Should I bother applying for transfer to Stanford?

Colleges & Universities Stanford University
1

<p>The MOST honourable Stanford students of 2011,
I am a pathetic, if not despicable, newly-admitted UCLA undergrad, class of 2012. I have already determine that UCLA is not my ideal school, because my major, business economics, is a bad major in UCLA, plus UCLA is not that good anyways. I feel greatly ashamed to be rejected by Stanford several months ago. I want to know if it is worth for me to try again for Stanford next year when I transfer. I realize that I was rejected when the regular admission rate was around 9%; I have no confidence that Stanford will take me when the transfer admission rate is around 1% or less. If it seems very unlikely that Stanford will ever take me, then I will save some time for the less competitive Ivies like Cornell.</p>

<p>Here is my info (as of today, right before college starts):</p>

<p>High School Class Rank: Valedictorian
High School Class Size: 420
Unweighted GPA: 4.00
Weighted GPA: 4.33
ACT: 28
SAT Critical Reading: 560 (highest ever)
SAT Math: 780 (highest ever)
SAT Writing: 710 (highest ever)
Highest ever single SAT: 1980 (Reading 550, Math 720, Writing 710 w/essay score 10)</p>

<p>SAT II Math II: 720
SAT II Physics: 780
SAT II US History: 770</p>

<p>AP Calculus AB: 5
AP Calculus BC: 4
AP Chemistry: 5
AP Chinese: 5
AP Comparative Government: 4
AP English Literature: 3
AP European History: 5
AP Physics B: 5
AP Physics C: 4
AP US History: 5
AP World History: 5</p>

<p>Awards and Extracurriculars
College Awards (before entering):
UCLA Scholarship Recognition Award
UCLA Honors Program</p>

<p>High School Awards:
Valedictorian Award
California Scholarship Life Membership
AP National Scholar 2008
AP Scholar with Distinction 2007
History Department Award
Bank of America Physics Certificate
Bank of America English Certificate
President’s Volunteer Service Award
High School Alumni Award
Finance Academy Graduation Certificate
California Golden State Examination Honour</p>

<p>Activities:
California Scholarship Federation (volunteer organization, including extensive peer tutoring and monthly zoo clean-up)
8-week Summer internship at Wells Fargo Bank, 2007
103 hrs of volunteer at Laguna Honda Hospital (2006)
40 hrs of volunteer at Gordon J. Lau Elementary School (2006)
44 hrs of volunteer at Exploratorium science museum (2005)
AP Club member (12th grade)
Physics Club member (11th grade)
Math Club member (9th - 11th grade)</p>

<p>Leadership demonstrations:
Fundraiser for China’s Sichuan earthquake at school 2008, collected $5130 in one week with Chinese club together</p>

<p>In conclusion, I am very depressed that I didn’t get in any desired schools (i.e. Ivy Leagues or Stanford). Even Berkeley rejected me. I am stuck in UCLA, only because I have no where else to go. I feel very inferior because my school, UCLA, is just not as great and prestigious as any Stanford. I can work my butt off next year if it can make me get out of LA and go to the most honourable Stanford. However, because I know 1980 is considered a very low score to a great school like Stanford, I am kinda disheartened to ever try again, but maybe. The main question is: how important is SAT I score when I apply as a transfer for sophomore? I mean I can do whatever it takes to get as many A’s as I can in freshman year, but will Stanford ever consider an applicant whose score was so bad? So please, give me some advice. Thank you!</p>

2

<p>Check the admissions website to double check, but I’m pretty sure the admit rate for transfers to Stanford is REEEEEEALLLY low, regardless of scores/EC’s/etc. But honestly, if it were me, I’d definitely still try cause it’s always worth a shot if you’re sure Stanford is where you want to be.
Expect the worst, hope for the best!</p>

3

<p>Thanks a lot for your encouragement. I will decide whether I should try for it again after hearing enough comments.</p>

4

<p>why is business economics bad at UCLA?</p>

5

<p>It is bad because it has nothing related to the field of business. The major “Business Economics” just has the word “business” in name. I learnt this from my orientation. The econ department presenter told us that Bus. Econ major is just econ plus accounting. I don’t think this is what I want. I want to learn something about entrepreneurship, management, and finance but unfortunately there is no such major at my current school. And to be honest, a lot of my peers whose major was also Bus. Econ were disappointed to hear that Bus. Econ has nothing to do with business. So I hope this can be a valid reason for me to transfer out of my school in the future.</p>

6

<p>You should apply if that’s where your heart is at, but I definitely won’t count on it. If you feel that UCLA is not really a good school and you aren’t too tied up with Stanford, I would suggest looking at other good schools like cal etc.</p>

7

<p>BTW, Stanford does not have a business major, either, so you’d be stuck with econ here, too. In either case, business economics at UCLA is the closest thing you’ll get to a “business” degree from either schools (though I’m told undergrads can take mba courses). Also, I think the bizecon major is impacted so you might end up doing regular econ–which still has plenty of job prospects.</p>

<p>I wouldn’t go into UCLA with that mentality and don’t broadcast that “UCLA is not that good anyways.” That’s a good way to arouse animosity and to seem pretentious. I wouldn’t worry about transferring until the beginning of soph year because the looming thought will weigh you down. I’ll even bet that in 3 months you’ll love the school you’re at like most students who don’t end up at their first choice.</p>

8

<p>Stanford doesnt have a business major. Why didnt you research your schools before applying?</p>

9

<p>Well you see, since UCLA doesn’t really have a business major, and neither does Stanford, and we all know that Stanford is overall a better school than UCLA, I would rather want to go to another school.</p>

10

<p>I dunno about you, but having that attitude going into your first quarter of freshman year isn’t the greatest way to start off your college career. Nor is it a great way to make friends, since practically every freshman goes in there with freakishly enormous school pride.</p>

<p>As for transferring, it’s no secret that your high school stats matter less, and what you do in college matters waaayyyyyyy more. Honestly, once you get to college, no one gives a damn what you got in high school or what you did. If you really want to transfer, get over high school first of all, and focus all your energy into getting the best possible grades, impress your professors to get them to write awesome recommendation letters and see what happens. The longer you’re out of high school, the less people (even the Stanford people) care.</p>

<p>And lastly, UCLA’s Bizecon is just Accounting + Econ, but it is one of the most competitive majors there, and the Accounting classes are taught through the Anderson Business School, which isn’t such a bad classroom experience to be getting if you plan on ultimately going to business school.</p>

11

<p>Try Haas…</p>

12

<p>From my experience, transfers to stanford usually do some phenomenal extracurricular thing in their time at their other school and/or have great personal stories but often low test scores.</p>

13

<p>If you really wanted to study entrepreneurship, management and finance, a little homework might have indicated that UCB (Haas) or USC (Marshall) were the right choices for you instead of UCLA. You had the qualifications to get in to either. Did you apply?</p>

<p>Now, my advice is not to compound your disappointment with UCLA with a resolve to transfer at the end of the first year, nor to get fixated on Stanford. Rather, begin with identifying a set of schools where you can meet your strategic goals of a high quality undergraduate business education. These schools can be identified through the annual BW survey:
[Undergrad</a> - BSchools](<a href=“http://bwnt.businessweek.com/interactive_reports/undergrad_bschool/]Undergrad”>http://bwnt.businessweek.com/interactive_reports/undergrad_bschool/)
You can then contact schools like Wharton (UPenn), Virginia, Cornell, Michigan, MIT, NYU and ask them specifically about transfer policies in to their business majors. I would add UCB and USC to this list. Schools may urge you to apply after sophomore year; others may be willing to consider you as a lower division transfer.</p>

<p>All I am saying is you owe it to yourself to do your homework and gather all the facts before choosing a path forward.</p>

14

<p>Fanofnapolean–I know this is late, but
did you make it into stanford?</p>

15

<p>The admit rate for transfers is freakishly low. If you get essentially perfect scores from UCLA that’d be a good way to start building a strong transfer application. Funny enough, of the transfer students I know at stanford, they have either come from other competitive schools (off the top of my head, i know a couple from yale, one from duke) or they come from a nearby community college. So I guess they look for a spectrum of backgrounds for the few transfers that get in.</p>

16

<p>There have been many articles about transfer students in the Stanford student newspaper through the years. What stood out was the uniqueness of these students. It seems transfer students are more about creating diversity in the student population than anything else.</p>

<p>One good thing about Stanford you might consider is that they have the option where you can custom make your major and submit for approval. My son is in engineering/computer science. They have many interesting entrepreneurial classes in these majors. I don’t know about business, but my guess is these type of classes exist in the business curriculum. </p>

<p>As previously stated, most of your high school accomplishments now become obsolete.</p>

<p>Just my opinion but your reason for going to Stanford doesn’t seem like something you would want to present in your essay.</p>

17

<p>oh my God! that is the story of my life. I want to transfer to stanford as well but my high school stats suck!
@nervraij: I asked a similar question yesterday and most of the people said that stanford accepts students with amazing high school stats. What should i believe? I mean if i believe what they say then I don’t wanna work that hard in college. But if what you say is true then i still have a negligible chance.</p>

18

<p>high school stuff doesnt matter. If you have a 4.0 and some college EC’s then you will have a decent chance because UCLA is a great school and highly respected</p>

19

<p>As BigMike said, the transfer admit rate is freakishly low at Stanford–something like 1.7%. So good luck to everyone, but do have a Plan B for sure.</p>

20

<p>If you aren’t a CC or nontraditional student, you need a VERY compelling and original reason for transferring in order to make the cut. Based on your OP you definitely do not have one and, provided you aren’t amazing at BSing applications (it didn’t seem to work for you the first time, to show tough love), there doesn’t seem to be any reason to believe you would make it. (The transfer rate for 4 year university students is even lower than that 1% because they explicitly prefer non traditional and CC students).</p>

<p>Nonetheless, nobody can say for sure, so if applying is what you really want to do then go for it. I wish you luck at UCLA and I hope your perspective about it changes. It’s a very good school.</p>