How to transfer into Top US schools?

Question

1) I am an international student studying in one of the top ten liberal arts colleges (US news ranking).

2) I want to transfer into Harvard , Stanford , MIT or Columbia.

What suggestions do you want to give me? What is my chance compared to others ?

Answer 1

Everyone wants to go to Harvard, Stanford, MIT, or Columbia. I also assume you're applying next year because I'm pretty sure the deadlines have all passed for the schools you're thinking of (I know that Stanford's was March 15 for transfers).

Without knowing your college GPA and/or your SAT/ACT scores, I'm going to give some general guidance on your chances of getting accepted (I'll assume you're a bright person and doing very well in school).

Harvard, Columbia - Ivy schools have a very high freshmen retention rate and probably wouldn't have more than 150 openings for transfers (Harvard would have less, 60-110 or so, since it's smaller than Columbia in terms of undergraduate student population). Ideally, you would know which department is a little short on enrollment (at least, in compared to other departments) and put down your major as that department if it coincides with what you want to do.

Stanford - just like the Ivies really and accepts 60-150 transfers per year. Almost all who are accepted matriculate at Stanford. Roughly 2/3 of all accepted transfer applicants had combined SAT scores in 1400-1600 range (old SAT) and, while ACT stats aren't published due to lack significance, it would most likely be between 31-36 (comparable schools have ACT scores averaging 31-33).

MIT - Attending a liberal arts college might detract a bit from your chances just because MIT is the opposite of a liberal arts college (being a technology institute), even if you don't plan to major in a science or an engineering field. This would matter less if we were talking about Virginia Tech or even Georgia Tech but MIT is tied for the best tech institute in the US (CalTech being the other).

Since you're an international student, being able to fund (or mostly fund) your own education without school financial assistance would be a small plus.

You'd be an excellent applicant at most schools but an average applicant at the aforementioned schools. Take heart because everyone's basically an average applicant at the schools listsed above (unless you can donate millions of dollars). They certainly won't throw away your application when they receive it but you won't have guaranteed admissions (but no one really does).

Answer 2

It is not an impossible dream, but it will not be easy.

If you check the websites of these schools, you'll see that 97 to 98 % of their freshman students return for sophomore year. So, if Harvard has 1500 freshmen and 2% don't return, that makes about 20 -40 empty spaces. They get hundreds of applications from top students who want to transfer in. If you are getting top grades where you are and can get very good recommendations from your faculty, then you have a chance to be one of the transfer kids accepted. Go ahead an apply, but you have to have a realistic idea about what your chances are.

Answer 3

santa monica college

Answer 4

do it, high chance of acceptance.