How to Transfer to an Ivy League
Looking to transfer?
There are many reasons why you might be looking to transfer to an Ivy League or another top university. Maybe you didn’t get into any of your top schools and ended up going to a backup. Many you’ve discovered that your current school isn’t the right place for you — academically, culturally, or socially. Maybe you’re finishing up at a 2-year community college and want to get your bachelor’s degree. Or maybe you’re getting out of the military. Whatever your reason, this video is for you.
The good news.
The good news is that in many cases, it’s much easier to get into a top university as a transfer student than it is as a freshman applicant. Many colleges love their transfer students, and you’ll be competing against a much smaller applicant pool. But this is not always the case; some universities are even harder to get into as a transfer. So we’ll explore a list of schools with the best transfer rates, and a list of schools with the worst transfer rates. But before we do that, let’s look at the timing of the transfer process.
When to transfer.
The ideal time to transfer into an Ivy League university is after one year somewhere else. You would come into your new school as a sophomore, and you would spend three years on campus before earning your prestigious degree. This is the preferred method for Ivy League schools. But it’s worth noting that they do accept some junior transfers as well, just not as many of them. And every school is different. Stanford, for example, prefers that students transfer in as juniors. And UC Berkeley requires students to transfer in as juniors. It’s always a good idea to check the website of each school to see what their exact requirements are for transfer applicants, because they do vary by school. Some also have specific course requirements for certain majors, etc.
Application deadline.
Unlike the freshman application deadline which is usually (but not always) in January, the transfer application deadline is typically in March. So most students spend one semester at their current school, file the transfer application in March, and then start as a sophomore in their new school. It’s also important to note that, unlike with first-year admissions, there’s no Early Decision or Early Action options available for transfer applications, although some schools do offer different deadlines for fall term or spring term admission.
Why top schools love transfer students.
Many top schools love transfer students because it provides them with a unique opportunity to diversity their student body. Also transfer students are known as “data ghosts,” which means their application stats like high school GPA, class rank, and SAT/ACT scores don’t get added to the school’s public data sets. That means the schools can diversify their student body with all kinds of non-traditional, under-represented students without undermining their freshman class stats. It offers a clever way for them to have their cake and eat it too.
Schools with the best transfer acceptance rates.
In the chart below, you can see that there are more than a dozen top universities where it’s much easier to get in as a transfer student than as a freshman applicant. On the most competitive end, schools like Cornell, Columbia and Dartmouth have about a 5% acceptance rate for freshman applicants, but anywhere from a 10-15% acceptance rate for transfer students. So while it’s still quite difficult to get in as a transfer student, it’s much better than 5%.
And as you move towards the left side of the chart, you can see that there are many other prestigious universities including USC, Emory, NYU and Tulane (to name just a few) where the acceptance rate for transfer students ranges from 20-50%. Those are incredibly strong odds, and far better than their notoriously competitive freshman acceptance rates.
Schools with the worst transfer acceptance rates.
On the other end the spectrum, we have a number of top schools with very low transfer acceptance rates. These schools include UPenn, Brown, Princeton, MIT, Yale and Harvard. As difficult as it is to get into these schools as a freshman applicant, and it’s even harder (statistically) to get admitted as a transfer.
UPenn and Brown have roughly the same acceptance rates for transfer and freshman applicants: about 5%. But Princeton, MIT, Yale and Harvard all have transfer rates of about 1% or less. This isn’t meant to you discourage you from applying to these schools. Each year, they do accept a number transfer students (Harvard accepts about 12 a year), so it’s absolutely possible to get in. You just need to be an extraordinary candidate, which you probably knew already.
How to maximize your chances of getting admitted.
Applying as a transfer is a bit different than applying as a freshman. So let’s look at how to improve your odds of getting into a top school.
#1: Prioritize your college GPA. This is crucial. You need to aim for a 4.0 or 3.9 or as close to that as you can get. And you need to take as many courses in your intended major as possible. Also, take advanced or honors courses wherever available.
#2: Impress your professors. You’ll need to get 1 or 2 recommendations from college professors, and you can’t use your high school teachers. Since you need to file your application by March, you may only have fall term freshman year to get to know your professors. My advice is to become a star student right away: sit in the front row, ace their class, go to every office hours, and try to do a research project with your professor. But don’t tell them you’re looking to transfer until after the course is over.
#3: Focus on 1 or 2 extracurricular activities that relate to your major and demonstrate real impact. The stuff you did in high school won’t matter nearly as much as what you’ve been accomplishing in college.
#4: Create a clear and compelling personal narrative. This is perhaps most important of all. You need to demonstrate that you know exactly what you want to do with your life, and what field you want to study, and then you need to articulate why you can’t do that at your current school, and that the best place to do it would be at your new school. The more specific your focus, the better.
What are schools looking for in transfer applicants?
In a word: spice. Top universities are looking to diversity their student body with new types of students that they don’t already have. For example, if you’re coming from a community college, they don’t have a lot of students like you, so that absolutely works to your advantage. If you’re coming from the military, that’s also something they don’t have. It’s the same thing if you come from an under-represented country, or you have an unusual backstory, or you want to study something specific, unusual, or off the beaten path. The key is to offer them something new.
Should I retake my SAT/ACT?
Absolutely. Even schools that are test-optional will appreciate a good score. You want to aim for a score that is at or above their freshman average. For the Ivy League, that means about a 1550 SAT/35 ACT. If you have that already, you don’t need to take it again.
Should I rewrite my Personal Statement?
Absolutely. As a college student, you should be able to offer some new perspectives that you didn’t have as a high school applicant.
If I applied as a freshman, will they look up my old application?
Yes. But that’s okay. You just want to make sure that you’ve grown in the 18 months since you first applied. If you just regurgitate the same information, you’ll likely get the same result.
Many top universities love transfer students. Almost one-third of UCLA undergraduates are transfers from community colleges like Santa Monica college (pictured).
Columbia has a special School of General Studies which admits “non-traditional” students who have been out of school for at least at year. And the transfer acceptance rate to this esteemed Ivy League university is a whopping 60%!
Emory University in Atlanta is extremely difficult to get into as a freshman applicant (about 13%), but much easier to get into as a transfer applicant (about 33%).
Schools like Harvard are notoriously difficult to get into as a transfer applicant, with an acceptance rate below 1%.
You’re going to need one or two stellar professor recommendations for your transfer application, so you’d better get to know them fast.