How are transfers into Brown?

tsakashvili
Mon, 27 Sep 2010 06:20:56 +0000

Hi, I’m an admitted transfer student who got into both Brown and Penn. I have some answers to the questions you posted, as well as some advice. I’ve numbered each question as one through four, and will answer them in that order


“What information do I need to give Brown about my high school?”


Brown and other schools you apply to as a transfer generally want two things. The first is your high school transcript, while the second is a completed from your high school counselor affirming that you were a student in good standing there. The form your counselor completes isn’t a recommendation like the one you get from your professors. It more or less just confirms that you showed up to classes, graduated, and didn’t have any serious disciplinary issues. Getting your high school counselor to complete this form and mail it out with your recommendation should be very easy. If you just send them a polite email, I’m sure they’ll be perfectly willing to help you.


“How will my college professors react to my choice of applying for transfer? Will they be helpful and write positive rec letters or will they flunk me and write horrible letters of rec in order to sabotage me? Is it worth the gamble to apply for transfer?”


They’re not going to sabotage you or flunk you. Your professors are people too, and generally pretty decent ones. They aren’t going to flunk you just for transferring. However, whether or not they write you a good letter of recommendation depends on several factors.

The first is obviously whether or not you did well in their class. Don’t bother getting recommendations from professors who didn’t give you an A. Beyond that, you need to make an impression on them. Show up to every class and contribute intelligent points (unless it’s a pure lecture class). Go to their office hours to ask difficult problems. Don’t talk just for the sake of talking; professors hate these people more than the kids who never talk because they waste time that could be spent furthering the discussion. Concerning their office hours, remember that there are stupid questions. Don’t ask questions that could be answered by doing research. Instead, ask questions that clarify or give perspective to an issue beyond what can be researched. If you follow these guidelines, you’ll stand out, and seem like a genuinely intellectually curious student.

Additionally, get to know your professors. Take them out to lunch, or read one of their articles (or books if they’ve written one) and try to talk to them about it. If you show interest in their work and are sincerely willing to talk about their research, they will give you lots of time, and adore you for your interest. That time also helps them get to know you and can create a genuinely strong bond. Don’t be crass about it. In particular, don’t give them material gifts, as they will certainly see these as bribes. Similarly, don’t spend your time worshipping or praising them. This is obvious sycophancy, and it will not impress them. Take a real interest in their work instead and talk about it; I guarantee you that you’ll be rewarded handsomely, plus it’s a great way to be exposed to new ideas and learn about interesting people. My history professor turned out to be a great guy, and his research on the history of Black owned small businesses ended up turning me on to a really fascinating topic I wouldn’t have learned about otherwise.

Finally, don’t disparage the school. It’s one thing to talk about how you feel socially awkward or a little intimidated by college. That’s normal. If however you talk about how much you hate Isla Vista, complain about the administration, whine about your fellow students, or something like that, they will not like you. Remember that they are a part of the UCSB community, and probably have been so for quite a while. They will thus feel that you’re insulting their community if you knock UCSB or Isla Vista.

My advice is to create a positive narrative about what you’re moving towards, rather than a negative one about what you’re moving away from. For instance, instead of talking about how much you dislike UCSB’s GE’s, talk about how much the New Curriculum at Brown can help you. Make sure your narrative is also not opportunistic. If professors think you’re transferring just to boost your odds of admission to medical school, they will be very unsympathetic. You need to talk about specific intellectual opportunities Brown offers that UCSB objectively lacks, or that are unique to Brown. So long as your professors believe that you have legitimate intellectual needs that can’t be satisfied at UCSB, and as long as you also do well in class, stand out, and get to know them, I’m sure they’ll help you and give you a good and worthwhile recommendation.


“I have read that Brown luckily is the most lenient of all high tier schools with transfers. What were their actual rates of transfer this year?”


I don’t have the exact figures, but I believe that this year Brown took just over 10% of all transfer applicants. This was roughly comparable to the admission rate for new students, which is very unusual. At most schools the transfer acceptance rate is lower, in many cases significantly lower, than the new student acceptance rate. At Yale for instance, I believe roughly 8% of new student applicants were accepted, while less than 4% of transfer applicants were accepted.

You need to understand before you apply to Brown or any other schools that transfer admission is not a back door. Indeed, it’s often harder than normal applications. You have to succeed in college, which is usually much harder than succeeding in high school; impress college professors; have good EC’s in college; a compelling reason to transfer (not “I hate this school” or I want to boost my chances of getting into medical school”); and grapple with a lower admission rate. My point here is that broadly speaking, there is no such thing as leniency or easiness when it comes to transferring to an elite school.

To the extent that Brown is more or less difficult than other elite schools to get accepted to, it’s neither the hardest nor easiest elite school to transfer into. Yes, it’s not as hard to transfer to as Harvard, Yale, Stanford, or Williams. However, its admission rate is lower than the admission rate to the University of Pennsylvania’s College of Arts and Sciences, Cornell’s College of Arts and Letters, the University of Chicago, and Swarthmore, four schools who are legitimately Brown’s peers in undergraduate education. All of these schools could thus be considered “easier” (though still pretty difficult to get into). While they aren’t quite peer institutions, I’d also say that Northwestern, Washington University in St. Louis, Vanderbilt, Emory, and Georgetown are easier to get into, and have pretty good records with medical school admissions. As a California state resident and as a possible intra UC transfer, I also believe UC Berkeley would be easier for you to get into than Brown, and would give you very good opportunities vis a vis medical school. None of these schools have a totally open curriculum (though Swarthmore’s requirements are minimal), but they are just as or almost as good as Brown, and are easier to get into. If you’re serious about transferring, I would therefore recommend that you consider these places in addition to Brown.


“If you were in my place would you transfer? If not why not? I know that the friendships I build during freshman year would fall apart but from my view right now the benefits outweigh the costs.”


This is a very personal matter, so I won’t really go into detail about it. If you’re introverted and spend a lot of time working rather than socializing, you probably won’t care about this as much. However, if you are very outgoing and sociable, then you’re probably going to care a lot about this. In general, I would say that because of the social difficulties involved, you shouldn’t leave UCSB if you just want to get out of Isla Vista. That’s not enough of a reason to counterbalance the social difficulties of transferring. If however you have legitimate academic reasons, those are more important than social ones. If that’s the case, and an interest in pre medical studies counts as a serious intellectual reason, then it’ll likely be worth it.

Now for some broad advice. First, your SAT I is low. The strong SAT II’s help counterbalance it, but it will be an issue. I’d recommend retaking the SAT I, or ACT if you think you’ll do really well on that, but only if you think you can significantly improve your score (i.e. move your writing and critical reading close to at least 700). Your high school GPA is actually pretty good. My GPA was about 3.4 unweighted, so it at least won’t count against you (or at least not as much as mine did against me).

Second, your current reasons aren’t strong enough. I’ve said this before, and I’ll reiterate. You can’t just have a broad affinity for Brown or want better chances at medical school admissions. Lots of other people have the former, while the latter is too opportunistic and will make admissions people think you see Brown as just a tool to further your career. Similarly, hating your current school is a big negative. Students who are unhappy at a school are probably going to be unhappy elsewhere, so counselors are less likely to admit them. As I said before, you need a positive narrative that shows why Brown can offer you a specific, detailed, and unique opportunity, program, or experience that you can’t find at UCSB (or that isn’t comprehensive enough at UCSB).

Third, it’s not enough to just say that you’ll get A’s. You need to do whatever it takes short of plagiarism or cheating to get that A. Work late into the night, camp out in the library, whatever it takes, do it and do a lot of it. This is particularly important because you’re taking a very demanding schedule with several tough classes. Frankly I’d drop the economics class, since the other classes would be impressive enough, and it would give you a more manageable workload. It’s your choice however, and if you feel you really need that class, then keep it. Regardless, don’t let anything get in the way of your work, and never get distracted. You really do need straight A’s, with maybe a few A –‘s , if you want to stand a chance of getting into Brown or any other elite school. Don’t bother applying if you’re college GPA is below 3.7. Working with professors to understand what they want helps, but at the end of the day it just comes down to pounding it out late into the night at the library if you want to succeed.

Finally, remember to boost the rest of your application. Get into interesting EC’s and try to get a leadership position. Build those relationships with your professors I talked about. Work hard on your essays. Polish them until they are flawless, sparkling diamonds. Most importantly, play the field. Apply to a number of schools. 10 to 12 schools is about right. More and you risk diluting the quality of your applications. Fewer and you risk not getting in anywhere. If I were you, I’d recommend applying to Penn CAS, Cornell CALS, Swarthmore, Northwestern, Washington University in St. Louis, Vanderbilt, Emory, Georgetown CAS, UC Berkeley, and, maybe Dartmouth and/or Duke Trinity College in addition to Brown.


I think you can get into at least one of these schools, though it’s worth making sure in advance that you’d be ok with their GE requirements if you got in (This is why I didn’t say the University of Chicago; their core curriculum is extremely onerous). Make sure to check out their policies towards awarding transfer credit. Some schools like Penn can be finicky about giving credit for a class taken elsewhere if there isn’t a similar course in their catalogue. If you want more information, check out the transfer forum on this website. People there are very helpful, and can help guide you through the process. Overall, as long as you follow this advice, I think you have a fairly good chance, and I wish you luck; you’re going to need it.