<p>For competitive applicants, does being from a YPSM school help or hurt your chances at being a successful transfer applicant? It could help, as one may succeed in the most similar environment, and Harvard would be glad to take such students for itself. Or it could hurt, as even if someone is qualified, Harvard sees no need to grant one of its scarce transfer spots to someone already thriving at a similar institution.</p>
<p>Furthermore, how does having been rejected (not even waitlisted) as a high school applicant affect one’s chances? Having been accepted at other HYPSM, one is presumably a competitive applicant. But having been rejected, apparently not at the time.</p>
<p>Do you know of cases of anyone from YPSM transferring into Harvard? What were their reasons? Were they excelling in their former schools and simply didn’t feel it was a personality fit for them? I’m definitely grateful of what I’ve been given, and am set to enjoy my Freshman year at a YPSM, but would nonetheless appreciate hearing about this!</p>
<p>I’m a bit confused at your response Hanna. Are you replying to thinkingaloud’s first or second question? I knew transfers from SM and Y (including a very very good friend) but not P. It certainly can’t hurt to be coming from any of those schools. </p>
<p>Thinkingaloud: This is in many ways a very strange question. Have you been accepted to YPSM (one or multiple or all) but rejected from Harvard and are already considering transferring before even starting? My suggestion would be to be very happy at wherever you were accepted to; Harvard really won’t offer much more than the other schools. Yes, they all have slightly different characteristics, but the differences really aren’t worth the effort, time and money that a transfer app entails.</p>
<p>Historically, H has been reluctant to take transfers from Y and P because the academic programs, extracurricular world, and underclass residential life are so similar, and it’s rare that someone has an academic need that H can meet but Y/P cannot. If WCU has met multiple Y->H transfers, then I guess they’ve re-thought that philosophy. I met only one in ten semesters working with the transfer program.</p>
<p>S/M are a different story because they have more dramatic differences from H, and it makes a lot of sense that you could be a successful student there and still have unmet needs H could fulfill.</p>
<p>I’m sorry to be reviving an old thread, but I’d appreciate any further responses particularly regarding cases of people who have applied to transfer this way for their own reasons in the past.</p>
<p>Jian Li (sp?), the Yale student who filed a civil rights complaint against Princeton for discrimination against Asians in admissions, ended up transferring to Harvard. So that’s one Yale-to-Harvard transfer right there.</p>
<p>Anyone aware of Jian Li’s reasons for transferring? I read somewhere that his girlfriend was at Harvard. Not sure if that was true, or if that was the primary reason, or one that the admissions office considered positively in accepting him.</p>
<p>Would really appreciate hearing more about this issue in general!</p>
<p>Revisit posts 2 and 3. This is only a meaningful question if you’re a dissatisfied current student at YPSM. Unless and until you are, the question comes across as a time-waster at best and greedy/ungrateful at worst. That is why no one else is answering. You haven’t answered WCU’s question, either.</p>
<p>I know of two people who’ve transferred from Princeton, one to Harvard and the other to Columbia. Both transferred during their sophomore year (I think) because they were huge party people and hated the atmosphere at P.</p>
<p>^Huh? That doesn’t make sense. Princeton has a much greater traditional party scene than Harvard or Columbia based on hearing personal anecdotes from friends. H and C, rightfully or wrongly, have the reputation of being the Ivies with the worst social life.</p>
<p>Well, I suppose every student’s experience is different. Personally, I do not see how partying in Boston/Cambridge, with many clubs downtown and so many colleges in the area can even compare to partying in Princeton. But that is just what I was able to gather from visiting, talking to lots of students, and reading a lot while I was trying to decided where to go. Try not to speak with such authority when you’re based on “personal anecdotes” from a few friends. You may easily mislead people.</p>
<p>At any rate, the two people I mentioned transferred out of P.</p>
<p>Did the two who transferred out of P also demonstrate an academic need not being fulfilled in their present school though? I’ve read that academics should be the primary reason for transferring (hence why there’d be an easier case for transferring from a less rigorous school). Did they make their case from social aspects alone?</p>