult is it to transfer and do kids transfer within Ivies or from lower ranked school.</p>
<p>The second part pertains directly to my son: he is considering Yale because of the Directed Studies curriculum which is more intense than Columbia's Core. He is considering Harvard for the applied math dept and he is considering Stanford for its physics. All this is very premature, he has not yet started freshman year at Columbia but I am exploring all the possibilites out of sheer curiosity. Thanks for your help and again I would like you to elaborate and explain transfers in greater detail. The one line answers are somewhat frustrating since I don't know anything whatsover about transfers. I apologize for being so direct with my comments.</p>
<p>Ramaswami, I am a transfer coming from UNC going TO Columbia next year. I also applied to Yale and UC Berkeley (non-state resident) and was accepted at Berkeley. I personally believe the reason I was rejected from Yale had more to do with the fact that I had already been rejected once than it did my grades and essays, which were very good, but I could be wrong about that.</p>
<p>As per your questions, I would guess that it is more difficult to transfer from one Ivy to another. As the above posters mentioned, a student's reason for transferring is a very important part of the process. What will your son be able to find at those schools that he can't find at Columbia, academically speaking? I say "academically speaking" because I think that a disagreeable social situation is a less than compelling reason for admission, at least when referring to schools who take less than 10% of transfer applicants.</p>
<p>When you say "got into Columbia" do you mean to imply that he has not yet even begun college? If so, I think you should talk to him about not going to school with the idea that he is simply going to leave given the first opportunity. He may love living in New York. I would recommend that he go for at least one semester without any predispositions toward his new school before considering beginning the long and difficult transfer process.</p>
<p>EDIT: It sounds like your son has a compelling reason to transfer. Based on what it looks like on Yale's website, however, the directed studies program is only for freshmen (and select freshmen at that). But again, you'd want to double check that.</p>
<p>laneb 2005, yes, my son has not yet started Columbia and he may never want to transfer and all that. I am exploring this as a remote possibility to prep myself, if it should occur, for the time when he may suddenly announce he wants to go somewhere else. It seems you have helped clarify my thoughts. I had thought it may be easier to transfer within the Ivies because a candidate at this level would imply some sort of suitability. But reading your thoughts it seems very appropriate it would be more difficult for the receiving institution may well ask, why can't you get at the other Ivy what you want here. It may be more compelling for someone who went to the U of No Name, suddenly blossomed, aced all sorts of courses and is now at a loss for challenges and can only find it at HYP. Sort of makes sense. My son may have no compelling need. If one crops up it may well be for a school like Caltech, for example, some sudden extreme passion for and talent in astronomy or some aspect of it that can't be studied at Columbia. Talking of compelling academic reasons can you cite some please?</p>
<p>Surprising or unsurprisingly, most of the the transfers to Harvard come from a rather good school in the first place. There are certainly more Tufts, Columbia, Penn etc. transfer than state schools.</p>
<p>yes, the same is true for the yale transfers. </p>
<p>ramaswami, i get the sense that it is you who is more interested than the transfer than your son. i hope this is not the case.</p>
<p>directed studies is a curriculum for freshman. since he will not attend yale as a freshman, unfortunately, he will be ineligible for the program.</p>
<p>Ramaswami- haven't you posted before in the forums wondering about the prestige of Columbia in comparison to HYP? If this is your primary concern than I assure you it is not worth transferring. The process can be very stressful and time consuming and with schools like HYS, the end result is almost always rejection. </p>
<p>Additionally, your son may not want to leave his friends behind and start all over in a new environment. He hasn't even started his first semester and as he has no reason to dislike Columbia I don't think he should even consider transferring yet. If you go into a school with the intent to transfer you are less likely to enjoy it.</p>
<p>Ramaswami--it's pretty shameless that before your son even goes to Columbia, you're obsessed with him transferring to slightly more prestigous schools. Maybe you should encourage him to enjoy Columbia and make the most of his experience, and quit squabbling about .5% differences in accept rate.</p>
<p>You had better have some pretty distinct and compelling reasons for wishing to transfer out of Columbia to Yale. Otherwise their perception will be that you're just trying to "trade up."</p>
<p>asian parents...</p>
<p>Yes, it may be Asian parents. But some of you treat me as if I am stupid and someone calls me shameless, etc. I want my son to enjoy Columbia. I do not want him to transfer. But I am not telling him either thing. I think he will enjoy Columbia and settle down to a nice life. However, he is smarting under the rejection of HYP and raised the issue of transfer. I encouraged him to focus on where he is going to, to enjoy the summer with some nice activities involving taking leave of everyone who has meaningful to him in the neighborhood, friends, and all that, travel a bit, etc. I also have told him that thinking of transfer will color his Columbia experience, that it will negatively skew his experience, that a .5 % difference in acceptance rate is statistically insignificant, that he should ignore USNews (I encourged him to go to Reed, St. John's, UChicago etc) etc etc. Nevertheless, I thought I could privately explore the transfer idea. You guys are smart but do not jump to rash conclusions based on my name, previous posts where I did ask about admit rates (but that's not the reason for the transfer). For some of you smart alecks, you can go into Yale's Dir Studies in sophomore year also. My son has studied 2 languages incl Latin to post AP and besides engineering is seriously interested in the classical tradition, hence the Core at Columbia hence the interest in Yale. Thanks for your help, please try to be sober without editorializing on my motives when you do not know me.</p>
<p>Well, while we all try to be friendly and helpful on this board, there is no reason why we can't come to some conclusions about posters based on what they post.</p>