Chance an International Student to Transfer to an Ivy League for Sophomore Year! [IB DP 39/45, 1530 SAT, 9.2/10 college GPA, economics, statistics, government, need financial aid]

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Demographics

  • international student
  • State/Location of residency: very small European country
  • Type of high school (or current college for transfers): 3 year university

Cost Constraints / Budget
Need aid

Intended Major(s)
Economics/stats and government
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • High school stats (high school goes to 13th grade in my country):
  • 12th to 13th grade: IB diploma: 39/45
  • 11th grade: Pre-IB: 9/10 GPA
  • 9th-10th grade: IGCSE all A*s and valedictorian
  • College GPA: 9.2/10
  • Class Rank: top 3% (don’t get to know more)
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1530 SAT

List your HS coursework

(Indicate advanced level, such as AP, IB, AICE, A-level, or college, courses as well as specifics in each subject)

  • IB classes (very rigorous classes): Math AA HL, Chemistry HL, English A HL, History HL, physics SL, native language A SL.

**College Coursework:

  • General education course work: we don’t do any general education course work except for like one math class
  • Major preparation course work: everything else

Awards

  • Winner of an education grant 10/400 people chosen
  • Nominated with ballet school for national theatre award
  • Top student in history class
  • Top student in native language class
  • Hardest working dancer award
  • Distinction ballet awards
  • Some piano playing awards
  • Track awards

Extracurriculars

High school

  • Graduated high school with two diplomas - IB diploma and classical ballet diploma from the top ballet school in the country (National Ballet School of X)
  • 30 hours weekly after school ballet
  • Top 5 ballet school in the world accepted into summer intensive and attended
  • Bagpipe player
  • Co-founder and social media manager for school’s sports club
  • Part time jobs with school and ballet
  • Many summer jobs, like teaching children water sports (I can sail and stuff)
  • Raised 1000 dollars for ballet school
  • Environmental movements volunteer

College

  • Member of economics club
  • Member of student government
  • Member of dance club (very basic, nothing like what I did before)
  • Piano player (took this up after graduating high school and am working towards a diploma)
  • Track running (also took this up after graduating high school).
  • Website for information for immigrants coming to my country, making them feel more welcome (basic information like healthcare, language and where to go for more help/assistance)
  • Made cards for religious events and traditions and sold them (did quite well) for a minority religious group in my country because there weren’t any cards representing their religion in stores
  • Part time job
  • Extra ballet classes at my previous school

Some info: In my country, after high school there are absolutely no ballet classes or ballet schools or companies which are possible to join (except for classes at my old school now and again). I considered going abroad for ballet when applying to colleges but the financial aspect was overwhelming and I mostly wanted to do a bachelors degree alongside ballet (not majoring in dance). Therefore I decided to stay at home for university, but being without ballet for now nearly a year has really not been great, and it was something that I wanted to do for my entire life as I had taken it so seriously before. I did some researching, trying to find schools which offer ballet companies alongside undergraduate degrees and that’s when I found the Ivy’s, which all have really amazing and still challenging and serious ballet companies associated with the schools. This is my main reason for transferring. Another reason is that my school only offers economics, not stats.

Essays/LORs/Other haven’t read any
Professor 1: I think it’s a very good LOR
Professor 2: 8/10 maybe
High school IB coordinator: 9/10 LOR

Schools
Disclaimer: I am aware that the acceptance rates for transfers are extremely low in some of these schools.
Harvard (number one school as I love the ballet company there)
Stanford
Princeton
Yale
Cornell
Columbia
Upenn
MIT

2

You are an impressive candidate!

If you have done any research, you probably know that admit rates to these schools are infinitesimal for international students (on the order of 1%, or 2% of intl. applicants admitted). And I think being a transfer student makes the odds even longer as these schools don’t get many students transferring out. Aren’t there other schools near good ballet companies that have higher admit rates? They may be need aware, but if they want you they may well find the financial aid you need.

3

Thank you! I tried researching some but I couldn’t find any like Harvard Ballet Company, Princeton Ballet Company, Yale Ballet Company etc. The other schools, like for example UW Madison, Vanderbilt and Tulane only have dance majors, which is not what I’m looking for.

4

Link to the OP’s similar thread: Chance me to transfer to Ivy League! International from tiny country

5

I agree with another answer that transferring into top universities in the US is unlikely. These schools accept very few transfer students.

Other options might depend upon what your budget is. For example McGill and U. of Toronto and UBC in Canada are good for dance and for economics/stats/government, but do not meet full need for international students and financial aid might be tough to come by. If you happened to be a citizen of France or I think perhaps the francophone part of Belgium then McGill becomes quite a bit more affordable than it would be otherwise.

Edit: I meant to also add that the top universities in Canada are generally significantly easier to transfer into compared to the top universities in the USA. I think that acceptance is actually reasonably likely (at least compared to Ivy League schools). The bigger question might be whether they will be affordable.

6

The best schools for ballet are not the Ivies, though they do have many talented dancers attending. As far as colleges with degrees in classical ballet (apart from Julliard which is a performing arts school), the best four schools are generally considered to be Indiana, Butler, Oklahoma and Utah. My daughter is currently a professional ballerina after attending one of those colleges but that’s rare, only a handful a year make a career of it. It’s even rarer to attend an Ivy and then continue in professional dance. Most professional ballet dancers apprentice with a company from their mid-teen years onwards and don’t attend college at all.

But it doesn’t sound like dancing professionally is your aim. Where the Ivies stand out is in offering great financial aid, much beyond what is available from the public colleges I listed above. If you don’t want to dance professionally then there are quite a number of colleges which offer dance and have both better transfer opportunities and good need-based aid. I’d focus on the transfer and aid issues first and dance opportunities second.

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