Should I bother applying for transfer to Yale?

Colleges & Universities Yale University
1

<p>The MOST honourable Ivy League Yale 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 Yale several months ago. I want to know if it is worth for me to try again for Yale next year when I transfer. I realize that I was rejected when the regular admission rate was around 10%; I have no confidence that Yale will take me when the transfer admission rate is around 4% or less. If it seems very unlikely that Yale 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 Ivy Leagues. I can work my butt off next year if it can make me get out of LA and go to the most honourable Yale. However, because I know 1980 is considered a very low score to any Ivy League school, 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 Yale ever consider an applicant whose score was so bad? So please, give me some advice. Thank you!</p>

2

<p>If I may: your HS record and your admission to UCLA are enormous accomplishments. The fact that you feel “stuck” because you aren’t in one of nine schools with a freshman enrollment of 12000 and now have to “suffer” the indignity of UCLA – well I think you’d be better served by really examining what your life priorities really are.</p>

<p>If you don’t learn the lesson that you’ve got to excel at whatever situation you’re in, you’ll be in for many hardships & disappointments in life. Having graduated from Yale, I can honestly say to parents and students (and disheartened collegians like yourself), that frankly, “it’s not all that”. I’ve worked alongside some of the most innovative and hard working people imaginable. Almost no where has alma mater entered. Indeed, there have been people who haven’t even graduated college that I would be honored to work besides or beneath from here on out.</p>

<p>If you think that the college that confers your degree makes you, then you will 100% be disappointed. I think you’ve bought into the big societal lie that “prestige” and outward “accomplishment” equals character and utility to society. Absolutely false.</p>

<p>One last thought: while you raised money for disaster victims, perhaps you forgot some lessons there. Only 1% of the human population EVER even attends post-HS education. As you go to class today, think of the 99 other humans who don’t even dream about attending college nor even have an inkling of how their children could EVER do so. Be thankful and give UCLA another chance.</p>

<p>Maybe print out your musings here, store them away – and look back at them when you’re forty. See how your perspective can change over time. Best of luck to you.</p>

<p>BTW: There’s another thread similar to yours <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/562726-i-hate-my-college-i-am-going-withdraw.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/562726-i-hate-my-college-i-am-going-withdraw.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

3

<p>Jesus, kid, you haven’t even started classes yet and you’re already dissing UCLA? </p>

<p>IF, and that’s a big if, you’re still stuck on the prestige thing and unable to appreciate what a dynamic and academically powerful environment you already are in come sophomore year, then you can start filling your transfer apps out. But if the Ivy vs. non-Ivy factor is the only thing that makes you feel out of place at one of the best universities in the world… I wouldn’t keep my breath for an acceptance.</p>

<p>Just chill out and take some time to appreciate your next year. Don’t enter into it with preconceptions of how “lesser” UCLA is, how you won’t academically fit, how you won’t have a good time - don’t create this self-fulfilling prophecy for yourself.</p>

<p>I love Yale, but from what I know of UCLA I would have loved it just as much. It’s a vibrant campus, excellent academia, awesome setting. To be frank, I find it somewhat off-putting that you seem to find yourself above giving it a chance.</p>

4

<p>Well thank you for giving me a lesson, but I’ve learnt from the mayor of my city during my graduation that we students should “dream big and aim high.” Everyone has their own dreams and I believe that it’s ok for us to have dreams so long as we work hard towards them. My dream is to be in an Ivy League school, that’s something I haven’t reached. That’s just my dream. Other people have other dreams I respect all of them (we’re talking about good dreams I suppose). Because I am not in a school I want, I don’t feel happy. UCLA might give me excellent education, but it can’t give me happiness because it is just not where I want to be. It can’t make me feel any less inferior because I know I was rejected Yale and other Ivies. I just think that I should work hard towards my dream. I also believe that people should look upwards and pursue high goals instead of looking down and be satisfied. If Thomas Edison felt “thankful” that he was using an oil lamp every night, then we wouldn’t be enjoying the brightness of modern light bulb today. This is why I would not feel grateful that I go to a college but many others don’t. What’s the use of having such satisfication? It will bond me from achieving further.
Honourable Yale graduate, I really admire your achievement and I will give you my highest respect. I really hope that you can give me specific advices about whether I should try for Yale when I transfer, and if I should, what should I do at UCLA and etc., or you can tell me how you worked your way towards this great school, but please don’t ask me to conform to my current situation.</p>

5

<p>I’m not asking you to conform, I’m asking you to not judge your UCLA experience out of hand before you’ve even adapted to college life in general. That is not a very positive or mature attitude to take, plain and simple. </p>

<p>As for having big dreams - I’m all for that! But please understand that there really, really, REALLY is no major difference between UCLA and Yale, especially when you get to the international and graduate level. The Ivy League label is just that - a label.</p>

<p>And I want to reiterate my advice to just do the best you can and have fun this first year at college. There is ample time for you to consider or re-consider a transfer: just do well, be passionate, be involved, and you’ll do well either way.</p>

6

<p>Yes I promise you I will make the best of my current school in the coming school year. To be honest, UCLA has a beautiful campus, delicious food, free gym, free Hollywood movies and etc. I recognize all that. I will work my hardest to get A’s in my courses and be as socially active as I can. However, I still want to point out that there are a lot of differnces between the two schools. The student quality is different. If anyone gets acceptace letter from Yale and UCLA at the same time, do you think he is going to pick UCLA over Yale? Impossible. So Yale already recruits the best students, leaving UCLA the ok-level students. And, because UCLA is a public school, the class size is usually 200-300 (this is still much better than UC Berkeley whose class size is 500+). I want to have very small classes so that I can interact with professors more. And I believe a private school like Yale can provide me that environment. And there are a lot more disparities than these. In general, Yale is not the same level with my school and I will be utterly ashamed if someone compares me with an honourable Yale student.
Anyways, I really want to move into the more specific parts about my transfer process. Indeed Yale is one of my dream schools, but given that my SAT I score is so poor plus I was already rejected by Yale once, do you think it is worth for me to apply again? How important does Yale look at SAT I score for transfer applicants? Suppose I get straight A’s during my freshmen year at my current college, can those grades in a way make up for my bad SAT score?</p>

7

<p>Go to the Transfer Students forum and read the sticky thread at the top of the page:</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/transfer-students/390861-transfer-admissions-101-a.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/transfer-students/390861-transfer-admissions-101-a.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>The OP’s post almost sounds satirical.</p>

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<p>Yes, and since his only posting history is starting 7 threads, all with the same content, one has to wonder.</p>

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<p>Well I did post it on several other universities’ sites because I want to see which ones I should apply for transfer. Obviously I won’t have time for all the schools I wish to get in, that’s why I want to see what I have got on my posts from each universities’ students.</p>

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<p>Ok. I think I almost got what OP’s talking about. I felt that you are simply asking for advice on excelling in college to polish your resume when transfer to Yale, or whatever school you are dreaming of.
My advice: register for upper-level classes, work hard in class, get to know the profs, be a glutton of books, find a list of campus clubs and organizations, get as involved as you can (not as merely a member, but officers or so) while keeping GPA 4.0. What else? Oh, get to learn everything about UCLA and write an essay of “20 things I hate about UCLA”, then study Yale and write “20 things I love about Yale”. In one year, I am pretty sure that you are ready for the right college in your life.
Good luck.</p>

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<p>UCLA is a great school. It’s where you deserve to be.</p>

13

<p>You’re ridiculous. The only reason you want to go to Yale is for its name, and that is a terrible reason. You won’t get in even with your stats. Yale doesn’t want kids who just want the name.</p>

14

<p>Hey OP, I transferred successfully to Yale from UC Berkeley so I have an idea about where you’re coming from.</p>

<p>First off, I noticed you’re using class size as a reason for wanting to transfer… the class size difference is not substantial. This actually surprised me. Once you get to upper-level classes at UCLA (or Berkeley as was my case), the classes tend to shrink toward 40-50 (unless you’re a science major at the UC). This may just be my experience, as I’m a political science major, which is a large major at Yale. If you want truly small classes, go to a liberal arts school (but of course what you really want is the prestige, so discussing the size issue is somewhat of a moot point).</p>

<p>Second, Yale (as I’m sure the other Ivies are too) tends to be very good at sniffing out people who are just looking for the prestige. If they sense that in your application, it’s unlikely you’ll get in. The people in my transfer “class” are some of the most interesting and genuine people I’ve met. I didn’t get the impression from any of them that they were there solely (or primarily) for the reputation. </p>

<p>Third, looking at your stats, I can see why you were rejected (no offense). You have nothing interesting. Your activities and awards are generic; nothing pops out; your SATs are not quite up to par. That being said, people applying to be a sophomore transfer usually were people that were qualified to get in during freshmen admissions, but were unfortunate enough not to be due to Yale’s ridiculously low acceptance rate. Frankly, I don’t quite see you being at that threshold. You can try, but you should focus on building up your academic and extracurricular career at UCLA for the long run (at least so you will have a stronger chance applying as a junior transfer). </p>

<p>Also, when you said you know nobody who would take UCLA over Yale… I knew one kid who took Berkeley over Stanford and another who took Berkeley over Harvard. So it’s not quite as “impossible” as you say.</p>

15

<p>The OP has posted this exact question over all eight Ivies & Stanford (no MIT?). The vast no. of replies have mirrored the ones we’ve posted. I don’t think “piling” on will affect the discussion to be frank.</p>

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<p>Yale doesn’t have a business economics major. It does have an econ major, but if you want to study business as an undergrad the only Ivy League options are Cornell and UPenn.</p>

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<p>Cornell and UPenn… yeah perhaps I should focus more on these two schools, given that Yale is too hard for me to reach. But frankly, if I ever have the honour to get in Yale, I would not care too much on the major. Getting in is difficult enough.</p>

18

<p>Off-Topic: “Only 1% of the human population EVER even attends post-HS education”</p>

<p>Where did you get this stat T26E4? I’ve never heard of this before but that’s really interesting if true. I don’t believe it though. 1% seems too small.</p>

<p>I tried searching on google and the only relevant result was this thread.</p>

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<p>1% is not small at all when you consider Asia, Latin America, and Africa in the mix.</p>

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<p>If world’s population is 6 billion, then 1 percent is 60 million.
U.S. population is 300 million, 27 percent have a bachelor’s degree = 81 million (not counting those who go to college but don’t graduate).</p>

<p>It’s more than 1%.</p>