Transfer hopeful with questions:

Colleges & Universities Yale University
1

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>I am hoping to transfer to Yale. So, I have some questions about life as a transfer student at Yale! </p>

<li>The website’s Transfer Handbook says ‘every effort is made to find housing on campus for transfers’ (or something to that effect. I think I’ve internalized the website by reading through it too many times.) </li>
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<p>Do many transfer students find themselves in a House with other Yalies, in general? Or are the transfers sort of left to fend for themselves and whatnot? “Every effort” seems promising, but the phrasing is a tad shaky.</p>

<li>How is the ‘socio-academic life’ of a transfer student at Yale? Is everyone already sort of settled into their own circles of friends, a bit hard to get through to, and so forth? Is it hard to get fully involved in extracurricular activities, because of the latecomer status? Do transfer students tend to bond within the transfer group? Or is there nothing to worry about?</li>
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<p>Do you, as transfers (this is directed to the transfers here,) find the classes difficult to follow?</p>

<li>Transfer of credits is where my question gets a little personalized - my classes so far have been </li>
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<p>[Writing Tutorial, Classical European Literature, Early Modern British History, Introduction to Literature, Modern World and Christianity (a required course), Psychology of Happiness] the first semester; </p>

<p>[Modern European Literature - German Literature, Imaginative Writing, History of Science, Understanding Traditional Korean Music, Korean Politics and Democracy, Self Leadership and Creative Ideas] this semester.</p>

<p>I’m in a Korean university, by the way, and our semesters start in March. I don’t know what to make of the time gap, but I was wondering how many of the above classes’ credits seem transferrable. The website says ‘similar courses’ will be considered, but really and honestly, who’s to say what the criteria for ‘similar’ is? How have transfers’ experiences with this been?</p>

<p>LAST of all, how for crying out loud did you write your Why Yale essays?</p>

<p>Thanks so very much,</p>

2

<p>Every year’s transfers are a very small group (under 30 in a group of 5300 students). As for social circles, while they form early, the people tend to be very mobile between groups. Also ECs have new people all the time.</p>

<p>Please formulate very intently your “Why Yale” essay. This and your academic performance will allow you to stand out or not. (About 700 applications, 30 or so admitees) Good luck to you</p>

3

<p>Housing: don’t worry. every single one of us that applied got housing, most of us love our roomies and our roomies love us, some even got singles even though not seniors. Yale even cared for us getting matched up with residential colleges whose dean had some commonality with our past or interest (in a group of 24, I know at least 2 of us - me included - had a cool surprise in finding the dean to share our obscure nationality or career).</p>

<p>The only thing to keep in mind is that your future suitemates won’t be prepared for you coming until a few weeks ahead. There’s been some frustration with suitemates that had already agreed on the single-double setup inbetween themselves, and getting one more person in the calculations only two weeks before the semester starts can be difficult. If you get admitted, go in there prepared for some diplomacy. For most transfers this wasn’t a problem at all though, so don’t lose sleep over it.</p>

<p>Social, academic, EC stuff: again, this is just my personal experience speaking, but you’ll have no problem at all with the social aspect. Yalies are absurdly friendly. They WANT you here. If anybody ever comments on my being a transfer at all, they are mostly just curious. If you are decently social you’ll be well-adjusted in no time at all.</p>

<p>I’ve been here for almost two months now, and still keep in touch with the other transfers. Especially the first weeks, we all got very close to each other (transfers tend to be the most amazing people you’ll ever meet - I’m still in awe of how cool my fellow transfers are). We’ve also had inter-generational transfer hang-outs with those who transferred from previous years. It won’t be your only social circle, I bet, but it’s one you’ll have for sure if you are open to it.</p>

<p>EC-wise, there is just too much going on for anybody to really care you just dropped out of the sky on the campus. Yale just isn’t cliquey and stale enough for this to be an issue. It might give you some headache with a few specific groups that prefer to recruit freshmen they can train up over the next years, like some choir or a cappella groups, but even then there’s always an alternative.</p>

<p>Academically, there are some limitations - like not being able to do directed studies - but also perks: for example, as a transfer you won’t be bound to fulfill your distributional requirements at the pace and way that is mandatory for others. </p>

<p>I do find classes here at a much higher level than at my old school (a community college), but absolutely not too hard. They wouldn’t accept you if they suspected you couldn’t follow along. Coursework here is some of the absolutely most fun I’ve ever done, I’m doing great, and STILL have time to procastrinate and be social. People vary, and so does the classes and workload you’ll have for each semester. I just wouldn’t worry about this. </p>

<p>They are extremely great with transfer of credits. They’ll work with you to try and transfer as much as you can. The dean of transfer affairs is an amazing woman that’ll be there to help you sort of all that out.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

4

<p>I hear everyone talk about Yale as if it were heaven, and the students themselves talk most of all. I mean, I just can’t wait… I’m hoping beyond hope. Thanks enormously for being such great people with awesome answers, you guys.</p>

5

<p>Oh, but would it be possible to elaborate on how exactly to write a ‘very intent’ essay, and whether there are additional academic limitations? It would be a shame to write an essay about a specific program unique to Yale, only to discover later that it’s not available to transfers.</p>