Can I transfer to ivy leagues, Stanford, or UC Berkeley?

Question

I am currently a sophmore in University of Florida studying Biochemistry and pre-medicine. My overall GPA is 3.75/4.0 and my science gpa is 3.72/4.0. U.S news rank shows that Florida is # 47, and its pre-med progam is famous for being weed-out.

By the time I finish this fall term, I would be completing Organic Chemistry, Biology, General Chemistry, calculus 1,2,3, several social science classes, and business major required courses for freshman. I also took one Honors program course. My GPA showed some great improvement starting with 3.5 in my first fall term to 4.0 in my last spring term.

I am currently involved several clubs, and I am a vice president of one as well. I joined every honors organization that requires one to have a certain GPA. I did some biology research, and I am currently doing volunteer work at hospital.

But the problem is that I am so worried about my weak SAT score from high school. I had about 1350/1600.

Answer 1

Most of the Ivy Leaqgue schools accept very few transfer students. Princeton does not accept any. Last year Harvard accepted about 75 (out of hundreds of applications). That is twice their usual rate -- and they have announced that they will only accept about 30-35 this year.

Cornell may be your best bet of the Ivies -- as they accept more transfer students than other Ivy League colleges. But most of those transfers are into the state sponsored colleges at Cornell (e.g., the ag school and the engineering school) and not into the privately funded portion (arts and sciences).

Stanford accepts transfer students -- but not very many. Of the schools you mention, Berkeley -- being a state university -- is the most likely one to accept you as a transfer student.

Answer 2

Well, yes, technically anybody could try to transfer. It's a toss-up as to whether you would be accepted, given that the schools you mention are the most selective in the country. I don't understand. What would be your reason for transferring?

You appear do be doing well. If you're pre-med, you don't have to worry about the status of the undergraduate school you're attending. Unless there's some other more relevant reason for transferring to a different school, I think you should just worry about making it through your program, doing well on the MCAT and getting into a good medical school. If you did transfer, you'd be adjusting to another school thousands of miles from your current one, just to move again once you enter med school, since the chances of staying at the same school for medicine is pretty slim.

Answer 3

As others have said, you should think hard about why you want to transfer before you put yourself through the process. You can't escape weeding-out in any premed or med program, but the higher up the ranking list you go, the tougher it gets. Moreover, the topics covered in the other schools' prereqs may not match up exactly with the way your professors have done them, which could put you at a disadvantage. If you're otherwise happy at Florida, I'd stay and concentrate on making yourself stand out there.