<p>Paying as an OOS student for a public university like Cal has gotten to be too much of a burden. I was wondering how hard it is to transfer from Berkeley to Stanford. Would all of my credits transfer? And what does Stanford look for in a transfer? Open to all people with any knowledge on transfers from 4 years to Stanford.</p>
<p>To clarify, what year are you? To my knowledge Stanford only accepts transfers for sophomore year. </p>
<p>In previous years, I believe about 700 people have applied for transfer, and around 30-40 have transferred (it’s probably less, if anything).</p>
<p>If money is really that big of an issue you should probably look into transferring back to your state, Cal’s funding is horrible at the moment anyway. If you transfer you might actually graduate in four years…</p>
<p>Incorrect, Purpender: Stanford accepts junior transfers as well as sophomores, and the annual number of transfer applicants is generally around 1600. Only a handful of transfer applicants are successful each year, typically between 1-2.5%. Of these, some will be students who began at community colleges and who overcame significant obstacles in their personal and academic lives, and a few will be from four-year schools.</p>
<p>casperslide, to have a good chance as a transfer applicant from another four-year school, you would need (in addition to an outstanding academic record) to articulate why your current school can’t meet your educational needs in a way that Stanford can. E.g., does Stanford have a particular program that Cal doesn’t offer? I don’t think the fact that OOS tuition at Cal is burdensome would do much at all for your prospects to transfer to Stanford, since every OOS student at Cal is looking at the same value proposition.</p>
<p>Good point zenkoan. But finances are not the only reason I am looking to transfer. I am also very interested in their physics program concentrations as well as some research the professors are doing. Which brings up another question: could I get in contact with some professors at Stanford, explain to them my interest in their research, and have them go to bat for me in admissions?</p>
<p>Purpender: I will be transferring as a junior.</p>
<p>Sure, you can try, casperslide, but of course Cal has an outstanding physics department itself, so it might be hard to make a persuasive case that you couldn’t do the kind of research that interests you at Cal. (If the funding problems impacting the UC’s are severely limiting your opportunities, that could be something to bring up, I guess.) I doubt that just explaining your interests to professors in Stanford’s physics department would result in their “going to bat” for you, since there are plenty of extremely capable physics students here and they tend to involve themselves in research very early in their undergraduate careers. But, no harm in trying, and best of luck.</p>
<p>Thanks zenkoan. I think if I get really into my passion for science and then mention how I think the physics program there suits me better, I’ll be in good shape.</p>
<p>The more specificity you can bring to your application, the better, casperslide. I hope it works out, and that you wind up watching Big Game from this side. ; ) Honestly, the rivalry between Stanford and Cal is very affectionate–we know Cal is totally great, and there’s a lot of research collaboration between our two faculties. But I do think it’s a better experience overall here at Stanford, especially in the current circumstances surrounding higher education. I would really love to see funding fully restored for UC, and most especially Cal. Good luck, however it turns out.</p>
<p>I hope to see you on the sidelines too! I tend to think of the rivalry as somewhat over-expressed on Cal’s side, while Stanford is the more mature big brother 
Nonetheless, I am sure I will love Stanford as much as I love Cal if I end up there! Thanks again.</p>