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We're hiding beneath a bevy of seniors! Must. Not. Suffocate.

Let's see...let's list where we are now, why we want to transfer, and the preferential order the institutions to which we are applying for transfer.

Currently at: Northwestern
Leaving because: it's too preprofessional

Applying to:
Yale
Brown
Emory
Wash. U
Wisconsin-Madison
Tulane

Anyone want to post essays?

By Zerostylus (Zerostylus) on Thursday, April 08, 2004 - 05:14 am: Edit

"Applying to:
prepro
prepro
prepro
prepro"

that doesn't sound like a very good reason. but i salute you.

By Up40love (Up40love) on Thursday, April 08, 2004 - 11:58 am: Edit

Of the schools on my list, the only two that have slightly preprofessional atmospheres are Wash. U and Emory, though both pale in comparison to the relentlessly preprofessional nature of Northwestern.

By Nenita1985 (Nenita1985) on Thursday, April 08, 2004 - 12:52 pm: Edit

When will you here from your schools up40love?

By Meganish (Meganish) on Thursday, April 08, 2004 - 01:10 pm: Edit

Currently at: Mary Baldwin College
Transfer Reason: I came in thinking of this as a spring board to other colleges. I want a more intellectual environment and larger econ department.
Applying to:
Stanford
ClaremontMcKenna
Wesleyan
(If I don't get in anywhere, I will apply to more next year. I'm a freshman.)

By Dinotopia (Dinotopia) on Thursday, April 08, 2004 - 01:12 pm: Edit

Currently: A Canadian school
Leaving Because: Not impressed at all w/ student body, classes far too large, no guaranteed on campus housing.

Applying to:

Harvard
Yale
Stanford

Yale essay had no word limit, and consequently is too long to practicably post here!

By Nenita1985 (Nenita1985) on Thursday, April 08, 2004 - 02:21 pm: Edit

Currently at: Ithaca College
Leaving Because: I want to change my major, I don't like the school anymore, school has no money for financial aid, and I want a more intellectual environment.

Applying to:
University of Maryland at College Park
Georgetown University
George Washington University

(I'm also thinking about applying to UMBC and Fordham since there is a possiblity that I might not get into any of these schools (since I'm still a freshman). Has anyone heard from the aforementioned schools yet?)

By Noodleman (Noodleman) on Thursday, April 08, 2004 - 06:06 pm: Edit

.

By Up40love (Up40love) on Friday, April 09, 2004 - 12:12 am: Edit

Nenita: I haven't heard from any of them, yet. The first decision should arrive from Yale in the first week of May, followed shortly thereafter by Brown.

Since admissions decisions at Tulane, Emory, and Wash. U are rolling, I expect that I'll hear from them within 30 days of sending in all pieces of my application. With transcripts and all, that's difficult to gauge.

Also, UW-Madison may send me a decision within the next two weeks, so hopefully I'll have something under my belt.

As for the essays: I'm a writer -- Random House is publishing my first book this October -- and consequently, I'm never satisfied with my writing. What looked impressive to me in March when I composed my Yale essays now look like crap, and I'm increasingly afraid that my essays are inadequate.

I wrote about skydiving for Yale's essay number 2. The first one illustrated my initial visit to Yale, articulating my delight in sitting in on Paul Fry's romantic poetry class and meeting the extraordinary students. yadda yadda. I'm unsure as to whether or not anyone would enjoy reading it or would be willing to comment on it.

Lastly, good luck to those of you applying to Stanford! I submitted an application online, sans the fee, which was a good decision since after reviewing the submissions, I discovered ghastly errors on my essays. Automatic reason for the dumpster.

By Dinotopia (Dinotopia) on Friday, April 09, 2004 - 01:23 am: Edit

I'm posting some essays that will likely fit here, just for anyone's curiosity, and because writing is meant to be shared! I wrote maybe a dozen essays for applications in total, but this is just a small sampling of stuff I can easily dig up.

==Pick a quote, comment on its significance to you...

“Change is good”

I lived in a fairly new part of Calgary and new buildings mushrooming up faster than gophers popping out of winter hibernation were a regular sight. It’s good for the economy: it creates jobs, provides turf for embryonic businesses and gives a new lease on life to many families with children who aspire to do exactly what I am aspiring to do at this very moment. For residents who’ve lived to the tune of relentless hammering and the sight of wooden frames, stacks of shingles and upturned dirt for many years, it’s a relief to finally get some much needed amenities. A few weeks ago I visited my parents in Calgary for the first time in months, and even I was shocked by the sudden appearance of some new neighbours: a new day care centre two blocks away, a library down the hill, and a shining new grocery store just north of my block.
Something disappears when new facilities move in. The new day care centre down the street was built on the site of what was a small rock garden that served as the gateway to an adjoining neighbourhood. It was an open space before, but the building that occupies it now is so large, it seems to want to push away the street, towering up behind the lampposts like a menacing bully. Last December, they completed the library down the hill, by the YMCA where I went three times a week to work out and swim. I once cycled down that hill, unencumbered, on the sidewalk, feeling the wind stream past my ears, until I had to swerve into the Y’s parking lot. It’s different now because the library is in-between the Y and the top of the hill, and cars are constantly streaming in and out of the library’s parking lot, often straddling the sidewalk trying to make a left turn. Having to stop halfway down the hill for cars has forever changed biking to the Y, and the library itself has blocked a good part of the view on the way down. It’s been difficult getting used to the open space disappearing and having many more people, traffic, wider roads and neon signs that weren’t there before. To me, it’s not always a fair exchange to have a wide open area of gently rolling hills, a tranquil stand of aspen trees, or a protruding, natural rock formation bulldozed, clear cut and dynamited to make way for parking lots, curbs, shop windows, stucco siding and aluminium roofs. I’d rather not lose the grass, trees and hills to have a store, a library or an optometrist’s practice within a three minute drive.
Don’t get me wrong; I don’t intend to paraphrase those urban sprawl articles you’ve seen numerous iterations of in Time. It’s important to look at these things from a different perspective too. I lived in the suburbs, carved out of what used to be farmland, which in turn supplanted rolling prairie and aspen woodlots. My house, the Y, and the rock garden brushed aside the peaceful, pastoral cattle ranch that was once a family’s pride and joy. Perhaps they sold it, unwillingly, to the developers they later witnessed excavating the land, stuffing sewers in its bowels, and smothering it with concrete and asphalt. But I had some of the best years of my life in the neighbourhood that sprouted there. The school, where I’d made many childhood friends, might be sitting where the barn once stood, and my friend’s house occupies the northwest vertex of the old farm where errant cows might have discovered they couldn’t take shelter in the corner of an electric fence; before that, the Crowfoot Nation (a tribe of Cree Indians) erected tepees there, and even farther back, Calgary was at the bottom of an inland sea, home to a colourful assortment of marine flora and fauna.
I’m just getting around to reconciling with that new library; they have a better magazine section than the older library a fifteen-minute drive the other way. I can also get a great view of the Rocky Mountains, peering over my book out the sprawling panoramic window, the new library’s hallmark. I’m not sure how to feel about all the change; in the face of all the things that are happening, I feel a sense of loss. But change made a lot of things, like my own life and the wonderful things about it, possible. A five-year-old is sitting on a bean bag in the corner of that new library, where an elm tree used to be, leafing through a book, his bright eyes taking in the pictures and the now familiar alphabet, and nestled beside him is his mother, pointing at a word, patiently sounding it out for him. A wide, curved smile unfolds across her face as he repeats it flawlessly.

==Tell us about an idea, concept, project you find exciting...

Finding a derivative is usually easy. It's one of the first few things you learn to do in calculus. But finding an antiderivative is much more work because it's a backwards process, piecing together a function from another function that is a "shadow" of it, and there are an infinite number of antiderivatives for any given function. But sometimes you get help from clues, like, the function you're trying to find has a value of 7 when x is 0. People do this all the time even if they don't study calculus. Think of the detective, working with bits of information, clues, evidence, trying to find out exactly what happened during a crime. Or the biologist who looks at a frog, some fossil evidence and tries, using these as the shadow, to elucidate the evolutionary history of amphibians. In these cases it's easy to go from a crime to the clues and evidence left behind, the frog's ancestors to the modern organisms and fossils they became, but starting with only clues, evidence and fossils and trying to figure out what gave rise to them is not so straightforward. Through the years, we've learned much about the civilisations that built the Egyptian pyramids and the Great Wall, and we can use that knowledge (pieced together, in a backwards process, from relics and artefacts) as the shadow, the basis for figuring out how civilisation as a whole came about. In a way, math is everything!

==Tell us about how someone has had an influence on you...

As far as I can remember, my dad has never given me praise more than a few times in my life. When he does praise me, it is never accompanied with a smile, just a quick “I’m proud of you” without even looking up at me from his bid proposals. This always frustrated me when I was younger, especially during the days when my friends would get a new remote controlled toy car or Nintendo game just for acing a math test, or for getting a rave review at parent-teacher interviews. In junior high I wondered how my dad could think that getting the highest mark in the class on all the final exams three years in a row could be just a modest achievement. In high school my marks dropped off significantly. Piano was my one notable extracurricular activity and I was no longer the top achiever in class, not even close, and when universities held information sessions my school, it dawned on me that I was not eligible for everything that I possibly wanted to do; yet, at the time, I was not worried. I was more concerned about building my social life and philosophically, I no longer believed in the concept of school. When reality hit halfway through the senior year and I had realised that my options were limited to a handful of no-name universities, I sat down at the kitchen table and wept uncontrollably. I felt that a great opportunity had flown away from my grasp, and worst of all, I had provided the launch pad for take-off. My dad relaxed in the living room and watched from a distance as I bawled my eyes out. My mother was furious that he did not help her calm me down, but my dad insisted it was a good thing that I was crying because only when I regretted what I had done would I ever do things differently, and if he convinced me that everything was fine, nothing would change. By the end of high school, I had raised my average to an A+ and received the highest mark in the school in senior math. My dad used the opportunity to tell me that he had intentionally withheld praise from me for years, and would continue to do so because “the worst thing you can ever do is to think that you are great”. Unlike many parents, he does not boast about me to his friends and colleagues and I have often overheard him discounting my accomplishments. When I won a few local piano competitions a couple of years ago he took a half-hearted look at the plaques, turned back to doing dishes and reminded me that they were just local competitions and that winning them did not necessarily mean a whole lot. In the end, my father instilled within me a harsh sense of realism, that an accomplishment is not a place to rest, but an impetus to do more, and do better.

By Up40love (Up40love) on Friday, April 09, 2004 - 02:06 am: Edit

Dinotopia: I am marveling at your answer to the intellectually exciting question. #12 on Stanford's application?

Anyhow, with Dinotopia setting a high precedent for wonderful essays, I will post some of mine:

Tell us something about yourself that help will the admissions committee to know you better.
“OK, now stick your legs out and wrap them underneath the plane’s belly.”
“You want me to do what?”
“Don’t worry!”
I can’t believe I’m doing this. I reluctantly follow Joe’s orders, curling my legs under the belly of the tiny Otter plane.
“Ready?”
“No!”
“3...2...1!”

I’m not a particularly adventurous person. Since childhood I’ve considered myself a coward, afraid of practically everything. I was perfectly content living a steady, pedestrian existence, convinced that risk-taking bore no rewards. Eventually tiring of mediocrity, I resolved to wander outside of my shell and enumerated various lifetime accomplishments I wished to tackle. I prioritized weight loss and global exploration, but while channel-surfing I discovered a program on ESPN where images of ridiculously dangerous sports like bungee-jumping and skydiving graced the screen. Jokingly, I placed skydiving atop the list. Days later, a childhood friend of mine, Cynthia, invited me on a skydiving trip sponsored by her employer. Baffled by the coincidence–and strongly believing in divine messages–I obliged. I could not let the opportunity pass.
We departed on a Friday morning using the two-hour trip to assess consequences of jumping: death, wetting ourselves, and other equally embarrassing–and dangerous–possibilities.
Cynthia navigated her tiny Toyota Camry onto a narrow dirt path while brightly colored nylon blankets hovered overhead, growing larger as brave souls approached the ground. We cautiously approached the hangar, an imposing heap of corrugated steel, and meandered through a labyrinth of endless hallways searching for the registration office.
Personnel promptly greeted us not with salutations but by quickly dispensing ten-page liability waivers. I scanned the document: an elaborate itemized list. I shook my head in reluctance, marveling at the specificity of each item, but my eyes rested upon one key blurb: “I UNDERSTAND THAT MY VOLUNTARY PARTICIPATION IN THE COVERED ACTIVITIES WILL EXPOSE ME TO THE UNAVOIDABLE AND UNPREDICTABLE RISK OF MAJOR PERMANENT INJURY, PAIN & SUFFERING, AND/OR DEATH.” Frightened, I began to reconsider the entire ordeal, but Cynthia persuaded me to not abandon her after having come this far. I hesitated but eventually scribbled my initials into the respective box and traipsed to the classroom where instructors of a forty-five minute Skydiving 101 class reviewed the fundamentals of how not to die.
Even more alarmed than before, Cynthia and I warily outfitted ourselves in too-tight jump suits and lounged in the hangar, teeming with anxious terror.
Our tandem guides introduced themselves, and we mingled momentarily before an announcer summoned us on deck. Cynthia and I marched toward the plane feigning confidence which quickly crumbled as the winding propellor’s distant sound rapidly approached with every step.
My tandem guide, Joe, ushered me into the seat-less plane and tried his best to quiet my nerves while an intrusive photographer, paid princely remunerations, attempted to capture a second-by-second chronicle of my potential brush with death.
As the plane slowly ascended, my heart rate crept upward. The uncontrollable pace convinced me that at any moment, my heart would have leapt into my throat. Despite my wracked nerves, curiosity beseeched me to examine the altimeter fastened to my left wrist. The needle raced until the plane reached a plateau at 14,000 feet.
One of the guides forced the door open, and a howling gale stirred through the cabin. The symphonic intensity of the winds deafened the space, and before I prepared myself for the worst, Joe began to gently nudge me toward the door. Gentle nudging developed into assertive pushing when I resisted, but I relented and nervously peeked out the doorway, surveying the expansive green canvas dotted with speckles of red barns and microscopic representations of life–barnyard animals and ant-sized people.

By Up40love (Up40love) on Saturday, April 10, 2004 - 02:48 pm: Edit

.

By Shahab (Shahab) on Saturday, April 10, 2004 - 02:52 pm: Edit

currently at Monmouth University a small school in NJ

applied to
Cornell
Columbia
Duke
Dartmouth
Harvard
Stanford
Rice
Carnegie Mellon
UpennWharton
NYUSterns
Uchicago
Northwestern

Yup.

By Up40love (Up40love) on Saturday, April 10, 2004 - 02:54 pm: Edit

Wow. Have you heard from anyone yet Shahab?

By Dinotopia (Dinotopia) on Saturday, April 10, 2004 - 05:00 pm: Edit

I hope you get into at least one of those, Shahab.

Up40love, I thought I had a good chance at Yale... but out of 800 people, I suppose if many like you submit essays as good as yours... I can't imagine what a book of yours would be like. Maybe if we both wind up at Yale, I could read your book.

I thought I wanted nothing more than to leave this school, go to one, one of the best in the world, that creates great thinkers like the schools of the Renaissance. But it's disheartening, you know, if all of a sudden, you're not quite sure you can get in.

I'm not sure I could ever bring myself to jump out of a plane, but I liked your essay, especially the pun on "too-tight". And as it ends, it really reams home why you ought to be allowed to go.

By Noodleman (Noodleman) on Saturday, April 10, 2004 - 05:22 pm: Edit

Up40ove: You sure can write, man! Thanks for posting!

By Yodisistim (Yodisistim) on Saturday, April 10, 2004 - 05:46 pm: Edit

Currently: Community College in NJ
Leaving Because: I'm graduating. CLASS OF 2004!!!
Major: Broadcast Journalism
LOL, I didn't apply to the ivy's or the elite LAC's; they don't have my major.

Applied to:
Temple University
American University
New York University
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Accepted:
Temple (Pending honors)
American (Honors program/Scholarship)
NYU (Decision pending)
UNC Chapel Hill (Early notification by email/1st choice/Pending scholarship)

Hmmm... I think I have a fair chance at NYU. UNC and NYU are about the same as far as competitiveness but I'm not sure if I'll get in. We all know how these decisions go!

By Dinotopia (Dinotopia) on Saturday, April 10, 2004 - 11:51 pm: Edit

Bump... keep this thread alive or transfers will get buried.

By Up40love (Up40love) on Sunday, April 11, 2004 - 01:53 am: Edit

Dinotopia: My writing clearly does not flow as freely as yours. I'd say you have a better shot than I do. Plus, I don't have a 4.0

But let's hope we both get in! I have complete faith that you will definitely get into Stanford with the two essays you posted. I can only imagine how you answered 11 and 13.

Dinotopia and Noodle: Thanks for the compliment, by the way. I'm far too critical of my own writing. :-D

By Dinotopia (Dinotopia) on Sunday, April 11, 2004 - 01:14 pm: Edit

Well, I seem to have lost the other two essays (I wanted to post them too!), but thanks for the compliment, Up40love ;-)
But let's be honest; your writing is excellent, it doesn't surprise me at all that you're a published author, and that's a very good hook for admissions!

In reality, just about all of us have a good shot, when you tally all things up. It will be very difficult for them to choose candidates, and admissions is always full of surprises; that's almost for certain. It may be so difficult that it comes down once in a while to coin tossing; well, maybe not that, but very small trivial differences might become the splitting hair that is someone's dream fulfilled and someone's dream hacked to death.

Please, transfer applicants keep posting because an ongoing thread is our best bet to keep our concerns afloat, and have a niche of our own. We may not all get in, but there's a lot to be said for the adventure of applying, nail-biting, and finally accepting what comes, and it's a good thing for us to share that.

By Mocksimus (Mocksimus) on Sunday, April 11, 2004 - 02:21 pm: Edit

Attending: California Community Colelge
Applied: Berkeley, UCI,UCLA,UCSD,UCR
Accepted: UCR, UCSD
Pending: UCI, UCLA,Berkeley
Leaving Because: I am finished at Community College
Furture Plans: Law school

Anyone know if as a transfer you can still qualify for the altin honors programs at Universitys? And I was wodnering if grad law school balances your Community College / University GPA.

Political Science Major 3.6 GPA
And I have an Elite A.A in liberal arts =P

By Yodisistim (Yodisistim) on Sunday, April 11, 2004 - 04:11 pm: Edit

Well I know that I cannot join Phi Beta Kappa at UNC because you have to complete the minumum of 75 credits with a 3.85

I'll be a junior and I think that two years of school does not include 75 credits; more like 60 something.

I think that they would look at your community college GPA...they HAVE too.

By Up40love (Up40love) on Sunday, April 11, 2004 - 04:23 pm: Edit

Grad schools will look at everything, but I'm sure they'll place a primary emphasis on the most recent work.

I was considering going to law school. My decision changes daily, however

By Fordhamchica03 (Fordhamchica03) on Sunday, April 11, 2004 - 11:12 pm: Edit

Attending
Fordham University
Leaving because... The school sucks, the people suck and they don't have my major.

Applied to
NYU
University of Maryland, College Park
George Washington University
Virigina Tech

All pending

By Nenita1985 (Nenita1985) on Sunday, April 11, 2004 - 11:39 pm: Edit

What major are u applying as Fordhamchica03?

By Up40love (Up40love) on Monday, April 12, 2004 - 12:11 am: Edit

In the event that you are rejected across the board -- which is not going to happen to any of us, divine-being-willing -- what will you do?

At this point, I am far from unprepared to take on a rash of rejections; of course the one that could pain me the most is Yale. Please, oh please, admit me ye ole Yale adcoms!

Does anyone have specific reasons for choosing their colleges aside from changes to your major?

And does anyone want to read/post anymore essays? I'm particularly concerned about my "Why Yale?" essay...

By Dinotopia (Dinotopia) on Monday, April 12, 2004 - 12:41 am: Edit

Okay... I'll post my Why Yale Essay... INCREDIBLY LOOOOOONG.... but the thing about it is, it's definitely not my best writing, but straight from the heart.

Why do you wish to attend Yale?

My desire to be able to study at Yale goes infinitely beyond just a wish or a casual “let’s see what happens” application. It’s a ravenous appetite, a burning passion that spending my remaining three years as an undergraduate at Yale could merely whet, and still I would leave wanting even more.
Yale’s amazing student body is one of the top reasons for my wish to transfer. I would have peers at Yale who would be game for engrossing conversations about the betrayal of Rwanda, or a possible explanation for why the square of pi is so close to acceleration due to gravity, at three in the morning. It’s the kind of place where I could just sink into a heavy discussion about human cloning while waiting in line for an omelette without feeling out of place. Most people at Yale are there because they’re interested in what they’re learning, they’re learning it because they love it, and they’re willing to discuss it because they care.
The student body is passionate, devoted and interested; they have to be if they attract some of the most well-known dignitaries in the world as speakers, and can command the resources of a university like Yale, whether that would be the largest gym facility in the world (nine stories!), or the sheer number of courses offered; as many as my present school while enrolling only one fifth as many undergraduates. They take bold risks, staging an eleven night sleep-out in protest of Yale’s dealings with Asian child labour. Just about everyone at Yale is going to have a talent I couldn’t even shadow with a lifetime’s toiling. Yale is the place for me to meet, learn, eat and sleep with thousands of bright, multitalented individuals who would feed my inspiration to continuously refine and hone my own talents.
There aren’t many schools where I could have a roommate who works on George Bush’s election campaign, a classmate with real life experience living in and helping villages in war stricken central Africa, and a friend I meet at the gym who designs the computer games that I play, all in one place. I speak from the bottom of my heart when I say that it would be absolutely surreal just to think that the guy next door spends his summers doing bleeding edge work in cancer research, or the girl upstairs developed two new varieties of apples that can keep un-refrigerated longer than pickled oysters. Perhaps I could finally meet someone like myself who has a great passion for consuming knowledge but also has a keen love of music and outdoor adventures. And I will probably meet countless fellow students who are in the same boat as me: wondering what our society really is, and where it’s really going. If there is some place where I will find peers who honestly question themselves, who are willing to dig farther beneath the surface and ask themselves why they do what they’re doing, and where it’s getting them, it’s probably Yale, and if I can’t find those peers at Yale, I probably won’t find them elsewhere.

Yale is one of the great sources of the world’s knowledge, not just a shadowed collection of it. I don’t feel that my present school is on the cutting edge of new discoveries and innovations in the world. The earthshaking discoveries I hear on the news all the time seem to happen mostly at universities like Yale, where I think the true frontier of human knowledge is being pushed. If there’s one thing I’ll be rushing to do upon arrival at Yale, it would be to pick the brains of Nobel Prize-professors on every conceivable topic; donut-shaped universes, centrioles and Adolf Hitler’s strange family tree. At Yale, the world’s brightest, most accomplished academics and scientists are not just fairy-tale figures in books to be worshipped; they’re real, they’re living, and they’re at my fingertips. They teach many of the classes, the bread and butter of the university, and they don’t just teach out of textbooks; they write them.
I was recently conducting research into the causes of and creative treatments for myopia; in high school, I was beginning to fall victim to nearsightedness, like the vast majority of my peers. A search of my present school’s library turned up two entries containing “myopia” in the title, while an online search of Yale’s library churns out fifty-one. Yale’s massive library collection gathered over three centuries is a testament to the amount of knowledge and achievement it has attained as an institution, and just a single example of the resources that would be available to satiate my curiosity as a student.
My dream education would reflect my many interests scattered across nearly every field of study. At my present school, the onus is on students to pursue “Honours Specialisations”, or double majors. The modest requirement for a writing course draws irksome sighs and criticism from many of my peers who are bent on studying exclusively medical biophysics or bioengineering. A Yale education, with its distributional requirements, is a prime opportunity for me to continue exploring a variety of fields. My greatest strengths are in mathematics and science, but I feel that literature is indispensably pertinent, and I need to accommodate my passionate interests in music. At my present school, the decision not to pursue a narrowly specialised degree is generally perceived to reflect a student’s lack of academic ability, not a student’s desire to engage in a broad, multidisciplinary education that provides a strong foundation for nearly any future pursuit.
Having the option of a liberal arts education at Yale is an ideal marriage with my desire to major in economics. I don’t see economics as simply being the study of the origins and distribution of wealth in a society and amongst individuals. It’s a field of study that gets down to the core of what society is made of. For most people, economics is a topic shrouded in mystery, yet their daily lives revolve around it. As a field, economics has so much more potential than the Honours Specialisation my present school offers; its study could encompass many other areas of knowledge such as the arts, humanities and sciences (one of my particular interests is environmental science; I can see immense benefit from having the reputable Yale School of Forestry so closely accessible). At Yale, I could study some history and science on top of a plain economics major, so that what I learn about economics is given context in the greater picture of humanity, coalescing my love of economics and my many other interests into a broad, flexible foundation for many possible future endeavours.
I have submitted a supplementary tape, which hopefully demonstrates my interest in continuing my studies in music. At my current university, it is almost impossible to take any courses in music without being a music faculty student, while at Yale, taking advanced theory courses is possible with a successful theory placement test. I have really missed being able to study music since enrolling at my present school, and I desperately want to jump back into the loop.
All the reviews that I have read thus far have given Yale credit for the attention and care paid to its undergraduate population, despite its reputation as a graduate school. Yale’s residential college system is yet another great draw. I understand that I would not be guaranteed a place in a residential college, but that I would most likely wind up in an on-campus annex. (I am still in the process of finding out what exactly this means but I’m certain it will be a more comfortable annex than the one Anne Frank had to live in, although it would be interesting to live in an annex above a genius physicist with no tolerance for noise and no idea at first that undergraduate students live in the abandoned office above his…) At my present school, residence is guaranteed only for the freshman year, after which nearly all students move off campus. Only two-thirds of freshmen live in residence, and very few places are available for upper-year students to live on campus. Next year, the friends with whom I had spontaneous mop fights and eating contests and with whom I studied calculus beyond patience into the wee hours of the morning, will almost all be scattered around the city, making networking and interaction with them highly inconvenient. I don’t want university to be “that place that I go to in the morning and come home from in the evening”. I feel that living in residence is paramount to having the true undergraduate experience of living, eating, learning, playing, laughing and crying with my peers. At Yale, housing on campus would be guaranteed until graduation, even required during my sophomore year, (I’d even be happy living in an old broom closet “annex”, on campus of course) and so my peers and I would have the opportunity to mature as a close community and foster strong, tight relationships that in many cases will last a lifetime.
The Yale Daily News and the Yale Herald are at times outright scathing and unrelentingly critical of the university. I could not wish for anything more. The quality, depth and courage of the journalism at Yale that I have read online so far is a healthy sign that Yale as an institution has problems of its own, and that it isn’t silencing the voices that are speaking up and helping the university to become even better (and yet another example of how brilliant the student body at Yale is). I look forward to having the chance to not only read printed copies of Yale’s newspapers, but to write for them myself. I’ve recently begun writing for the Gazette, the student daily at my present school, and as I was sitting down to write my very first article the senior editor warned me not to stir up controversy.

I would like my university to be a great, life changing experience, not just a portal to medical, dental or law school (which students at my present school seem to see our university as being). In contrast, I think that having a great university experience is the best possible stepping stone to doing anything later on in life. I want to come to Yale to feast on Yale’s great smorgasbord of knowledge, to interact with the individuals who have made many of the discoveries of our age, to be part of one of the most accomplished and promising student bodies in the world, to have the chance to make the very most of the very best. I could never regret the decision to attend Yale; if I do not find what I am seeking at Yale, there is probably nowhere else where I could find it, and I am absolutely dying to jump in, drink deep from everything that the great school that Yale is has to offer, and share with Yale everything that I have to offer.
But don’t get me wrong; I am well aware that what I want to do at Yale will often be stressfully difficult and excruciatingly frustrating. It is going to be much more competitive than my present school, and if anything, it’s a challenge staring me in the face, one that will probably bring me to the brink of tears more than once. Thinking of this brings me back to the time I worked with a field researcher last summer (when I was a Junior Forest Ranger) delineating a plot for a small mammal study in extremely dense forest; I was plodding along with a measuring tape in hand, the researcher standing behind me concentrating on a little compass, reciting, like some perfectionist piano mover, “a little bit to the left, perfect! A little bit to the right… no, that’s too far right, left again”. It would have helped if I could even see where I was going in all the brush, and if it didn’t involve walking through the spiny branches of spruce trees, or the thick, almost solid walls of prickly, dried, tangled dead branches; the measuring tape had to be pulled through the forest in perfectly straight lines, and I remember the exact words the researcher said to me before we started: “you are going to have to walk through the worst •••• [yes, I used a bad word] you’ve ever run into”. I emerged from the bush that day with dozens of small cuts all over my arms, legs and scalp. The cuts go away, but I felt great because it was a difficult task, I’d done my best, and I conquered it. I think Yale is going to be a challenge just as daunting as the baleful walls of thorny branches; certainly, there is the challenge to continue to do well academically in a high pressure environment where there will be many people smarter and more talented than myself, but most importantly, Yale is going to be a challenge for me to make the very most of the all the opportunities available, to leave the mark that I want to leave, and to not accept anything but the very best of myself and one of the greatest institutions in the world.

I now conclude with the most important reason why I’d like to transfer to Yale. My friend [Name deleted to preserve privacy] and I once co-founded a singing group in the eleventh grade (we hope to resume the singing group at Yale if we both wind up there!) [Name deleted] and her friend Karen were the singers; I took the role of piano accompanist. Now, [Name deleted] and I both loved Schubert’s The Trout, but she didn’t feel she was singing at a high enough level to master it, and the music was extremely difficult to find. I told her she needed to be more confident, to no avail.
In April of our senior year, [Name deleted] broke to me the news that she was offered admission to Yale, accompanied by a generous financial aid package, and she would waste no time in accepting the offer. So far, the things she’s told me about Yale have added fuel to the inspiration that I have for attending Yale, like tossing birch bark on an embryonic campfire (she got to see Bill Clinton visit Yale to talk about globalisation, and her literature professor is a former secretary of state!). One day at the end of June last year, we were sitting in an atrium in our school signing each other’s yearbooks. I promised her then and there that if for some reason I managed to get into Yale, I would find out where she lives, move a loudspeaker in front of her door, and surprise her by singing her a song about how she smells like a fish, to the tune of The Trout. I keep all my promises, and I hope to be able to fulfil this one.

By Dinotopia (Dinotopia) on Monday, April 12, 2004 - 12:43 am: Edit

And if I get rejected across the board... (let's be honest, I'm applying for HYS; I probably will) I will probably reapply again next year, and at that time, probably also for Darthmouth. I don't think there are any other Canadian schools worth transferring to, and from a cost perspective, I can't justify transferring to any school in the United States unless it's the best.

By Up40love (Up40love) on Monday, April 12, 2004 - 01:25 am: Edit

Dinotopia: YOU ARE SO IN! How I envy your writing. I held back a lot when writing my Yale essay, which makes it consequently second rate.

I've been deliberating asking Adcoms to let me submit an additional essay explaining everything that's happened recently, especially with the book, but I fear it will only shatter my chances at matriculation.

What's your email, Dinotopia?

By Alpinesun (Alpinesun) on Monday, April 12, 2004 - 01:36 am: Edit

dinotopia, wow.. if i were yale, i'd let you in..

By Noodleman (Noodleman) on Monday, April 12, 2004 - 07:48 am: Edit

Here's Cornell: (Why do you want to attend? 500 wds)

Tear it apart.


My sixth grade English teacher penned a little note on my report card that read, “N**l continues to string a pearl necklace with diamonds.”

I have tried always to live up to those words.

Since a very early age, I have been blessed with an abundance of aptitude; this is to say that I am more or less “naturally” good at many things. I have been a professional actor, working in film, on television, and on stage; I have had a successful career as an art director; I have cooked professionally; I have designed complex Web sites; yet none of these things, as innately creative as they are, have spoken to my soul in the way that my current intellectual pursuits do.

None of them has afforded me a real opportunity to effect powerful change in people’s lives. I want to learn how to do that through our legal system. Cornell can teach me.

If I am accepted to Cornell—and I have my heart and soul set on it—I would like to use my undergraduate program to prepare for the study of Law. While I realize that Cornell has no formal Pre-Law program per se, I am taken with the breadth, depth, and quality of the liberal arts education that I am sure to be afforded as a student at the University. My specific undergraduate interests are in Psychology and in Ethics, and so it would follow that my major would be in one of these, or both.

Judging by all that I have heard and read, I believe that Cornell is something of a kindred spirit (if a University can be said to have a single spirit) in that it shares in my desire to excel, places great value on hard work, and strives to do more, to be more, and to accomplish more than is expected. Cornell strikes me as an institution that is not content to rest upon its laurels.

I have heard Cornell described as “More than just an Ivy League school; it’s a place you’ll really have to work.” I find that attractive. I don’t want my grades inflated; I’d prefer to inflate them myself. After all, I believe that stringing a pearl necklace with diamonds requires more than natural ability or aptitude. It is also about one’s attitude, about one’s willingness to follow the road less taken, and about reaching beyond the ordinary to grasp the extraordinary. It is about hard work, and discipline, and gumption. It means eschewing the obvious and pursuing the difficult. It means constantly taking risks and doing more than is asked.

Cornell strikes me as being a place where I will be challenged on a constant basis to move toward a higher place, both within and without. I can think of no better place for me than one that values “open doors, open hearts, and open minds.”

By Noodleman (Noodleman) on Monday, April 12, 2004 - 08:02 am: Edit

UVA

Prompt:8c. If you were to develop one of your talents to an extraordinary degree, what talent would you choose and how would you use it?


Thomas Jefferson sat alone--self-sequestered in a tiny room in Philadelphia. His quill in hand and mind aflame, he penned the now immortal words that birthed a nation, rocked a planet, and set our country on a course which has since defined new and wondrous freedoms for countless souls. His powers of persuasion were immense. His genius was in communicating possibility as though it were destiny; all who read the Declaration of Independence, even today, are swept up into its vision of equality and empowerment for all. I know that I am.

To be able to communicate a vision, to inspire another's imagination, to bring light into a darkened mind or minds—this is what I would choose to master if I were to sharpen but a single talent to an astonishing degree.

Before Martin Luther King climbed up the steps of the Lincoln memorial in 1963, just one man had a dream. When he strode back down those steps—only ten short minutes later—one hundred thousand people had a dream; King's clarion call was heard and felt by all those assembled; his heart and mind and soul all spoke as one. Reluctance and doubt were banished from the assembled multitudes, and hope sprung up in fear's place. Because King had this gift for creating a connection, his dream is still alive today. Millions upon millions of lives have been irrevocably changed.

It is this rare and wondrous ability to transmit inspiration that I would hope and dream to have. Would that I could couple this with a farsighted understanding of what is right, just, true, and possible in this world, I might change lives for the better.

Though I would never tender such a claim as to approach the stature of Jefferson or King, I too have a vision. I see myself as becoming a public defender who is a champion of the underprivileged and the mentally ill. These are the forgotten people in our midst who so often go unseen and even willfully ignored. I see myself as a crusader for those who are ill-equipped to fend for themselves. I see myself as one who truly makes a difference in lives that are so rarely touched by the hand of mercy.

Even now, I know in my heart that I posess the ability to touch at least one other person. I have worked for change in small ways, and I have seen the fruit of my labors. It is the sweetest fruit, by far, that I have ever known.

This desire to make a difference, to touch another's life, is as innate in me as the desire to breathe. My one greatest wish is that I may be fulfilled in this desire and to ultimately see my vision shared and realized. Who am I, you may ask, to think that I should try to change the world? Who would I be, I might reply, to think that I should not?

By Shahab (Shahab) on Monday, April 12, 2004 - 01:14 pm: Edit

noodleman most of us were born with an abundance of aptitude...get in line... the essay comes across arrogant as hell imo

just my opinion

By Noodleman (Noodleman) on Monday, April 12, 2004 - 02:47 pm: Edit

Thanks!

Post something, dude. I'd like to read something humble and self-effacing as hell...

Anyone else?

By Alpinesun (Alpinesun) on Monday, April 12, 2004 - 03:35 pm: Edit

noodle,

first one sounds blatantly cocky
second one sounds like a miss america speech

By Noodleman (Noodleman) on Monday, April 12, 2004 - 03:39 pm: Edit

Gee. I must be a terrible writer. Cross that off my list of abundance...

Anybody else like to volunteer for abuse? Please post a sample, you guys.

By Dinotopia (Dinotopia) on Monday, April 12, 2004 - 04:07 pm: Edit

Up40love - my e-mail addy is now in my profile. Moderators don't let people post e-mail addy's in message bodies.

By Up40love (Up40love) on Monday, April 12, 2004 - 04:14 pm: Edit

Instead of projecting "abuses" toward you, I'll try and give you concrete reasons why your essays may come off this way:

I can see how you wanted to illustrate how you've tried to maintain your level of academic prowess since garnering an ego boost from one of your teachers. However, the message was conveyed in a no-else-is-as-intelligent-as-I-am way, which may lead people to find you pretentious and self-absorbed. To combat this, you could explain how seeing that comment fueled an inner desire to optimize your academic capabilities, which somewhere along the lines taught you the importance of education...

Being too modest or not modest enough, in some cases, may hurt your chances of admission. You lightly touch on Cornell's specific academic programs, but you don't discuss at all why those particular programs are suited to you. No mention of professors, no mention of specific classes can lead adcoms to believe that, "Hey, other schools have these programs too. Why do you want Cornell's program and not Yale's or Brown's?"

In your second essay, I'd say that you're trying to do something that few people have accomplished. True, people regularly impact the world in both small and large ways, but you haven't honed in on how Virginia will help you do that. Plus, most adcoms discourage tackling monumental topics like changing the face of the world, ushering in unifying peace, or halting war and violence. If you'd used the opportunity to talk about a specific goal, rather than "making a mark on the world," adcoms would be more sympathetic and pay more attention.

This does, unfortunately, sound too much like a Miss America speech. Impacting the world isn't so much a "talent" than it is a desire or pursuit. Maybe you want to concentrate on your love of the piano -- i don't know if you play, this is just an example -- or, if I were writing this essay, I'd probably discuss wanting to perfect my tennis service game, because it would enable me to sharpen skills, understand precision and accuracy, and it would serve as a gateway to improving other aspects of my game. The serve would be a metaphor for something small in my life that would catalyze a chain of events that would make me a better person overall.

Sorry, I just pulled the whole tennis-serve thing out of my @$$.

But in all seriousness, you have the potential to write an excellent essay, but you have to dig deep inside and extract the most personal things about you. An essay where you are brutally honest is one which will catch the attention of those we're all desperately trying to woo.

I hope I didn't come off as self-righteous and sanctimonious.

By Noodleman (Noodleman) on Monday, April 12, 2004 - 04:20 pm: Edit

Not at all! Thanks for the insight!

I'll comment back more in a bit; gotta run now.

PS: Talent was "ability to inspire" (perhaps just one person, not necessarily the entire world...)

PPS: I hope your @$$ feels better without the raquet in it.

By Transfer2004 (Transfer2004) on Monday, April 12, 2004 - 04:59 pm: Edit

Hi everyone, I've been reading your messages and I must say that I've enjoyed them.
I applied as a junior transfer (currently a sophmore) to U of Miami, G-Town, GWU, Tufts, Stanford, Yale, Harvard. I am an non-traditional student (I took 3 years off) and now I'm about to graduate from my community college.
My stats are:
I'm an American but grew up in Argentina.
My first language is Spanish.
High School GPA:2.0
College GPA: 4.0
SAT's:1310

Here is one of my essays. Let me know if you liked it or not (I'm just curious to see if it came off as being boring or not).
Best regards to everybody and good luck in the next few months!

Has there been a period of time in which you have not been a student; e.g., a break between
high school and college?

I remember vividly my sense of relief when high school graduation day came, thinking that I would never again have to step into a classroom. I had just spent five years questioning why I had to wake up every day to go to a place where I didn’t want to be. To make matters worse,
during my teenage years I had a very hard time making friends. My introversion and mild social
anxiety had prevented me from establishing meaningful friendships with my classmates.
On the other hand, my lack of success in academics did not extend to athletics. I began
playing ice hockey when I was twelve years old. The fact that I was living in Buenos Aires,
Argentina and that there was only one rink in the entire country, made my new activity much
more unusual. Argentina is known around the world for its great soccer and mesmerizing tangos -
not its ice hockey.
After five seasons of local league play, I was selected to play for the national team. During my senior year of high school, I got to travel to Bratislava, Slovakia to play in my first World
Cup. Playing hockey in 50,000 seat post-communist stadiums against the most talented players in
the world was an eye-opening experience to say the least. While we didn’t exactly tear up the
competition (we lost 44-1 against Sweden), I realized that I wanted to make hockey the central
focus of my life. I came back to Argentina determined to make a living from hockey, not as a
professional hockey player (the World Cup itself had given me a reality check) but certainly in
some other capacity.
Fresh out of school in January of 2000, I was offered my first coaching job. A group of
kids who had seen me play for the national team asked me if I would be willing to teach them how
to play the game. I accepted without hesitating. While some people may have the god given ability
to teach effectively, I didn’t feel I was one of them. Advocating discipline, hard work and
determination did not come naturally to me. While speaking in practices I came to understand the
old adage that words are cheap. How could I preach about striving to improve oneself when I
really wasn’t doing that personally? This single question had a major impact on me and my future.
I began to take myself and my job more seriously. I would go as far as to say that I started taking pride in my work. If I didn’t, who would? From a coaching standpoint, instead of just
doing team drills as (I had done in the past), I began to focus on each individual in order to work
on weaknesses and strengths. This coaching method proved to be very effective. Not only did the
team began winning hockey games, but I actually started to get calls from different groups of
people who wanted me to become their new coach. Within ten months I was training two peewee
teams, one bantam team, two adult teams and one women’s team. I had the opportunity to
interact with people of all ages and learn from them while they learned from me. The boost of
confidence that I got from this success was tremendous.
One of the main reasons why many Argentines choose not to play hockey is the cost of the equipment. Since most hockey products are manufactured in the U.S. and Canada, Argentine
consumers have to pay retail prices plus shipping and custom fees. In early 2001, I contacted two
major manufacturing companies (Bauer Hockey and CCM Sports) to explain to them the situation
and they were willing to listen. To my amazement, these corporate giants gave me the exclusive
representative rights to their brands in Argentina. As a result, I was able to offer Argentine players better prices than north American retail stores. More potential hockey players were now able to
afford playing the sport.
By August of 2001 my family’s business and my own hockey business were struck by the
emerging Argentine economic/political crisis. My mother and stepfather, long time owners of a
shoe store in metropolitan Buenos Aires, began to see an alarming drop in their sales. Our efforts
to keep the family business afloat proved to be futile as chaos began to emerge throughout
Buenos Aires and virtually every other major city in the country. I halted hockey practices due to
safety considerations. It didn’t make sense to ask my players to attend practices with riots and
protests taking place. In addition, the government’s decision to suddenly switch from a fixed to a floating exchange rate had a profound negative effect on my importing business. The Peso greatly depreciated in relation to other currencies and few people were now able to afford foreign goods.
As if all of this wasn’t enough, my family came to the conclusion that moving to Spain would be
their best option since Argentina had nothing left to offer them.
Experiencing the Argentine crisis influenced my decision to return to school. My interest in Economics was sparked when I began my importing business. I had never realized the
tremendous effect that economic policies have on each individual. After living -and thankfully
surviving- the surreal experience of the Argentine economic meltdown, my interest has grown to the point where I feel immensely motivated to study Economics. Since my father’s side of the
family is American (I was born in the U.S. but relocated to Buenos Aires when I was still a baby),I decided to come back to the U.S. to pursue a college education. I’ve been attending a Foothill College ever since.

By Yodisistim (Yodisistim) on Monday, April 12, 2004 - 05:21 pm: Edit

What's going on fellow transfers? Now as we know, decisions have already been mailed out to the SENIOR class of 2004, but not for the transfer class of 2004.
Today, I got a letter from NYU titled: Attention Bill Payer: Tuition PaymentInformation Enclosed. Blah blah blah...and I got this pamphlet talking about tuition charges and what not and this form in which I should fill out exactly what I need to pay.

Is this a sign that I got into NYU? It's crazy. I've wanted to go to NYU for the longest and due to more research and desire for a true college life, I've decided to go to UNC Chapel Hill. I would still like to know whether I got in or not though. Any takes?

And my essays are VERY short. I heard that it's good to get right to the point even though the essays posted are GREAT! I will post mine upon acceptance. Even though NYU is the only I haven't heard from.

So yeah, I've been asked, along with a number of other honor students to submit our names to the Dean of Student Services with a possibility that we may speak at graduation (at least one of us)All I know is that, if I'm chosen, I will definitely post my speech up here and you guys can TEAR it apart! LOL

By Lockin54 (Lockin54) on Monday, April 12, 2004 - 05:38 pm: Edit

CURRENTLY AT: UC Santa Barbara
Leaving: to many preppies, town is too small

Applied: San Francisco State, New York University, UC Berkeley

I got rejected from SFSU because i didn't have the requirements filled but i do for both NYU and Berkeley which are both pending. I think i have a got shoot at NYU we will see soon enough

By Melbel219 (Melbel219) on Monday, April 12, 2004 - 05:46 pm: Edit

Attending: California Community Colelge
Applied: Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD, UCSB
Accepted: UCSB
Pending: Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD (side note: WTF does "late april" mean?!)
Leaving Because: I am finished at Community College

Comm. Studies major
3.9 GPA
IGETC cert.
AGS chapter president
ICC secretary
Black Belt
Walnut Creek Concert Band

good luck all transfers!

By Nenita1985 (Nenita1985) on Monday, April 12, 2004 - 06:21 pm: Edit

Hey. Since everyone is posting their essays, I might as well post one of mine:

Essay for Transfer Students (approximately 500 words) — Why at this point in your academic or professional career would you like to transfer to GW?

I moved to the Dominican Republic at age fourteen. Being a Dominican-American girl with only conversational Spanish skills, this marked the beginning of my struggle for survival in a foreign country. During my high school years, not only did I try taming my coursework, I also had to learn twelve years of Spanish in four years and face culture shock. Even though all this pressure drove me to a point where I developed depression, I managed to overcome it by the beginning of my senior year of high school. By that time I started to take an economics course, where I was exposed to the stock market during a “Virtual Stock Exchange” challenge. To me, it was love at first sight. As a result, I decided to become a business administration major.

During the first semester of my freshman year in college, I had to deal with everything from almost being kicked out because of a financial mishap with the Bursar, to discovering that my love for my intended major was just a crush. It was during this time that I finally saw the impact that living abroad had on my perspective on politics. I realized that I cannot think like an American anymore. I also realized that when I chose a major, I had completely ignored my interest in foreign affairs.

This interest budded during the beginning of tenth grade. I took a Dominican history course and this was the first time that I had been exposed to the “America” known to many third world countries. That is, the “America” that pressures these countries through debt and military power. As a result, I became dissatisfied with the knowledge of American history I had acquired before, and I immediately developed an interest in American foreign policy in other third world countries.

During freshman year of college, I was exposed to more relevant topics in my Sociology, U.S. Politics, and Multicultural Studies courses. In Sociology I was exposed to Karl Marx’s conflict theory, which I felt explained the reasons for many of the unjust actions in foreign politics. In U.S. Politics I was exposed to the rules of the game we call the American political system. In my current Multicultural Studies course, we are learning about the socio-political aspects of different cultures. After taking this course and learning about how Arabs and Muslims are constantly victimized by both foreign policy and the media, I developed a new love: International Affairs.

That is why at this early point in my college career I am interested in transferring to George Washington University. I feel that the International Affairs major with a concentration in international economics at The Elliot School offers me a combination that I love: political science, economics, and foreign affairs. This unique major is a great opportunity for me to learn from distinguished scholars in the field and will guide me towards a prosperous career in the area that I am truly in love with: Foreign Service.

What do you guys think of this essay? Your feedback is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

By Up40love (Up40love) on Tuesday, April 13, 2004 - 03:06 pm: Edit

Yodi: I'd say there's a fairly good chance that you'll be admitted within the coming days if they're securing you with forms that tell you how to pay them..ha ha ha.

however, I wouldn't know because I'm getting the same things from a state school and they haven't officially accepted me yet, nor is my file complete, so I would get excited, but cautiously so.

melbel: Berkeley decisions will be available on April 30, so when they mean late April, they probably mean the last day.

nenita: I'd have to say that your essay is fairly weak in that no connections aer made to George Washington until the conclusion. I think that you could have strengthened your essay by using medial reinforcements throughout rather than a conclusive "this is why I want to go to GW..."

Transfer2004: Your essay has a detailed chronicle of what you've done in your time off, however, your essay seems to be structured in a way that makes reading it slightly exhausting. It reads more like a tedious retelling than it is an active story, truly conveying why what you did in your time off was significant. I can't really explain how to remedy this quickly, but instead of having it come off as "I played ice hockey and all of these wonderful things happened as a result..." maybe you could've designed it to read in first person, so that you could integrate the reader into the story, introducing the events in a manner that made it feel like he adcom was with you on your journey. Maybe that's a little corny, and I hope you don't take offense to my critique. Please, feel free to dissect my writing ad nauseum.

By Fordhamchica03 (Fordhamchica03) on Tuesday, April 13, 2004 - 03:55 pm: Edit

Love, (Hey I like your name) Can u give me imput on my essay?

When I was accepted to Marymount College of Fordham University, I was eager to experience learning at an all women’s college. I’ve attended co-ed schools practically all my life and was curious to live in a residence hall with a group of girls from different background. The most appealing aspect about Marymount is the rampant diversity. I have met girls of all races, religions and socioeconomic backgrounds. A majority of the classes at Marymount are small and intimate. Plus, students have easy access to the professors. Although, Marymount is rigorous academically, I feel it does not possess the competitive classroom and social that environment I need in order to stand out when I enter the professional world.

Early in the semester, I withdrew a course because I was disappointed in the class structure. My Computer Applications professor recently completed graduate school and had no previous teaching experience. I expected for this introductory course to have a limited number of students in order to provide an optimum learning atmosphere and facilitate a personal relationship with the professor. Conversely, the class was overcrowded. I often found myself arriving to class up to a half-hour ahead of schedule so that I would have a seat in the class. I felt I could not excel in such an overcrowded class. With my family’s undying support, I prevailed and managed to receive good marks in my other courses. My family pushed me and I knew I could not be a failure because my mother, who couldn’t afford to attend college, works her hardest to help finance my education.

I hail from a hardworking, wholesome Nigerian family. My mother, who divorced my father when I was ten, taught my siblings and me to be kind individuals. I’ve always treated my friends and the people around me with respect because my mother raised me to do so. Since attending Marymount, I have truly learned that a woman must always be strong and never let anyone take advantage of her. Although, my mother taught me these vital lessons before I attended college, I didn’t apply them to my social life at Marymount; I was very naïve first semester. After being treated badly by my first roommate and harassed by a girl in the sophomore class, I realized that education is an important gateway for my success in life.

Education is my main focus, but NYU is located in the heart of New York City; I can’t ignore that! The social scene is simply fabulous in the Big Apple. If I am accepted to NYU, I will be near the Metropolitan Museum, Broadway, and many delicious Chinese food restaurants. New York City is a grand melting pot. I can learn daily life lessons from a future professor or a homeless guy on the corner! I can use these lessons in my future occupation because I will be able to work with different types of people and be able to assert myself confidently. I firmly believe NYU has the dynamic social and academic atmosphere needed for me to excel in the workplace because it is top university located in fast-pace, rich multicultural city!

My first semester was a tough one, yet my passion and overwhelming desire to learn and grow into a truly good human being still actively burns inside of me. My goal in life is to become a skilled screenwriter because I want to tell attention grabbing, fast paced, yet heart warming stories to the world like my “director idols,” Billy Wilder, Preston Struges, Frank Capra, Howard Hawks, and Joe L. Mankiewicz. I love them because they are such vivid story-tellers. With the right training, I hope to become nearly as wonderful as them. Overall, I would be truly honored and grateful if I was accepted for the fall semester of 2004 at New York University.

By Bebeblue (Bebeblue) on Tuesday, April 13, 2004 - 04:02 pm: Edit

Freshman at Trinity College. 4.0 college GPA. 3.9 high school GPA. 1380 SAT. Good extracurricular activities & recommendations.

Applying to UPenn, UChicago, Barnard, NYU and possibly Northwestern.

By Fordhamchica03 (Fordhamchica03) on Tuesday, April 13, 2004 - 04:11 pm: Edit

Hi guys, im a tranfser too!

Freshman at Fordham University, College GPA roughly 3.5, High School 3.0GPA, SAT 960, Great recs and activitives.

Major:Dramatic Writing and Journalism

Applied to NYU, College Park, GWU and Virginia Tech (rejected, still trying to figure that one out!)

By Yodisistim (Yodisistim) on Tuesday, April 13, 2004 - 09:03 pm: Edit

You know... to all the NYU transfers.. This girl got the same letter as me and when she called, she found out she got in. I would call but honestly, Im not going there anyway. Everybody was already saying congrats at school tho lol it was kind of funny. It's going to be crazy to turn down NYU in its most competitive year in history.

I didn't apply to College Park because I was afraid that I would be rejected. I heard that if you dont meet the "gateway" requirements to a LEP program, you'd get whacked. I was gonna apply to GW but I changed my mind...too much money. How did you get rejected from VT?lol...must have been a mistake

By Buckojack (Buckojack) on Tuesday, April 13, 2004 - 09:59 pm: Edit

I will be at either Virginia or Vanderbilt next year and will probably attempt to transfer to Harvard, Yale, and Stanford. What do I need to do to put myself in a good position to get in? Will a 3.5 or so GPA 2nd Semester senior year hurt my chances (I had a 3.92 before this but it doesn't look like I'm going to maintain that this time). I have a 1550 on my SAT, and if I can manage a 4.0 (obviously that's a stretch at a top school), what would you say my chances are?

By Nenita1985 (Nenita1985) on Wednesday, April 14, 2004 - 12:00 am: Edit

Up40love: They only gave me 500 words. You cannot get uber poetic with your essay when they ask for a 500 word essay and at the same time you have to explain your interest in GWU. In order for me to explain my interest in GWU, specifically the Elliot School, I had to explain where I was coming from. Also, I'm applying as an international affairs major, a major which deals with FOREIGN POLICY. The people at GWU know this, so technically I did make a connection with GWU and the Elliot School in general.

Transfer2004: No te preocupes. Yo creo que tu essayo esta super bien. Yo tambien hice bachillerato en Latino America (Republica Dominicana) y soy americana, so I know exactly what you went through (please excuse me for the Spanglish :p). I think you did a good job with explaining your unique background and your essay is defintely not boring.

By Bebeblue (Bebeblue) on Wednesday, April 14, 2004 - 11:03 am: Edit

>I will be at either Virginia or Vanderbilt next year and will probably attempt to transfer to Harvard, Yale, and Stanford. What do I need to do to put myself in a good position to get in? Will a 3.5 or so GPA 2nd Semester senior year hurt my chances (I had a 3.92 before this but it doesn't look like I'm going to maintain that this time). I have a 1550 on my SAT, and if I can manage a 4.0 (obviously that's a stretch at a top school), what would you say my chances are?

Very low. I'm sorry but everybody who knows how hard it is to get into Harvard/Yale/Stanford as a transfer will tell you that. I know a few students from other Ivies with +3.8 who got denied from Harvard/Yale. I know one student who got into Harvard as a transfer from Wellesley, and her father is a movie mogul. I'm not trying to discourage you at all, but giving you a reality check. Just attend whatever college, do really well and hope for the best. And apply to colleges with better chances to be accepted.

P.S 4.0 at college is not as easy as it sounds. Sure, you could take plenty of 100 level classes and get 4.0 but the colleges will prefer someone with 3.7 GPA with harder classes.

By Yodisistim (Yodisistim) on Wednesday, April 14, 2004 - 03:53 pm: Edit

So that's 4/4..
Temple- in
American- in
UNC Chapel Hill- in
NYU...

Well, I got the package, but Im not opening it yet. LOL..
I already got the tuition payment form earlier this week and today it came...nice looking package! It's kind of wrinkled though.
Anyway, at the bottom of the huge letter it says, "a tradition of excellence"
GOOD luck to all the other transfers...

I'll be going to UNC Chapel Hill in the fall


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By Up40love (Up40love) on Wednesday, April 14, 2004 - 04:12 pm: Edit

My first instinct was to retaliate against the not-so-subtle opposition to my earlier comments.

First, I should apologize for the awkward wording. Perhaps this happened because I posted while at school and paid less attention to the words I typed, but nevertheless...

In my suggestions to Transfer2004, I wrote "you should write in first person" instead of writing "present tense;" the former error should've been obvious enough because almost all college essays should be written in first person.

Secondly, if you ask me to specifically critique your essay, don't be offended when I leave comments. You asked for them. If you want to retaliate, tear my writing apart, not me.

I've dedicated a great deal of time learning how to sharpen my writing, making it clear, cohesive, and active. I'm not saying I'm an expert, but if you read about clear writing, the most expressive, deep writing encompasses a number of characteristics.

Nenita: You can condense the first 400 words of you essay into the most crucial points. There are a number of ways to do this. Here is one example:
My education thus far has involved marked changes in decisions. When I moved to the Dominican Republic at age fourteen, I struggled with a tough courseload while trying to compress twelve years of Spanish into four. As the course load lightened, I dedicated more time to consuming knowledge. By the time I reached my senior year, I enrolled in an economics course that exposed me to the stock market; immediately, I resolve to become a business administration major.
When I enrolled in college, I observed how living abroad shaped my perspective on politics. This assessment unearthed my true calling all along. I’d developed a burning passion for foreign affairs in the tenth grade when a Dominican history course exposed me to the other side of America, the side that few Americans get to see, the America that bullies other countries. I resolved to dive deep into the field of foreign affairs, piqued by the overwhelming knowledge of how US' manipulative efforts. Courses in Sociology, US Policy, and Multicultural Studies reinforced my devotion to this field, strengthening my ferocious interest in hoping to one day impact foreign policy. Learning about Karl Marx’s theory, the machinations of American government, and reading about how foreign policy victimizes Arabs and Muslims helped me develop a blossoming interest in international affairs.

Bebeblue: retake your SATs. It may look insignificant, but retaking them shows adcoms two things: that you have the capability of earning a better score, and you are dedicated enough to wanting to better yourself that you're willing to retake the test.

Bucko: The 4.0 isn't that important, but don't get straight Bs. Dedicate a portion of your time to something that truly makes you tick. Whether it be a sport or a club, participate in those things that interest you, and write essays that discuss specific, honest reasons for wanting to transfer. Each college employs different criteria for transfers, and they all have different academic objectives. Find the one that's truly right for you.

By Nenita1985 (Nenita1985) on Wednesday, April 14, 2004 - 04:37 pm: Edit

Up40love: Hey bud, I'm not trying to attack you. The thing is that you probably do not understand my educational background. Coming from a biligual high school with a terrible English program, I do not use SAT terms such in my essays such as "piqued." These people will probably think that I have consulted a theasarus for guidance and I feel like as if I'm not expressing myself in my own words. Also, my courseload did not lighten up by the time senior year came about. It was actually the toughest year for me. Also, in the little rewrite, you make it seem like as if I had a choice when it came to enrolling in classes. I actually did not have a choice. All my courses were pre-chosen for me and for the rest of my graduating class ever since we entered high school. This is why I used the word "took" instead of "enroll". I'm just trying to let you know where I'm coming from. No offense.

By Tongtransfer (Tongtransfer) on Wednesday, April 14, 2004 - 05:42 pm: Edit

I have a 3.83 GPA (including my midterm grade report) at a top 40 LAC, 2 200 level courses, 6 100 level. I'm a freshmen. 1390 SAT, top 10% in HS with 5 APs, pretty decent ECs, and my recs are from well-known profs and they should be pretty good.

Applied to Penn, Swarthmore, Haverford, and JHU. I'll find out in a few weeks from Penn, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

By Fordhamchica03 (Fordhamchica03) on Wednesday, April 14, 2004 - 08:45 pm: Edit

hey fellow transfers can i have some feedback on my essays please. especially from up4olove because his/her is a writer.

By Yodisistim (Yodisistim) on Wednesday, April 14, 2004 - 09:36 pm: Edit

Fordamnchica...I got into NYU today. Did you get in yet?

PS> And yes guys, keep in mind that this board is here to keep us transfers together. If there is no one attacking anybody we should keep it like that. Rather, we should be applauding eachother for our achievements...

By Yodisistim (Yodisistim) on Wednesday, April 14, 2004 - 09:37 pm: Edit

LOL>..My bad FORDHAMchica. LOL...What was I thinking about?

By Fordhamchica03 (Fordhamchica03) on Wednesday, April 14, 2004 - 10:26 pm: Edit

Congrats Yodi! But are your posts a subtle way of telling my essays suck?

By Yodisistim (Yodisistim) on Wednesday, April 14, 2004 - 10:48 pm: Edit

No lol. Not at all. Your essay is decent, but who am I to judge?

The only thing that I would have said was to start your opening paragraph with an "opening scene" Describe what you were talking about before you mentioned it.

When writing my speech, I started out talking about how I was walking through the city and out of nowhere, I see this big arch and how students were walking in and out. I said that was the moment I wanted to attend NYU...very cheesy rite?

That wasn't the exact thing actually, but it was something like that.

By Up40love (Up40love) on Thursday, April 15, 2004 - 02:20 am: Edit

I envy you, Yodis, since you've heard from all your schools and I've yet to hear from one. Congratulations, though! Good Luck at Chapel-Hill!

By Nenita1985 (Nenita1985) on Thursday, April 15, 2004 - 08:39 am: Edit

Just.....got...through....hell...week...must breathe...

Well, anyways, I just wanted to know if some of you (besides Yodisistim, CONGRATS BUD! GOOD LUCK!)have heard from your colleges yet since it's officially mid-April.

By Yodisistim (Yodisistim) on Thursday, April 15, 2004 - 08:55 am: Edit

LOL..thanks its crazy. Now my excitement is over. Good luck to all of you!

By Nenita1985 (Nenita1985) on Thursday, April 15, 2004 - 09:02 am: Edit

Yeah Yodis you are lucky. I probably won't hear from all of my schools until July (Hopefully I will not go insane by then....lol).

Fordhamchica03: GWU says that they will start notifying transfer applicants after April 1st, but now it's mid-April and I called them to see what's up, and the admissions officer told me that they haven't even looked at the transfer applications. So expect to hear from them by late May, early June. Also, did you hear from UMCP yet?

By Villatransfer (Villatransfer) on Friday, April 16, 2004 - 12:59 am: Edit

Yodis how did you find out from UNC so early I thought the decisions hadnt come out yet? Oh well probably got rejected and will have to be stuck at Villanova for another semester.

By Fingercuffs2006 (Fingercuffs2006) on Friday, April 16, 2004 - 04:12 pm: Edit

I got a strange letter from Harvard today. It was in a thin envelope so I assumed it was a rejection letter. However, it says:

"Dear Transfer Applicant,

In passing your file along for the normal reading process, the Committee on Transfer Admissions has requested that you be included in a small number of alumni interviews that will be done for the 2003-2004 admissions cycle. To that affect, you will be contacted by one of our alumni in the vicinity of your current college or university. They will then suggest a mutually agreeable day, time, and meeting place. Due to a very short turn-around period for these interviews to take place, we ask that you call the Transfer Admissions Office at 617-495-5309 if you have not been contacted by Friday, April 23. If you are unable to coordinate an interview within the time allotted, please note that your admissions file will not be at any disadvantage. Final decisions for all Transfer applicants will be rendered in mid-May. Best wishes for your Spring term!"

I thought they didn't do transfer interviews? I'm so confused!

By Irish80122 (Irish80122) on Friday, April 16, 2004 - 04:14 pm: Edit

Currently at: Creighton University
Transfer Reason: Seeking a better psychology program, especially one that has a good grad school attached and is Catholic. I am looking for a better city than Omaha, and also my girlfriend is a factor
Applying to:
Boston College
Notre Dame

My preferences are in that order. I am also a freshman, so if it doesn't happen, I have a few more shots at it!

By Dinotopia (Dinotopia) on Friday, April 16, 2004 - 05:28 pm: Edit

Fingercuffs, that's a good sign; the school is very interested in you and wants to learn more. I didn't get such a letter (I wish I did), and I'm also applying as a transfer to Harvard. It's a great opportunity for you; arrange that interview NOW!

By Yodisistim (Yodisistim) on Friday, April 16, 2004 - 07:25 pm: Edit

Yes, the interview is a GREAT way for them to get to know you better. I wish that all schools had interviews. Anyway, thanks again for the congratulations guys...Im just glad it's over.
Good luck to the rest of you who have yet to hear your decisions!

Anyway, Villa, I applied in early January to the School of Journalism and Mass Communications programs which is a Limited Enrollment Program there; very competitive. The School of JOMC can post decisions based on their discretion. In mid-March, I recieved an email from Prof. Tuggle, the broadcast journalism prof. and he told me he wanted to be the first to congratulate me. A week later, I called Jenny, the transfer adcom, and she told me I did get in and he just wanted to let all of the junior applicants to know ahead of time. This help me make my decision so much easier. Anyway, today the decisions are posted online (as of about 5:00) so check it and good luck! I started the official transfer thread at the UNC board.

By Villatransfer (Villatransfer) on Friday, April 16, 2004 - 11:15 pm: Edit

Thanks Yodis for the heads up!!! I got admitted as well, as a sophomore and am finally free from Villanova University hell. Thanks again for everything you let me find out earlier than I expected!!!

By Genie13 (Genie13) on Saturday, April 17, 2004 - 01:54 am: Edit

Hey Fingercuffs I got the same letter

I wonder how many they send out

How were your stats/essays? Im really surprised coz mine weren't like jaw-dropping fantastic or anything. Where are you tranferring from?

~genie13

By Fingercuffs2006 (Fingercuffs2006) on Saturday, April 17, 2004 - 04:21 pm: Edit

Genie-

Yeah my stats, compared to everyone else on CC, aren't TERRIBLY spectacular.

SAT I: 800m, 710v
SAT II: Writing 760
Math IIC 780
Physics 670

High School: ranked 10th out of 642 (ghetto urban high school)
College: 3.941 GPA, Biochem major (All As and one B+)

My ECs are extremely angular with respect to my clarinet playing. I have several state/nat'l achievements for it (ie. made Texas all-state band/orch 3 years and was an alternate my freshman year, John Philip Sousa Award, US Marine Corps Semper Fidelis Award for Musical Excellence, and a Carnegie Hall performance my freshman year).

I'm applying from Texas Tech University in Lubbock, TX. My home is in Houston, TX.

Where are you applying from?

By Genie13 (Genie13) on Saturday, April 17, 2004 - 04:34 pm: Edit

Im applying from UMASS Lowell

Wow your stats are pretty amazing! I mean I have like NO college EC's at all. All of mine are from high school (except one)

Im a Biology major too

What are you going to say are your reasons for transferring? I mean Harvard isnt famous or anything for its Biology program

~genie13

By Avs21 (Avs21) on Sunday, April 18, 2004 - 11:43 pm: Edit

I was accepted in mid March as a Tulane transfer student. I was rejected at Vanderbilt. All they said was my high school GPA was low at 2.6. Has anyone else recieved a response from Tulane? College GPA 3.7

By Up40love (Up40love) on Monday, April 19, 2004 - 12:11 pm: Edit

Avs21I'm applying to Tulane, but I didn't send in my application for priority review, but they called me and told me my file was complete!
-----
I'm slightly annoyed with Brown because the Admission Office likes to play games with me. When I call the office to determine if I have missing materials or if they've received my app, they said that a letter would arrive within the week. That was four weeks ago. They just got around to cashing my March 1 check TODAY. They regularly ignore my emails. I suspect I wasted $70 on that damn application.

Best wishes to the Harvard applicants who received those suspiciously wonderful-sounding letters!

How did all of you approach the "tell us something about yourself" essay? I'm trying to gauge whether or not I approached it inappropriately, unconventionally, or perhaps, just like everyone else, which I suspect isn't the case.

At any rate, has anyone else heard from schools yet?

By Up40love (Up40love) on Wednesday, April 21, 2004 - 01:39 am: Edit

bump

just trying to keep the thread alive!

By Up40love (Up40love) on Thursday, April 22, 2004 - 03:02 am: Edit

Do you think adcoms read these boards?

By Dinotopia (Dinotopia) on Thursday, April 22, 2004 - 06:27 pm: Edit

Probably, yes... because I think it's worse to assume no than yes.

As far as that goes, I would think they do it more out of curiosity than out of, say, to sneakily find things out about us. Or maybe they hardly come here at all. Certainly, if I worked in admissions I would get enough of it just reading peoples' applications and I wouldn't need to roam these boards on my spare time. So, if any Yale/Harvard/Stanford adcom is reading, please let me into your school because I'm ridiculously good looking :-)

By Up40love (Up40love) on Friday, April 23, 2004 - 01:02 pm: Edit

Oh...the postcard...

By Up40love (Up40love) on Friday, April 23, 2004 - 01:04 pm: Edit

Stanford just called me and asked me if I still wanted to apply, because the adcom saw that I didn't pay but that I had really great essays? What?

Maybe they just want some revenue...

By Noodleman (Noodleman) on Friday, April 23, 2004 - 07:58 pm: Edit

Sounds hopeful. Send the cash in a dash or they'll toss your papers in the trash!

By Noodleman (Noodleman) on Friday, April 23, 2004 - 08:03 pm: Edit

Oh, by the way Shahab and Alpinesun: I got into both those schools with my arrogant-as-hell Miss Americaesque essays. Go figure. Musta been the grades, recs and ecs.

Where have you two been accepted? Just curious.

By Arc (Arc) on Friday, April 23, 2004 - 08:16 pm: Edit

hey guys...have the decisions for transfer admissions been made yet and have tranfer applicants been informed of those decisions (for schools like yale, harvard, stanford, etc)? if not, when are applicants usually notified of those decisions?
thanks!

By Transfer2004 (Transfer2004) on Friday, April 23, 2004 - 11:08 pm: Edit

Hi everyone,
I'm pretty anxious to see the rejections/accepances that I get in the next month.
Up40love: at least now, if you dont get in to Stanford, you'll have a really funny story to tell.
I got an e-mail today from Stanford that my Winter quarter grades were missing adn that I had to send them promptly. I thought that they didn't look at those grades, but I'll send them on monday.
Well, everyone keep posting cause its fun to read how all of you are doing.
Regards.

By Bebeblue (Bebeblue) on Saturday, April 24, 2004 - 12:30 am: Edit

Haven't heard from any yet. NYU I have an audition next week so I assume I'll hear soon after the audition.

If anybody hear from UPenn, UChicago or Barnard, post!

By Up40love (Up40love) on Saturday, April 24, 2004 - 11:28 am: Edit

Arc: Last year, Yale postmarked its transfer decisions May 3rd. Stanford and Harvard don't send them out 'til at least mid-May.

Bebe, did you apply to UChicago as an early or regular transfer? I know they already made their decisions for the march 1 early deadline.

AHH! I'm down to the wire! And I'm especially nervous because I haven't heard anything definitive from any schools...AND EVERYONE ELSE HAS!

Breathe...

By Nenita1985 (Nenita1985) on Saturday, April 24, 2004 - 02:07 pm: Edit

Don't worry up40love. You are not the only one :S. I'm especially am going nuts since the person who was supposed to interview me for one of my applications called me a couple of weeks ago saying that he couldn't interview me because "he had too many people" and that "he was lazy" (I'm not making this up). So now I have to wait until the 2nd week of May to do my interview in the D.C. area. Oh man..........

By Dinotopia (Dinotopia) on Saturday, April 24, 2004 - 07:00 pm: Edit

Yale actually mails decisions on May 3rd? I suppose it is better to learn a hard lesson earlier than later. Up40love, it looks like from the Stanford thread that you've sent in your money; good, because we have a better chance of both getting in there.

By Wackipaki (Wackipaki) on Monday, April 26, 2004 - 02:20 am: Edit

Alright, so i am back again at this forum. Transfer student ( junior).
Accepted at RPI, SUNY ( stony brook ) , Penn State.
Waiting for GWU. Its the end of april now. Still waiting for the notification...and yeah..about gwu, i was reading reviews at this other website, studentreviews i believe, and people who currently attend gw, talk about how it really is at gw. Now, if u go over that urself ( i.e. if ur waiting for notificatios and interested ), i can hardly see anyone *satisfied* with that school. Its like...5% think its a good school and others just want to transfer out. now i never heard anything that bad about this school, or had anyone not recommending it. Lets see what you guys have to say here!..else i think i will have to go with RPI.

By Nenita1985 (Nenita1985) on Monday, April 26, 2004 - 05:42 pm: Edit

Wackipaki: I'm also applying to GWU and they told me that they haven't even looked at the applications yet (even though they say that they will start notifying applicants as of April 1st...hmmm....funny). I'm also worried about those comments at the students review website. Yet, I have friend here who has a sister who goes to GWU and she says that her sister loves it there. If I were you, I would go check out the GWU campus for myself. By the way, what major are you applying as and is this school your first choice?

By Wackipaki (Wackipaki) on Monday, April 26, 2004 - 07:33 pm: Edit

i am going for biomedical engineering. first choice, yeah...it is first choice really or i would say RPI as they have a better engineering school and a new biomedical department. but then its location and the weather, it just pushes me back to gw. After reading those reviews, i am concerned now. cuz i know rpi is a better engineering school than gw. also i have a good chance to get eligible for some scholarships and aids that rpi doesnt really have ( except the general aids i.e. ) . Both have almost the same tution , so i am not really concerned about that. what are you going for again and is it your first choice?

By Nenita1985 (Nenita1985) on Monday, April 26, 2004 - 09:39 pm: Edit

Wackipaki: I'm applying as an international affairs major with a concentration in international economics. GWU is not my first choice for financial reasons, but if I get in and if they offer me a good financial aid package, then I'm probably going there. I now qualify for the schools in the state of Maryland, so my first choice is University of Maryland at College Park (I'm applying as a poli sci major). I think RPI is a lot better in engineering than GWU, but if you do qualify for some scholarships, then you should definetly consider GWU. I'm applying from a college in upstate New York, so I definetly understand the reason why the weather and the location will push you back to GWU..lol. But if I were you, I would take some time to go visit the schools and see for yourself how life is like there. Good luck!

By Tongtransfer (Tongtransfer) on Tuesday, April 27, 2004 - 08:29 am: Edit

Still waiting on all four schools...Penn says they'll release decisions after May 1st (whenever the admissions committees finish the decisions for the appropriate major/school).

By Up40love (Up40love) on Wednesday, April 28, 2004 - 12:10 pm: Edit

Dinotopia: I made a mistake. Last year, decisions were dated and postmarked 07 may, which is still much earlier than when other elite schools send letters.

I'm having trouble with Stanford because they're saying that my money, which I sent via Express mail and is much more expensive than first class, has not yet arrived, delaying the evaluation. Plus, my Dean has not yet faxed his reference.

I'm slightly confused, also, because I know I sent them materials last year, (eg transcripts from previous college and high school, as well as the at-that-time current transcript), but I know that I didn't submit this year's current transcript. Vilma, however, says that they have all my necessary transcripts. What should I do about that?

At this point, my top-three schools are all crapshoots, and I'm trying to cope with an across-the-board rejection, but I don't think that anything can prepare me for the terror of multiple rejections within a narrow frame of time. It's bad enough I always get rejected by potential dates...

I'm getting many emails that encourage me to prepare for rejection from other applicants who are convinced that they're much stronger candidates. I thought college was about learning from other people, fostering camaraderie, and building community while soaking in the breadth of academia.

Any other English majors here?

Since so many people are curious about my stats:
3.7 GPA
6.5 Tennis skill rating
Steadily earning points toward a bye for a wild card spot in this year's US Open.
Piano-12 years
Creative Writing: My agent Joseph Breitling successfully queried my book, Falling from the Sky, to publishing powerhouse Random House which will be released in the fourth quarter 2004

I wrote essays about a personal transformation catalyzed by a skydiving trip, as well as specific essays aimed toward conveying why I'd like to attend particular schools. I'd like to think i wrote pretty convincing, compelling statements, but I'm beginning to doubt their strength.

By Bebeblue (Bebeblue) on Wednesday, April 28, 2004 - 12:17 pm: Edit

>Bebe, did you apply to UChicago as an early or regular transfer? I know they already made their decisions for the march 1 early deadline.

Regular transfer, I wish I had done it eary though! Waiting is killing me.

By Noodleman (Noodleman) on Wednesday, April 28, 2004 - 01:26 pm: Edit

Not that it matters, but I'm rooting for you, Love.

By Laura (Laura) on Wednesday, April 28, 2004 - 04:28 pm: Edit

I'm a freshman, started out at NYU in Tisch drama. Changing majors to business (yes, I've heard all the jokes).

Applied:
Cornell, School of Industrial and Labor Relations
Stern School of Business (still here at NYU), undecided major

Accepted to both. Not sure yet where I'm going - and I only have till Saturday to decide! Aaaaah...

Good luck everyone

By Tongtransfer (Tongtransfer) on Wednesday, April 28, 2004 - 05:16 pm: Edit

Up40Love:

"I'm getting many emails that encourage me to prepare for rejection from other applicants who are convinced that they're much stronger candidates."

Isn't that a crock? I was/am hoping this was said in jest and that no student actually sunk to this sort of psychological displacement of their own fear of rejection.

Hey, you're publishing a book? That's pretty unbelievable! Wanna read my "creative essay" for Penn? LOL

I hope everyone ends up at a school that'll make them happy. Decisions should begin to be released within 2 weeks and good luck to all!

By Cornellhopeful (Cornellhopeful) on Wednesday, April 28, 2004 - 09:35 pm: Edit

Tongtransfer, if you don't mind, could you post which classes you took/are taking freshman year? I'm going to be applying to Penn for transfer next year, and I'd just like an idea of what others have done. Did you apply to the College, Wharton,etc.? Is Penn your top choice?

By Dinotopia (Dinotopia) on Thursday, April 29, 2004 - 12:30 am: Edit

Yeah, Up40love, I know what it's like to get so called good-willed criticism, but we live in a post-lapsarian world and there's lots of crap to shovel around... anyways, once after a recital, some old pudgy Hungarian piano teacher didn't like my rendition of the Les Adieux sonata, so she came up to me and quizzed me on my knowledge of Beethoven, and told me that I was far too young to be playing any big sonata by him, and it was disheartening, but that was a while ago, and I've overcome it just by perpetuating. College is about getting out there, and putting to use everything you've ever learned from home. The most important thing you can do, is to hold up the values your parents raised you with, and the things you believe in, and keep them alive, bring it all into everything you do. Then, you can begin to become someone.

And for every other concern: do whatever it takes.

By Classychic (Classychic) on Thursday, April 29, 2004 - 01:03 am: Edit

Hi

By Up40love (Up40love) on Thursday, April 29, 2004 - 01:23 am: Edit

Tongtransfer: Unfortunately, I don't think the emails I've received have been sent in jest.

Dearest Verbose Allen,

I read on college confidential that your essay for admission to Yale College approached 4 pages. What on earth possessed you to be so verbose? I think it will only hurt your candidacy.

I agree with Marianne. You are ridiculous for submitting an essay of this length. Although there are no length requirements, it's a tacit understanding that most applicants won't be submitting essays more than 500-800 words. Something that is 3000-4000 words is not just slightly, but way over the limit. In the literature for freshman, there are word limits in place--in fact 500 words. I can't imagine that Yale restricts its freshman applicants to 500 words, yet allows its transfer applicants to go hog-wild with essays of more than 10 pages.

From which College are you transferring? Are you transferring from an elite top 10?

If you other factors to balance out this egregious error, you might have a chance at admission. Are you transferring from a top 15 National University or liberal arts college? What's your GPA at your current college?

I'm transfering from a top 15 University, and my GPA is good but nothing special. I suspect my strengths will lie in other areas. With which admissions officers did you speak? Have you applied to Yale before?

Fun, huh? I especially enjoy his use of the word "egregious", and I wrote a rather scathing response but refrained from sending it, as doing so would illustrate how I'd be sinking down to his level of immaturity.

And, for the record, Yale imposes the word limit to differentiate between how well candidates make the most of what they're given. Since the transfer process caters to those who have markedly different stories to tell, Yale is right in not limiting the voice of the transfer, especially when the decisions are so painfully close.

And I'd be more than happy to read your creative essay. I enjoy learning a lot from others' voices.

And Noodleman: I really appreciate that! Thanks! It doesn't mean nothing; It means a lot!!!

By Tongtransfer (Tongtransfer) on Thursday, April 29, 2004 - 03:19 pm: Edit

I'll email you the essay! That email you received is just plain boring. That's the best adjective I can come up with...boring...I particularly love the fact he asks for advice at the end after badmouthing your writing.

By Nenita1985 (Nenita1985) on Thursday, April 29, 2004 - 07:36 pm: Edit

It's now the end of April, so my question is this: Did anyone else hear from their schools yet?

Up40love: Don't waste your time with people like that. Just calm down, finish up your spring semester, and the day when your acceptance letter from Yale comes around, you can celebrate knowing the fact that this random person was wrong, and you can reply back to this random person that your four page essay got you into Yale. Good luck and do not let anyone hold you down.

By Khoa019 (Khoa019) on Friday, April 30, 2004 - 11:40 am: Edit

Highschool (in Vietnam): Highschool for the gifted GPA 9.3/10

CA CC: Foothill College GPA 4.0

SAT 1 1420 ( 800M)
SAT 2 Chem 800 Math 800 Physics 730
TOEFL 270

Applying for

Harvard ( by june 1)
Stanford ( after may 15)
Yale
MIT
Duke ( after may 15)
Johns Hopkins ( early june)
Cornell ( mid may)
NYU ( mid may)

What I like about foothill : small classes... nice campus... center of the bay area.

Reason to leave: my school doesnt offer BA degree and I have outgrown it. I also dont want to see my strong skills built up from my great years of highschooling in vietnam fade away. therefore, I need to be in a more competitive environment.

Background: I AM GAY :P

Essays: not too shabby. This kaplan essay reviewer told me they're phenomenal for an ESL writer.

Awards:
+ Several math awards
+ Scholarship offered by ALC association of leading colleges in UK ( 10K per year) ( when i was in grade 11)
+ Honor program in my highschool ( my school is extremely hard to get in. they take 250 out of more than 3000 applicants) etc.
+Dean's list at Foothill College.

ECs:

+ Translator at Stanford based free clinic
+ Internship Carnegie Ins. at Stanford
+ Community service in vietnam ( the blue summer campaign)
+ tutoring services
+ Leadership : Vnese youth group, pass the torch leader.
+ Hobbies: hiking, piano, soccer.

By Laura (Laura) on Saturday, May 01, 2004 - 02:52 am: Edit

As I said earlier, I already heard - got accepted to both Stern and Cornell. After an agonizing decision, I filled out my Cornell acceptance tonight. Wish me luck!

By Cornellhopeful (Cornellhopeful) on Saturday, May 01, 2004 - 03:09 pm: Edit

has anyone heard from Penn yet? I'm just curious, as I'm applying to transfer to Penn next year.

By Fingercuffs2006 (Fingercuffs2006) on Saturday, May 01, 2004 - 06:40 pm: Edit

I finally got some answers back! All in one day, even! I'm in at UT Austin, Rice, and Dartmouth. Still waiting on Penn, Harvard, Cornell, and Stanford. If I get rejected everywhere else from here on out, I would probably go to Rice.

By Up40love (Up40love) on Saturday, May 01, 2004 - 09:04 pm: Edit

I'm slowly withering as I await my fate with my top three schools. I can't even rank them anymore. There's a three-way tie. Recent assessments have concluded with various different reasons why I'd love to attend Yale, Brown, and Stanford, because they all embrace the things I want from the college experience but dispense it slightly differently.

I'm enormously jealous of those of you have sealed at least one decision. Part of the agony of applying is the waiting. I sometimes wish that schools would accept applications and immediately decide. I know that, ultimately, those of us who don't seemingly look capable right away would be discarded, but schools like Harvard whose deadline is 15 February and doesn't make decisions until the end of May makes little sense to me--although I have no clue what goes on in their admission office, and therefore have no reason to complain.

There's little we humble applicants can do other than wait. We are, after all, in the midst of making one of the most important decisions of our lives.

I think I'm feeling particularly cathartic because I'm allowing statistics and precedent to ruin my optimism. Sure Yale only accepts 30 students. At one point, I was really gung-ho, super confident that I actually had a chance to stand out in a crowd of 900 applicants. There are days when I still feel that way. But I'm realizing how painfully small a fraction the number students who actually receive those large envelopes teeming with congratulations and information about where you'll spend the next two-three years of your life really is.

I really want to go to Yale. Not because I want to spitefully stick out my tongue at those who discounted my merit, but because I just didn't feel at home anywhere else. Brown and Stanford are wonderful. Actually, I did feel very much at home at Stanford. And the same goes for Brown. i suppose they all contain some facet of my home here in chicago.

I hope that, within the next two weeks, I'll hear news of perhaps moving to Palo Alto, Providence, or New Haven.

I really hope so.

Is anyone as worried as I am? Anyone anxious? Terrified?

By Bluevartouhi (Bluevartouhi) on Saturday, May 01, 2004 - 09:09 pm: Edit

I am going out of my mind... the waiting is horrible, and I can't focus on school work.

By Ticklemepink (Ticklemepink) on Saturday, May 01, 2004 - 09:28 pm: Edit

Hi transfers.

I have a question about you all. Since most of the colleges you've applied are among the best in the nation, I am wondering if all of you are coming from only CCs? Or are there some of you are at fairly good colleges but just need to transfer for certain reasons?

I am only curious to know what kind of students are applying to top colleges with fairly good SATs and high school GPAs... Really, how many people in the transfer pool are really from 4 year schools??? For CCs, were there reasons why you decide to go CC over a 4 year college? Money or just want to get in better schools than your inital high school acceptee list?

By Dinotopia (Dinotopia) on Saturday, May 01, 2004 - 09:57 pm: Edit

The waiting has been agonising but exciting at the same time. I feel exactly the way that Up40love does, like it's some big thing that I really need in my life, to get out there to one of those schools I'm applying to. It's terrifying because I've vested so much in getting in that by not getting in, I'd lose a big part of me that I've been building up in hope and anticipation.

Thankfully, school ended for me last week. I'm definitely very anxious and even a bit terrified. The worst thing would be to come home in three weeks (I'm going overseas to visit family) and find three thin, parched, painfully bleached-white envelopes announcing nothing but stark, impersonal rejections. The best thing would be to find one thick envelope and two rejections.

In reality, I'm not concerned so much because I don't think I can be as successful later on without a top school education. That's bull; of course you can be just as successful, but there won't be the experiences and the networking, among other things. The crux of it is, in 20 or 30 years down the road, the college I went to isn't going to be of much consequence, because what I am at that point is dependent on so many other things far remote from college. Thus, like many other things, a full line of rejections is a temporary disappointment, though an especially painful one.

I must go now to pick up my sister, but I will write more thoughts when I return.

By Fingercuffs2006 (Fingercuffs2006) on Saturday, May 01, 2004 - 10:02 pm: Edit

Tickledmepink: I'm transferring from a large (about 30,000 students) 4-year public 3rd-tier university.

By Dinotopia (Dinotopia) on Saturday, May 01, 2004 - 10:29 pm: Edit

I had the ambition to apply in the first place.

I put in as much as I could into my applications.

I am reaching for something I think is right for me, and I held back nothing.

If I am successful, it is because I ought to be.
If I am not successful, there will be other projects ahead.

The fact that I applied, the journey that I've gone through to get to that admission decision, is proof to myself that I am capable, I have the ambition, I'm readily willing to do what it takes, and it's been a valediction for me that I will make myself into something, regardless of what anyone else's opinion might be. The admissions decisions are not judgements of me; they will show me what kind of fruit my efforts have borne.

By Up40love (Up40love) on Sunday, May 02, 2004 - 12:22 am: Edit

I always scold myself for quantifying my potential by evaluating my admissions decisions. Of course I know that's preposterous, but there's an irreconcilable correlation between excellence and presitigious schools. To some degree, it's impossible to not consider, "Well, [insert prestigious school here] didn't accept me so that means I'm not capable of excelling academically."

I admire Dinotopia's perspective. I've come a long way emotionally, but there are still days when feelings of inadequacy blindside me.

I'm still entirely hopeful that I have very good chances at the schools to which I applied. It's difficult to try and gauge what qualities these schools hold in high regard, but when you read a website about how most transfer are Army Green Berets or Olympic athletes, the greatness you thought you possessed because you're enroute to becoming a professional tennis player--not yet one--or publishing a book that has yet to sell and prove itself is a really humbling experience.

It truly is an agonizing time in my life, but I harbor an excitement that is dying to release itself with the arrival of a nice 9x12 envelope teeming with matriculation information.

Come on Brown, Stanford, and Yale! :-D

By Up40love (Up40love) on Sunday, May 02, 2004 - 03:19 am: Edit

Here's a question:

I was just reviewing my copies of my Stanford application, and I discuss my book. Prior to the deadline, I'd not been promised a deal. It was only solidified after the deadline. Would it be imprudent to contact my adcom and let her know that it's going to be published? Or would it hold very little merit?

Here are more essays, by the way (I'm posting them because they're considerably weaker than the ones for Yale and Brown):

“The Possible's slow fuse is lit / By the Imagination.”
-Emily Dickenson

I try to imagine my life without writing, without my love for designing sentences, pressing ball point pens against endless sheets of paper, or constantly pounding away on my laptop, injecting the mundane with doses of excitement and entertainment. Writing has played such a vital role in shaping me that I fear considering its absence. Though I find it difficult to believe, my adoration for the written word surfaced only two years ago.
While enrolled in English Composition II class, my instructor pointed me toward Dave Eggers’ A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius which distracted me from the hectic world of academics. It later inspired me to release creativity aching to escape. I began writing in a new online journal and used it as a vehicle to exercise my writing skills.
Fervent strides toward perfecting my writing soon paved the way for other goals to arise. Prompted by a desire to pepper my writing with different influences, I assembled a grand To-Do list, enumerating daunting tasks I wanted to accomplish, hoping to broaden my creative scope. Before writing developed into regularity, mediocrity governed my uninspired existence. I lacked motivation and a zest for life which made jumping out of bed every morning to tackle the world extremely difficult. I possessed no intention of pursuing anything that lay outside my comfort zone.
Luckily, my imagination provoked internal changes. Creativity has whisked me away to a completely different place. The listed items grew from adventurous, offbeat pipe dreams to solid accomplishments: I challenged my fear of heights with an outrageous decision to launch myself into the sky from a plane; I pushed my tennis game to its limits, winning competitions and developing a serve whose speed averages upwards of one-hundred miles an hour; most importantly, creativity has allowed me to sharpen my writing skills as I constantly toy with structure and vocabulary. Writing grew from a academic chore to an activity that propelled me out of bed every morning because serendipity assembled phrases during REM sleep which longed for integration into a gorgeous sentence. Writing provides me with an unparalleled happiness–I thoroughly enjoy designing sentences that move, that drive the reader to read the next one. My friend Kieran describes it as “Words in kinesis,”where words chase other words, where lyrical depth drives the reader to the next page. The excitement I derive from writing persuaded me to major in English.
My creativity has most recently spawned my first book, Falling from the Sky. Joseph Breitling, my agent, and I queried several publishing behemoths and a handful of smaller houses, successfully convincing powerhouses Penguin-Putnamand Random House to consider my manuscript. Prior to my tumescent interests in writing, I’d never imagined myself producing something worthy of publication. The potential release of painstaking work makes me simultaneously frightened and excited.
Imagination drives me to learn and develop, to sharpen skills, to extend beyond boundaries and push my abilities. I thrive on challenges which force me to continuously advance my skills and talents, whether it involves perfecting my tennis service game, promoting accuracy and precision with each downward stroke of the fuzzy, flourescent spheres or creating the perfect sentence–one whose words involve motion, one whose phrases inspire me to stretch for something piquant, undulating, provocative, and beautiful. My imagination knows no boundaries; the possibilities are endless.

Sharing intellectual interests is an important aspect of university life. Describe an experience, literary work, class, project or idea that you find intellectually exciting, and explain why.

Science’s fervent pursuit of truth had never intrigued me prior to taking Mike Davis’ General Chemistry I class. My performance in science courses remained sub-par throughout high school, and I failed to enjoy the relationship between science’s findings in relation to the world’s composition.
Mike Davis whisked me to a world where science actually proved itself interesting. I’d encountered similar material years earlier, but his unique delivery made the tedious subject matter infinitely more interesting. Integrating references to popular culture–he frequently alluded to “The Simpsons” and the Dave Matthews Band–made learning largely engaging. He introduced the class to his guitar, “Joe”, and used it to compare elemental resonance structures with chord changes in Dave Matthews Band’s “Crash Into Me.” Davis’ teaching style maintained my interest more than any other science course I’d taken which allowed the material to quietly seep into my brain.
This new discovery prompted me to enroll in Organic Chemistry I, a course far beyond anything I’d imagined taking. But the exciting challenges inorganic chemistry presented and my ability to tackle them victoriously compelled me to further challenge myself. Organic Chemistry requires a different way of thinking and has forced me to think outside the box, particularly when dealing with mechanisms and syntheses, as assembling them isn’t formulaic. Arrows painting loose-leaf paper try to map electron movement, the modifications in charges, the creation of carbocations, and yielding the desired product. Part of the fun in mastering mechanisms stems from understanding the complicated rules governing natural tendencies. One can not produce trinitrotoluene using an arbitrary compound, synthesize 1-bromobutane without adding a measure of anhydrous sodium sulfate, or produce a trans- isomer without THF. The material’s difficulty doesn’t hinder my advances, however; it fuels the pursuit and it is a welcomed challenge that enhances my academic vitality.

By Ticklemepink (Ticklemepink) on Sunday, May 02, 2004 - 06:02 pm: Edit

You are SO in at Stanford! Your "Intellectual" essay is far superior than mine! Could you ship that chem teacher to Smith?! Then I'll pre-med there ha.

By Ticklemepink (Ticklemepink) on Sunday, May 02, 2004 - 06:02 pm: Edit

You are SO in at Stanford! Your "Intellectual" essay is far superior than mine! Could you ship that chem teacher to Smith?! Then I'll pre-med there ha.

By Up40love (Up40love) on Monday, May 03, 2004 - 02:44 am: Edit

Ha ha! Thanks for your support Tickleme! I'm hoping Vilma (my Stanford adcom) agrees with you!

By Malicemizer9 (Malicemizer9) on Monday, May 03, 2004 - 11:47 pm: Edit

four of ten decisions recieved -

In - Vanderbilt, Michigan at Ann Arbor
Out - Dartmouth, NYU Stern

Cornell! Save me from Vanderbilt!

Oh... what am I saying... Vanderbilt is awesome also. But I'd give a toe or two for a Cornell or Northwestern admit

Stats:
Ohio State Honors
3.7 GPA
Honor Society
National Name Switch
Two clubs
3.5 HS GPA
SAT I: 760 | 760
SAT II: WR 800 | IIC 750 | PHY 730

I'm hoping that I'll be able to cash my hard work in at Cornell or Northwestern... if not... there's always next year!

By Jlondon (Jlondon) on Tuesday, May 04, 2004 - 09:52 pm: Edit

hey guys

i just heard back from dartmouth on monday....i got in! im still waiting to hear from harvard and williams but it kinda makes me wonder since they didnt ask me for an interview like they did the person above hehe =) anyways...the problem im having now is the thought of actually leaving...im a lot happier at my school (UCLA) now then i was when i applied to transfer. are any of you feeling the same way?

By Lepetitprince (Lepetitprince) on Tuesday, May 04, 2004 - 10:16 pm: Edit

Jlondon, Why did you decide to leave UCLA in the first place?

By Jlondon (Jlondon) on Thursday, May 06, 2004 - 02:28 am: Edit

lepetitprince....well initially i had always wanted to leave california for college and go to the east coast...i wanted a smaller private school with an "intellectual" environment (i know im a nerd haha). anyways, i got waitlisted at harvard and dartmouth last year and it pretty much came down to ucla and berkeley...at first i was enjoying ucla, but then i guess i was just having a hard time letting go of that school on the east coast i always wanted =P ucla was just big, impersonal, and not that academically oriented. i hope i dont sound like a complete snob but there are just a ton of athletes and transfer students here from jc's and stuff so it loses a lot of the "intellectual" part. i guess i just felt like it was not at all what i wanted out of college...but now ive kind of found my place here and it would just be extremeley hard to leave my friends =/ i guess things have changed in the past few months...the only problem is i think they've mainly changed socially (i joined a sorority) and not too much academically...i dunno...any advice from anyone??? im kind of lost

By Laura (Laura) on Thursday, May 06, 2004 - 03:00 am: Edit

Tickle: I had 1500 SATs, 92 unweighted high school average, 4.0 GPA at NYU for a year. Money and the desire to have a real college experience (instead of more of a grad student experience here in the city) is my reason for transferring - the difference between NYU and Cornell for me is about $16 thou per year.

By Noodleman (Noodleman) on Thursday, May 06, 2004 - 06:51 pm: Edit

Up40, you loquacious lummox! Did you gain entry or what???? In(en)quiring minds want to know!

By Fahrenheitmaxim (Fahrenheitmaxim) on Thursday, May 06, 2004 - 10:12 pm: Edit

For those who are applying to penn they will start releasing decisions this Friday, 5/7/2004. (I called the adcom office) Stanfords site says that it will send decisions out on May 25. Good luck to you all. - Rob

By Up40love (Up40love) on Friday, May 07, 2004 - 01:48 am: Edit

Assuming they operate on a standard release schedule, Yale should dispense admissions decision letters by mail tomorrow (07 May)--they dated and postmarked their decisions on this date last year.

I can check my Brown decision online at 5pm next Friday (14 May), and my birthday will follow four days afterward.

Let's hope I get some really awesome early birthday presents!

By Fingercuffs2006 (Fingercuffs2006) on Friday, May 07, 2004 - 03:02 am: Edit

I'm pulling for you Up40! ^_^

By Khoa019 (Khoa019) on Friday, May 07, 2004 - 11:26 am: Edit

JHU june 1
Yale june 1
harvard next week
Stanford next week
NYU next week

By Up40love (Up40love) on Friday, May 07, 2004 - 11:40 am: Edit

Are you making those up? Stanford has posted that it reports 25 May.

NYU has commenced reporting. Judging precedent, they inform acceptees first.

Yale does not wait until 01 June.

By Up40love (Up40love) on Saturday, May 08, 2004 - 11:21 am: Edit

bump...THIS THREAD IS DYING!

We should hear any day now...

Dinotopia: are you nervous, too?

By Smhop (Smhop) on Saturday, May 08, 2004 - 12:11 pm: Edit

the wait is agonizing, isnt it!?

I was given a WL decsions from Brown, I have a Yale interview comming up... and I am applinging Colombia GS too... I think they have rolling admissions so I imagine I will hear in JULY... ack!

By Up40love (Up40love) on Saturday, May 08, 2004 - 12:34 pm: Edit

You already heard from Brown? Interview for Yale transfers?

Are you serious?

By Danqa (Danqa) on Saturday, May 08, 2004 - 12:45 pm: Edit

OK, I was put on the Yale waitlist. Anyone know what the acceptance rate was this year, and how many were put on the waitlist? Any hope for me getting off?

Thanks

By Up40love (Up40love) on Saturday, May 08, 2004 - 01:40 pm: Edit

You already heard from Yale as a transfer applicant?

This is insane...

I'm expecting three business sized envelopes with terse rejections.

By Danqa (Danqa) on Saturday, May 08, 2004 - 05:52 pm: Edit

I heard from Yale today.

By Sbhopeful (Sbhopeful) on Saturday, May 08, 2004 - 06:33 pm: Edit

Danga, When I was checking through Yale's admissions information from last year I came across a figure that said of the 80 people waitlisted last year, none were offered admission off the wait list :-/ Who knows though, it could go either way.

By Khoa019 (Khoa019) on Saturday, May 08, 2004 - 08:50 pm: Edit

nah i called them and that's what i got.

By Danqa (Danqa) on Saturday, May 08, 2004 - 11:59 pm: Edit

Oh I don't really expect to get in. I'm surprised I wasn't rejected immediately! :-)

Where'd you find those stats? Can I have the URL?

Thanks.

By Up40love (Up40love) on Sunday, May 09, 2004 - 03:10 pm: Edit

For those of you teeming with anxious uncertainty...

Harvard:
If you chose the "email me my decision option," Harvard will send those emails after 5pm 15 May.

Yale:
Apparently, they've already finalized decisions, so they should be arrive in the mail (if they haven't already) by Tuesday, depending on your location.

Stanford:
Their website states that they will send decision letters 25 May, although an admit I know last year received his acceptance letter on 17 May.

Brown:
Decisions can be accessed online starting 6pm 14 May.

UChicago:
Regular Transfer applicants will be notifed at the end of May.

By Up40love (Up40love) on Sunday, May 09, 2004 - 03:13 pm: Edit

By the way...

Noodle and Fingercuffs:

THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT! YOU GUYS ROCK!

By Khoa019 (Khoa019) on Sunday, May 09, 2004 - 03:19 pm: Edit

any info on Johns Hopkins, Duke, and NYU ??? I'm desperate for JHU cuz it's only 2 hours away from my bf.

By Khoa019 (Khoa019) on Sunday, May 09, 2004 - 03:19 pm: Edit

where did u get the inof on stanford? can i gimme the link? thanks.

By Up40love (Up40love) on Sunday, May 09, 2004 - 03:37 pm: Edit

I didn't apply to those schools so I wouldn't know. You're choosing a school based on the location of your boyfriend?

Anyhow...
http://www.stanford.edu/home/statistics/#transfer

By Up40love (Up40love) on Sunday, May 09, 2004 - 03:39 pm: Edit

NYU already started releasing decisions. Yours should arrive shortly.

Duke--along with schools like Brigham Young and Wheaton College--are notoriously gay-unfriendly. I'm surprised you applied there.

By Khoa019 (Khoa019) on Sunday, May 09, 2004 - 03:55 pm: Edit

originally i only applied for stanford cuz we thought my bf would be able to get a job here but then he has to work in philly so i had to apply for other schools.
OK so Duke is not my option. I heard about that too and racism.
As for stanford, that's last year statistics right. I CALLED them on april 27 because they asked for my winter grade transcript and the officer said they only have 2 weeks to review all transfer apps. so i think they will release their decision around may 15.

By Up40love (Up40love) on Sunday, May 09, 2004 - 11:39 pm: Edit

Rejection is less painful when you expect it.

By Smhop (Smhop) on Sunday, May 09, 2004 - 11:48 pm: Edit

Transfer/ss is what I applied for. I am very hopeful =)

By Up40love (Up40love) on Monday, May 10, 2004 - 01:13 am: Edit

i thought you couldn't simultaneously apply as a special student and a transfer?

By Avs21 (Avs21) on Monday, May 10, 2004 - 04:39 am: Edit

Anyone on the UVA transfer student waitlist?

By Cardinal (Cardinal) on Monday, May 10, 2004 - 05:07 am: Edit

I went through the whole transferring process last year, and I thought maybe I could give you guys a rough idea of when to expect responses from various schools.

UCLA (acceptance): April 30th
UC Berkeley (acceptance): May 1st
Yale (rejection): May 10th
Duke (acceptance): May 14th
Rice (acceptance): May 17th by e-mail, but apparently only because the acceptance packet they sent got returned for some reason
Stanford (acceptance): May 19th (postmarked May 16th)
Cornell (acceptance): May 19th
MIT (rejection): May 20th

My friends got their Brown acceptances on May 19th.

By Noodleman (Noodleman) on Monday, May 10, 2004 - 09:15 am: Edit

Of course I'm pulling for you, 40love! You are immensely talented, level-headed, mature, thoughtful, kind, and doggone it, people like you.

Imagine: I've gleaned this from a message board; I can only imagine how impressive you'd be in person.

You seem like someone who will do great things whether you attend Yale or Community College.

Let us know what happens, and, above all, know that acceptance to an elite college is a crapshoot; don't let a rejection affect your self-esteem one whit.

The above goes for dinotopia as well.

Both of you: If you do nothing else, keep writing, please. We lesser mortals need something good to read every once in a while...

By Fahrenheitmaxim (Fahrenheitmaxim) on Monday, May 10, 2004 - 03:15 pm: Edit

Cardinal do you mind posting your stats from high school and college? I am applying to several of those schools that you listed and am interested in your story. Thanks for your time and the dates. - Rob

By Theguac (Theguac) on Monday, May 10, 2004 - 04:06 pm: Edit

Hey,

I'm also waiting upon Stanford and as you may expect, I too am getting nervous. It is the only school for which I applied as a transfer, principally because I am originally from California and my dad is having some health-related problems. Because I currently attend Duke University, being so far away from him is problematic both for his spirits and for mine. Good luck to all of you, and to all who applied to Duke as transfer!

By the way, I am a freshman and am majoring in both biomedical engineering and public policy.

By Fordhamchica03 (Fordhamchica03) on Monday, May 10, 2004 - 04:18 pm: Edit

dude, tell me why i called admissions at nyu about my decision. last time i called, the admission person said my decision was sent out on last monday. but i haven't gotten it. so i asked him to send it to my maryland address. i also asked him how long it will take to get to my house. he said he doesn't know because they have to put "IT" together first. I wonder what "IT" is?

By Up40love (Up40love) on Monday, May 10, 2004 - 04:21 pm: Edit

hmm...I would cautiously assume that packages are assembled, not a one-lear rejection letter.

Therefore, your acceptance packet may be arriving!

By Cardinal (Cardinal) on Monday, May 10, 2004 - 04:55 pm: Edit

Fahrenheitmaxim, here are my stats, basically from college, since I applied as a junior transfer and as far as I know they don't take high school records into account that much anymore.

College Type: Private Liberal Arts College
Location: MA (family from California)
Race/Gender: Asian/Female
Major: Biology
Unweighted GPA: 3.918 (College), 4.0 (High School, basically got all A+'s)

SAT I Math: 800
SAT I Verbal: 760
SAT II Writing: 800
SAT II Math IIC: 800
SAT II Chemistry: 800

I got a full merit scholarship to a tiny liberal arts college (~400 students) designed specifically for students who can and wish to begin college early and so basically dropped out of high school after 10th grade. I eventually got the GED, but as far as I could tell that was pretty useless as far as transferring to the schools I applied to was concerned.

I received some awards in math and science competitions and was a National Merit Finalist. In high school, I was just basically an academic superstar, although I didn't do very much outside of classes, just math club/competitions, quiz bowl, stuff like that. In college, I was an officer in the science club, wrote a column for the school paper, served as a peer tutor and a campus tour guide, and participated in community service projects. I worked the summer after freshman year in a lab at Stanford Medical School doing research. I think this probably have helped me get into Stanford, as I got a supplemental recommendation letter from my PI and cited my desire to continue working in the lab as a reason for wanting to attend Stanford, which was my first choice. Some people say it could also have hurt my chances at places like Yale and MIT, since they could probably see that I preferred Stanford and that their schools didn't really offer anything I couldn't get at Stanford. And I know that MIT accepted next to no transfer students last year because the number freshman who accepted their offers of admission greatly exceeded the school's expectations.

My reasons for transferring were the need for more advanced courses, particularly in molecular biology, and the wish to pursue biomedical research as an undergraduate.

If you want I can post my application essays, but I don't know if that would be helpful since everyone has already sent in their applications.

By Fordhamchica03 (Fordhamchica03) on Monday, May 10, 2004 - 05:02 pm: Edit

where do you go...

By Arc (Arc) on Monday, May 10, 2004 - 05:06 pm: Edit

cardinal...i'm confused about one thing. you started college after 10th grade. so you did only two years of high school? and now you applied to transfer after two years at your liberal arts college? couldn't you also have applied for freshman admission since you were the same age as a high school senior?
thank you!

By Cardinal (Cardinal) on Monday, May 10, 2004 - 05:11 pm: Edit

Yes, I only did two years of high school. I don't think one can apply as a freshman as long as he/she has been registered as a full time college student and taken more than a certain number of college units.

By Danqa (Danqa) on Monday, May 10, 2004 - 05:22 pm: Edit

He must have went to Simon's Rock

By Fordhamchica03 (Fordhamchica03) on Monday, May 10, 2004 - 05:47 pm: Edit

oh yeah. that's a great school.

By Fahrenheitmaxim (Fahrenheitmaxim) on Monday, May 10, 2004 - 05:51 pm: Edit

so uh cardinal....you married?

By Meganish (Meganish) on Monday, May 10, 2004 - 05:57 pm: Edit

cardinal~ where did you go?

By Danqa (Danqa) on Monday, May 10, 2004 - 06:04 pm: Edit

Has no one else heard from Yale?!

By Cardinal (Cardinal) on Monday, May 10, 2004 - 06:21 pm: Edit

Yup, I went to Simon's Rock and am now at Stanford. And no, I'm not married. LOL

By Fahrenheitmaxim (Fahrenheitmaxim) on Monday, May 10, 2004 - 08:22 pm: Edit

Cardinal, how would you say competition is at stanford? is there enough time to relax or are the students always in the grind?

By Khoa019 (Khoa019) on Monday, May 10, 2004 - 08:37 pm: Edit

Yale here . i got rejected. wasnt a surprise though. This year they take 30 out of 697.
That's 4.3 % I think they want to compete /w harvard this year since last year harvard admission rate was more than 5.5 %.

By Danqa (Danqa) on Monday, May 10, 2004 - 10:01 pm: Edit

Did you hear that from the admissions office? I tried calling twice today but no one answered!

By Khoa019 (Khoa019) on Tuesday, May 11, 2004 - 12:33 am: Edit

i got the letter and they said it

By Cardinal (Cardinal) on Tuesday, May 11, 2004 - 05:36 am: Edit

Fahrenheitmaxim, Stanford is OK competition-wise. It really depends on one's major. The intro chem and bio classes tend to be huge and filled with crazy competitive premeds, but some other departments are much better. People definitely have time to do things besides studying though; there are always so many activities going on that it's mind-boggling.

By Up40love (Up40love) on Tuesday, May 11, 2004 - 09:12 am: Edit

I'd hate to disappoint those who have sent scathing emails hoping that Yale would reject me.

Noodle, Fingercuffs, and Dinotopia:
I really appreciate your support! You can click here to access Yale's decision.

By Danqa (Danqa) on Tuesday, May 11, 2004 - 09:29 am: Edit

They rejected *you*?! That's outrageous!

By Noodleman (Noodleman) on Tuesday, May 11, 2004 - 10:09 am: Edit

40Love:

I'd bemoan the decision, except that I truly feel that in the grand scheme of things, this will not matter in the least. Let your heart not be heavy; rather, let it be light in the knowlege that full effort is full victory.

Remember:
He who counts chickens ends up with an exact record of the number of chickens he has counted.
-Old polish proverb (Well, not really. Actually, I just made that up and thought it was funny since it made no sense whatsoever.)

Yale does not success make or break. They missed out on a good one, though.

By Khoa019 (Khoa019) on Tuesday, May 11, 2004 - 10:37 am: Edit

hey ur letter looks exactly like mine!!!!! lollet's get over it... there is still harvard, stanford, duke, mit, jhu, nyu to come for me.
as far as i know

harvard will start sending out stuff on may 17. they havent set the date for emailing the decision

duke will start mass mailing around this weekend may 15

stanford will do the same thing on may 15

mit wont send out stuff until may 17 ( they probably have their decisions already)

By Up40love (Up40love) on Tuesday, May 11, 2004 - 11:57 am: Edit

I'm still waiting on:

Brown
Stanford
Wisconsin-Madison

and I will now submit applications to:
Emory
Tulane

Thanks for all of your support, guys. I'm really hoping that schools don't reject me across-the-board.

SMILE!

By Internationalcc (Internationalcc) on Tuesday, May 11, 2004 - 01:09 pm: Edit

Hey Noodle have you decided on where you're going?

By Cardinal (Cardinal) on Tuesday, May 11, 2004 - 01:17 pm: Edit

Sorry about Yale, Up40love, but be glad that at least this year they used paper with letterhead. Last year it was just cheap copier paper. Last year they accepted only 1 person from my school, and it was because she was legacy. I'm sure you'll get into other great schools!

By Fingercuffs2006 (Fingercuffs2006) on Tuesday, May 11, 2004 - 02:33 pm: Edit

Noodle's right, Yale sure did miss out on a great person.

But I do hope it won't get you down because someone like you really will have some great schools to choose from, and having more than one option at all is a rare thing for the average transfer student.

Good luck! The game is far from over!

By Arc (Arc) on Tuesday, May 11, 2004 - 03:19 pm: Edit

up40love...what were your stats? in college and in high school? thanks!

By Dinotopia (Dinotopia) on Wednesday, May 12, 2004 - 05:02 am: Edit

Hey guys,

Overseas here, not at home receiving mail. It's been agonising too, but I haven't seen my family since I was 2 years old, and it's been quite an experience meeting family I'm almost not nervous anymore, except I am. It's night time in North America when it's day time here, so it's hard to even call and ask.

It would be quite the treat to fly home to at least one big fat admission packet. Either way a whole life is up ahead, and right now it's impossible to tell how bright it is ahead.

I'm very saddened to see Up40love rejected from Yale; I don't know what's up with my decision, but I'll do my best to find out w/in the next 2 days. Noodleman, I hope all the best for you, and everyone else on this board; it's been quite a turbulent ride on the tide of transfer admissions, but we've all survived ;-)

By Up40love (Up40love) on Wednesday, May 12, 2004 - 03:26 pm: Edit

Brown Transfer Applicants

Dear Allen:

Admission decisions for Transfer applicants are not available for viewing on the web. If you have questions about your application, or the mailing dates for decisions, you may call us at (401) 863-2378.

The Board of Admission

By Up40love (Up40love) on Thursday, May 13, 2004 - 03:04 am: Edit

I'd like to receive something like this from Stanford come Monday.

By Cardinal (Cardinal) on Thursday, May 13, 2004 - 03:50 am: Edit

Yes, I still have that letter. Too bad I didn't keep the envelope it came in. It was a large envelope with "Congratulations!" written in big red letters. Hehe, takes away the suspense, but I didn't mind. Do you know if Stanford has already sent out the packages? Anyway, if anyone decides to come next year, I'm going to be a Transfer Buddy and an orientation volunteer this fall, so I'll probably see you around!

By Mexbruin (Mexbruin) on Thursday, May 13, 2004 - 02:56 pm: Edit

Currently at UCLA but would like to transfer to a school in the ACC (Im a jock) but any suggestions between DUKE, UNC, MARYLAND, and VIRGINIA....(Poli SCi major by the way).

By Liza (Liza) on Thursday, May 13, 2004 - 03:33 pm: Edit

mexbruin, send in the four apps and see how you do. good luck!

By Dinotopia (Dinotopia) on Thursday, May 13, 2004 - 08:51 pm: Edit

Dear friends,

I have been turned down by Yale!

I called my parents' friends who are picking up the mail back at home, and they told me that yesterday they received a letter from Yale and they read it to me. The usual rejection letter; bleached white, and thinner than philo pastry.

What surprised me is how quickly it arrived, compared to everyone else; it usually takes a really long time to receive mail from the USA.

Anyhow, it's been pretty disappointing because I've lost any clue as to how much time I've spent on that application, how much I tried to demonstrate my fitness, and I even sent in a tape. I like to think about it this way:

1. I've never been rejected by any college/univ. I've applied to. If you don't get rejected, you haven't tried to push your limits, and you haven't found out what you're truly capable of.

2. Yale may think that I may not need a Yale education in order to be successful and they might as well give the spot to someone else who does need it. (This is a bit of a cocky view, granted)

3. I'm pretty sure the adcoms didn't feel great about rejecting me, but had to, given whatever circumstances there were; these I don't know about, and never do want to know about, because they can only cause strife.

4. In the highly unlikely event that I'm accepted at either H or S or both, there will be less to have to choose from, and I will have a less heartwrenching time rejecting colleges.

5. College in Canada costs 15K CDN per year, all things included, which works out to about 11K USD. College in the USA costs about 4 times as much, and since I have negligible financial resources of my own, my parents would have to foot the rest of the bill, less any financial aid, to their financial detriment. Not to say I don't think it's worth it, but rejections save my family money.

6. We all played the game knowing our chances were very, very slim. A 4.3 % chance of being accepted is also a 96% chance of being rejected, which is better than the standard statistical accuracy of 95%. My chances of rejection are 95% and approx. 90% at Harvard and Stanford, respectively. If college admissions are a crapshoot, then those are the odds against which I'm working. I'm probably going to lose, but I put everything I could into trying.

7. There are tempests to calm, every direction that I look; acceptance or rejection. I can be successful anywhere. 30 years down the road, none of this will be of much consequence. In situations like this, it's your attitude that matters most. What's inside of you is more important than what college you went to. It's deeply disheartening to be rejected by Yale, but life wouldn't have been easy either way. It's now time to trudge on. Harvard's decision will come some time the week of the 17th.

By Khoa019 (Khoa019) on Thursday, May 13, 2004 - 10:51 pm: Edit

your reasoning might help to relieve your "disheartening" yale experience but rejection is rejection and it sucks my sympathy to you.

yale didnt show they are not enthusiastic in getting to know their applicants. the essay has no topic which shows none of their interest

what's funny about my rejection is that that afternoon i was talking /w this friend who is a yale alumni and she said I look like the typical yale kid and then 2 hours later I got rejected lol.

however i have my backup cornell engineering could help to retain a dimmer smile on my face.

By Cardinal (Cardinal) on Thursday, May 13, 2004 - 10:57 pm: Edit

Well, Khoa019, I think Cornell engineering is a lot stronger than Yale engineering, and I'm sure you'd do well wherever you go.

By Danqa (Danqa) on Thursday, May 13, 2004 - 11:50 pm: Edit

Has *no one* had any luck with Yale? There must be someone, right?! Still waiting to hear about the waitlist... I know 27 were accepted and 18 were waitlisted, so the odds are slim...

By Khoa019 (Khoa019) on Friday, May 14, 2004 - 01:02 am: Edit

Thank you. I'll definitely do well /w any sort of science
Yale is done and that's it. I'm not crying over it.
Still putting my hopes up for harvard, stanford, mit, jhu, duke, and nyu. Hopefully i will get some thing in my mail / email tomarow morning and the next day. I'm excited about harvard. I hope they will have individually customized rejection letters

By Avs21 (Avs21) on Friday, May 14, 2004 - 01:29 am: Edit

I am on the waitlist at UVA. Any suggestions on what I can do to improve my chances of getting off the waitlist?

By Jmancer (Jmancer) on Friday, May 14, 2004 - 01:30 am: Edit

were those yale numbers from last year?

By Up40love (Up40love) on Friday, May 14, 2004 - 03:52 am: Edit

I'm really sorry to see that none of us on this board successfully convinced Yale that we'd be great assets to the community.

I'm currently scrambling to apply to other places, and I suspect Stanford screwed me over. Here's a dilemma with I need as much advice as humanly possible:

When my adcom at Stanford phoned to see if I was still interested, she asked me to Express Mail my fee. I did so, paying not only the $75 to cover the application, but an addition $15 to get it there overnight. My parents frown on superfluous spending like this.

I continue to correspond with her, and I ask her numerous times if any portions of the application are missing. She informs me that 1A and 6 haven't arrived, and that I should fax them ASAP. I give 1A to the registrar and I ask my dean if he's completed and sent his reference.

Days later, Vilma tells me that 1A and 6 have not yet arrived. I scrounge up another copy of 1A, fill it out, hand it to the registrar, and retrieve a couple of days later to fax it myself.

I get robbed on a bus later that day, which not only interferes with my completing my file at Stanford, but also with studying for exam week. Summons to line-ups only exacerbate my problems.

Along with the police, tests and a tennis tournament get in the way of regularly checking email, and I don't receive her response to my email until six days later. It says that I'm missing both college transcripts, and that they need to be faxed by Friday. It was Thursday.

So in a panic, I fax over 1A and a copy of one of my transcripts. I get worried because procuring a copy of another transcript from my first school--yes, this is a very complicated story--is much harder because they're in the middle of updating their transcript data base because finals have begun. They can't release transcripts for at least 7 business days, and I was told that Stanford would receive it by Tuesday (11 May). I email Vilma to see if she's received it, but her inbox isn't accepting mail. I call my first college to confirm it was sent and was informed that the database is still updating and the earliest I can retrieve transcripts is Monday.

Stanford finalized decisions today and will mail them tomorrow.

I'm very sad now, because they made a decision based on circumstances beyond my control.

My question is, should I call the office or email the generic inbox and explain all of this? Would it be useless since appeals and the sort never work? I would just feel more at peace with rejection if I knew they concluded on it with all of my materials.

By Dinotopia (Dinotopia) on Friday, May 14, 2004 - 04:54 am: Edit

Up40love, given your circumstances, I would phone the Admission Office and ask to speak to the Director of Admission.

I'm suggesting you do this because the Director of Admission seems like he's understanding. I had to call him in February because my college reports marks on a full-year basis, i.e. we don't get transcripts of any of our work until June because all courses here run year-long, thus I had to have professors prepare grade reports for me, and I wondered whether or not it was acceptable, and the Director said it was.

Since he's one of the gurus in the admissions office, and has the power to make these kinds of decisions over the heads of normal admissions officers, I'd give him a ring. From what I remember, he's available in the afternoons on MWF, from 13:00 to 16:00 Pacific time, but call as soon as you have the chance just in case.

Explain the situation calmly and thoroughly, because you've made extraordinary efforts to get your application in, and it seems as though fate has some how laid manure on you. There is nothing to be lost, so give it a try. Best of luck!

By Khoa019 (Khoa019) on Friday, May 14, 2004 - 10:25 am: Edit

sorry for your situation. I thought stanford is pretty fast at collecting stuff. they called me on april 26 asking for transcript. I called back to ask if i can send it 1 week later. they said they'll hold it for me. then i 'll fax it the other day and 3 hours later they got it. the next 2 days i got the confirmation card

you can call and appeal but i'm not sure what they can do about it. it's just like my friend's stories about jhu in which her apps was lost and she was never been informed!!! :P

anywayz good luck on that. I hope to get the decision early next week.

By Danqa (Danqa) on Friday, May 14, 2004 - 10:27 am: Edit

No, the Yale numbers are from this year. I spoke to the director of transfer admissions on Friday. 700 applied, 27 accepted, 18 waitlisted. He says a few applicants probably will not accept their spot on the waitlist, because they have decided to attend other Ivies, so he thinks the waitlist might be whittled down to 10-14. Some years, they take no one from the waitlist, others they've taken as many as four. I read that Yale purposely underenrolled this year, so maybe there's hope! I'm going to send my final grades when I get them, and an extra letter of recommendation from my political science teacher. He also said a letter stating that I would attend Yale if accepted would be considered. I'm really hoping they let me in, but I'm trying not to hope for it *too* much since the odds are so low.

By Khoa019 (Khoa019) on Friday, May 14, 2004 - 10:34 am: Edit

any updates on harvard, mit, stanford, duke, jhu. i'm curious to know when they WILL send out decision letters!

By Danqa (Danqa) on Friday, May 14, 2004 - 10:35 am: Edit

And about Brown...

That's odd. Last time I checked, the admissions website said that decisions for transfer applicants would be available online May 14th, after 6 pm.

By Cardinal (Cardinal) on Friday, May 14, 2004 - 01:10 pm: Edit

Up40love, that's really terrible about your application. I thought Stanford was usually pretty organized. That kind of •••• happened when I applied to MIT (forgot to send the fee), Harvard (lost everything multiple times, I don't think they ever put all my files together; put some with another person of the same name (it's like Duh! Read the SSN!), put some others in the transfer pile, some in the freshman pile (I applied as a freshman since they don't accept transfers from my school); they're probably still lying around the file room), Yale (lost parts of my application including SAT reports and recs and all kinds of other stuff and I had to spend exorbitant amounts of money sending stuff in at the last minute), and Chicago (lost my entire online application even though I received numerous confirmations; eventually I found out that they actually did receive my application, but lost my check, but I didn't bother to pay them because I hated them so much at that point and didn't like the city of Chicago anyway). Needless to say, I didn't get into any of those schools. Rejected at the first three, Chicago just never sent me a response (I did waste some money mailing them things, but at least they didn't cash my check). The only other school I had problems with applying was Duke (they thought I was a freshman appliant), but that eventually got sorted out. So I don't even know if the other schools even had a full application to look at. I thought the Dean of Admissions at Stanford is a woman.

By Up40love (Up40love) on Friday, May 14, 2004 - 01:23 pm: Edit

I suppose the Dean doesn't really involve herself in the process aside from writing the standard decision letters and getting paid extra money for doing less work.

William Tingley, I believe, is the director of transfer admissions.

I think I'll give them a call today. If not, I'll probably write an email to him.

By Up40love (Up40love) on Sunday, May 16, 2004 - 10:36 pm: Edit

Brown and Stanford mailed decisions on Friday, which means:

WE WILL KNOW TOMORROW!

By Noodleman (Noodleman) on Monday, May 17, 2004 - 08:50 am: Edit

This thread is better/worse than any soap opera! I think someone ought to consider all of us for a reality show.

Still pulling for you, Dino and 40! Both of you are so heroic in the face of adversity. I wish I could be; I just get pissed off and abusively snotty. You're both great models of propriety. You remind me of characters in an F. Scott Fitzgerald book, post crash.

By Smhop (Smhop) on Monday, May 17, 2004 - 01:28 pm: Edit

so, did anyone get mail from brown today?

By Chunsah (Chunsah) on Monday, May 17, 2004 - 03:38 pm: Edit

im very curious as well. brown said to call by wednesday if u havent found out

By Khoa019 (Khoa019) on Monday, May 17, 2004 - 08:53 pm: Edit

stanford said early next week. harvard will be this week. and i got in duke today

By Bebeblue (Bebeblue) on Tuesday, May 18, 2004 - 01:15 am: Edit

Accepted to NYU, Barnard and UChicago. I got the mail today so if anybody's waiting for their regular decision then you should get it real soon!

By Bebeblue (Bebeblue) on Tuesday, May 18, 2004 - 01:15 am: Edit

Double post, sorry.

By Khoa019 (Khoa019) on Tuesday, May 18, 2004 - 02:45 am: Edit

the waiting for NYU is so over for me. that school is not that great to keep on delaying the notification process.

By Red92 (Red92) on Tuesday, May 18, 2004 - 02:52 am: Edit

I just have a question...why didn't you apply to these schools the first time around?

What makes the difference when you're a transfer student?

Do you have to do something phenominal your freshman year to get considered for these schools? Or just any good school in general...

It just seems like a huge toss up.

By Bluevartouhi (Bluevartouhi) on Tuesday, May 18, 2004 - 02:59 am: Edit

Red92, some people, myself included, having not performed to the best of their ability in high school for whatever reason, either guessed or knew for a certainty they wouldn't be able to gain acceptance to a college/university of their choice. By going to a community college or a "second-choice" college, improving one's grades and participating in some good EC's, we are able to get a second chance at the school of our dreams. Well, that's why I'm doing it anyway. Plus, some schools, like those in the UC system, give priority admission to transfer students from local community colleges. Thus, it's much easier to gain acceptance as a transfer student rather than a freshman applicant.

By Red92 (Red92) on Tuesday, May 18, 2004 - 03:03 am: Edit

also...did all of you do really well in high school?

I actually saw transfer as sort of a redemption thing...for not doing well in high school but it seems like all of you did really well and that maybe you just wanted a different environment.

I'd appreciate any advice!

By Bluevartouhi (Bluevartouhi) on Tuesday, May 18, 2004 - 03:27 am: Edit

Transferring is really a redemption thing for a lot of people. It's all relative. For some, getting accepted to an "ok" university when applying from high school is satisfactory for them. They are happy there and don't want to change. Then there are some people, like those on this board, that want to reach even higher, for prestigious schools like Stanford. Maybe to them, getting into the "just ok" school wasn't enough. Not doing well in high school is relative. For example, some of the people here probably did well by state school standards, but they didn't do well by Ivy standards. I myself kind of fall into that category. I could have gotten into some of the easier UC's or Cal State schools straight out of high school, but wanted a chance at a more prestigious and academically challenging school, so I went to a community college in the hopes of transferring to a great school later.

By Bluevartouhi (Bluevartouhi) on Tuesday, May 18, 2004 - 03:27 am: Edit

.

By Khoa019 (Khoa019) on Tuesday, May 18, 2004 - 04:32 am: Edit

hey hey not true for international transfer like me. I got accpeted in cambridge univ /w a scholarship wheni was in grade 11 but coudlnt take it b/c my parents ddint want me to go to england in my own and i had a hard time /w english accent. then i was late for us school apps deadline the next year due to my insufficient school research. thus, i just picked a community college to start off again in the us. transfer students are in general smarter then freshman and they;re really determined in their field. plus, transfer admission is always harder!!! so we, transfer student should be proud to get in one of those prestigious institution.

By Bluevartouhi (Bluevartouhi) on Tuesday, May 18, 2004 - 04:40 am: Edit

No, no, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to imply that transfer students are in any way less smart! As a matter of fact, transfer students are usually more prepared than their four-year counterparts at the university to which they are transferring, simply because they've had to stay on their toes and maintain good grades in order to transfer. I certainly don't think I'm less smart than freshman applicants; I just wasn't as prepared in high school. But I don't think transfer admission is necessarily harder with all schools, Khoa019. Here, in California, it's actually easier to get into UC's as a transfer student, although I suppose in the case of private universities it might be just as difficult getting in as a freshman.

Anyway, just wanted to clarify my point.

By Khoa019 (Khoa019) on Tuesday, May 18, 2004 - 06:17 am: Edit

the ucs is a different story. they recruit CA residents and give them privileges while international students are left out /w the burden of high tuition fee. That's why i have this anti feeling for UCs even the top ones like LA and Berkeley ( didnt even care to apply). I've seen underqualified students got in just because they're CA residents. No offense but it's just pathetic ( how can u be proud of urself as a UCB/LA student when u got a C average in all science classes at your previous CC!!!!!). Private schools in some ways are cheaper for us, international students, and provide better education.

By Khoa019 (Khoa019) on Tuesday, May 18, 2004 - 06:19 am: Edit

although I suppose in the case of private universities it might be just as difficult getting in as a freshman.


it's hard to get in those schools as a transfer students. u can easily realize this just by looking at the admission rate where u go to school

By Up40love (Up40love) on Tuesday, May 18, 2004 - 12:10 pm: Edit

Happy Birthday to me today! (18 May)

Here is my decision from Brown.

By Smhop (Smhop) on Tuesday, May 18, 2004 - 12:51 pm: Edit

=( sorry about the news.

By Noodleman (Noodleman) on Tuesday, May 18, 2004 - 01:21 pm: Edit

These places are nuts. :|

I'm sorry.

By Fahrenheitmaxim (Fahrenheitmaxim) on Tuesday, May 18, 2004 - 01:21 pm: Edit

sorry brother, if it makes you feel any better I haven't heard from penn, duke, or stanford. Not a good omen.

By Up40love (Up40love) on Tuesday, May 18, 2004 - 01:28 pm: Edit

Stanford will distribute decisions at the end of this week

By Khoa019 (Khoa019) on Tuesday, May 18, 2004 - 07:18 pm: Edit

got in nyu today so far 3 admissions( cornell, duke, nyu) and 1 rejection( yale)

By Fingercuffs2006 (Fingercuffs2006) on Tuesday, May 18, 2004 - 11:08 pm: Edit

Congratulations Khoa!

By Khoa019 (Khoa019) on Tuesday, May 18, 2004 - 11:23 pm: Edit

thanks! i read some thread in harvard discussion board and this guy was saying that harvard will email the decision tomarow???? anxiety's killing me again.!!!! anyone got in any other schools?

By Fahrenheitmaxim (Fahrenheitmaxim) on Tuesday, May 18, 2004 - 11:49 pm: Edit

congratulations khoa! I hope that i will be as fortunate as you in the coming days. If you do not mind, would you please post your stats. Thanks in advance. - Rob

By Khoa019 (Khoa019) on Wednesday, May 19, 2004 - 12:18 am: Edit

thank you Fahrenheitmaxim. here are my stats

khoa019 is an international applicant.

School Type: Foothill community college
Location (city, state, country): Los Altos Hills, CA, USA
Race/Gender: Vietnamese
Prospective Major: Bioengineering
AIM: khoa7584
Unweighted GPA: 4.0
Weighted GPA: 4.0
Class rank: 1 of 68 (highschool for the gifted in vietnam)

SAT I Scores
SAT I Math: 800
SAT I Verbal: 620

TOEFL Scores
TOEFL Score: 270

SAT II Scores
SAT II Math IIC: 800
SAT II Chemistry: 800
SAT II Physics: 730

Additional Info
Extracurricular Info:

+Blue Summer Campaign In Vietnam ( Community service to help the underprivileged, street children, elderly)
+Vietnamese youth group leader
+Tutoring Services at Foothill

+Member of foothill science and engineering association
+Translator at Pacific Free Clinic pacific.stanford.edu

+Scholarship of ALC ( association of leading colleges), UK, worth 4425 pounds per year
+First prize in district math contest
+Second prize in ho chi minh city math contest
+Dean list at foothill college for 2 consecutive years

hobbies
+ebay business( I buy and sell clothes... diesel and energie :P)
+hiking

Other Info: i'm gay and not ashamed of it

By Hulala (Hulala) on Wednesday, May 19, 2004 - 12:32 am: Edit

Do stanford e-mail students their decisions?

By Chineselady (Chineselady) on Wednesday, May 19, 2004 - 12:38 am: Edit

Hi, Khoa019, your stats are very impressived and your english is pretty good too. One thing I don't understand though: you got a TOEFL Score of 270? That sounds too low, isn't it? Is it a typo or do they have a new grade standard for TOEFL? According to what I learned before, a TOEFL sccore that was lower than 500 was considered very bad. I don't know if things have changed nowadays.

By Khoa019 (Khoa019) on Wednesday, May 19, 2004 - 01:45 am: Edit

270 for cbt toefl ;) in the old scale it would be 630 something i believe

By Chineselady (Chineselady) on Wednesday, May 19, 2004 - 02:30 am: Edit

Got you. 630 is an excellent score.

By Khoa019 (Khoa019) on Wednesday, May 19, 2004 - 02:33 am: Edit

not really i gained only 3 points after two years studying in the us lol. that sucks.

By Chunsah (Chunsah) on Wednesday, May 19, 2004 - 03:55 am: Edit

khoa: im interested in diesel merchandise and am a student @ de anza (most likely berkeley nxt year). how do u get it so cheaply? haha

By Malicemizer9 (Malicemizer9) on Wednesday, May 19, 2004 - 09:41 am: Edit

In at

Boston College
Vanderbilt University
University of Michigan at Ann Arbor
CORNELL A&S (MY DREAM SCHOOL!)

That's it, I'm done. Withdrawing apps from Pennsylvania, Northwestern, CMU and Johns Hopkins.

By Khoa019 (Khoa019) on Wednesday, May 19, 2004 - 09:50 am: Edit

hey i bought from europe ;). thats' why it's so cheap

By Khoa019 (Khoa019) on Wednesday, May 19, 2004 - 10:10 am: Edit

harvard will email their decision by 5 pm today!!!!

By Up40love (Up40love) on Wednesday, May 19, 2004 - 01:28 pm: Edit

Congratulations Malice!

Hulala: Stanford does not email decisions.

Chunsah: You could probably find a Diesel wholesaler on the web. My cousin gets Diesel jeans in bulk at $23 a piece and sells them for profit on ebay :-D

By Up40love (Up40love) on Wednesday, May 19, 2004 - 01:32 pm: Edit

I hope Dinotopia gets into Harvard.

:-D

By Fingercuffs2006 (Fingercuffs2006) on Wednesday, May 19, 2004 - 01:41 pm: Edit

I was waitlisted by Harvard today.

By Malicemizer9 (Malicemizer9) on Wednesday, May 19, 2004 - 01:51 pm: Edit

Thanks, this is really a dream-come-true

I wish all of you similar happiness.

By Up40love (Up40love) on Wednesday, May 19, 2004 - 02:28 pm: Edit

Did you get any admission stats from harvard?

I was reading that they'd admit more transfers than usual this year.

I wish you the best Fingercuffs! If I remember correctly, you've been admitted to Penn and Dartmouth? What's your top choice?

By Ekimbabydoll (Ekimbabydoll) on Wednesday, May 19, 2004 - 02:30 pm: Edit

rejected by harvard just now...oh well, uchicago isn't a bad consolation prize. still waiting for stanford though.

By Fingercuffs2006 (Fingercuffs2006) on Wednesday, May 19, 2004 - 03:28 pm: Edit

Congratulations malicemizer!! We knew it would happen for you!!!

Up40love- the letter says they actually admitted 70 this year instead of the usual 55. I'm hoping this will actually work in my favor as someone hoping that the more they admit, the more possibilities for people to decline their offer. I called the admissions office and they said they can't tell me how many are on the waiting list- she only said "a lot." I think I'm going to accept my place at Penn while I wait on the waiting list.

By Chunsah (Chunsah) on Wednesday, May 19, 2004 - 05:31 pm: Edit

up40love

where can i get ahold of a diesel wholesaler online? i do not know where to look.

good luck to all on harvard, and stanford when it comes!

By Malicemizer9 (Malicemizer9) on Wednesday, May 19, 2004 - 05:54 pm: Edit

Thanks ,

keep chugging away guys. You rock.

By Sarahw (Sarahw) on Wednesday, May 19, 2004 - 09:14 pm: Edit

did anyone get into harvard as a transfer? i'm going to be applying next fall for the junior class. any tips/stats/suggestions?

thanks!

By Genie13 (Genie13) on Wednesday, May 19, 2004 - 09:20 pm: Edit

I just found out I got in

~genie13

By Caltech (Caltech) on Wednesday, May 19, 2004 - 10:18 pm: Edit

DId anyone get transfer admission from caltech?
I am wondering and feel nervous...Am I rejected?/??
When are they gonna send decision????

By Sarahw (Sarahw) on Wednesday, May 19, 2004 - 11:31 pm: Edit

hey genie...did you get into harvard specifically? please tell me how!!!!!

thanks in advance

By Genie13 (Genie13) on Wednesday, May 19, 2004 - 11:56 pm: Edit

Yeah I got into harvard. Im serious I can't believe it coz my stats arent all that great.

SAT I
M: 800
V: 770

SAT II: 800, 790, 790

College GPA: 4.0 but i only had like 13 credits and they were all EASY 100 level courses

A Levels in Bio, Chem, Phys
AS Math
7 IGCSES
(they all count as high school)

Transfering from UMASS Lowell which is not all that great of a school

No ECs at college level. Atleast none when I applied. Just general stuff like I'm an editor on this website and stuff. The rest of the EC's were from high school.

My reasons for transferring essay sucked BIG time (I realised this after looking at the essays above) The other essay was OK i guess

And thats about it

Yup I have no idea why I got it either... not that Im complaining ofcourse ;)

Where r u applying from Sarah? What are ur stats?

Good Luck

~genie13

By Sarahw (Sarahw) on Thursday, May 20, 2004 - 12:01 am: Edit

hey genie...thanks for the reply
my stats are pretty so so. i'm a rising sophmore at an all women's school. my first semester i made a 3.25, but this semster i think i'm going to make a 3.67 or something like that. i scored the highest grade in my bio class, so i'm hoping to get my prof to write me a rec.
sat I: 710 M 780 V
sat II: 700 math, 700 writing, 650 us history
5 APs: 4's on 4 of them and a 3 on the last one
i'm very active in school...lot's of leadership positions. i do molecular bio research at a hospital in town.
i feel as though that 3.25 is going to screw me over endlessly. however, there is an obvious upward trend...hopefully that will help
i'm really nervous even though apps arent due till feb. have you talked to any of the other sucessful transfers?

By Up40love (Up40love) on Thursday, May 20, 2004 - 12:58 am: Edit

Where is Dinotopia? One of us has to be admitted somewhere.

Congratulations Genie!

By Sarahw (Sarahw) on Thursday, May 20, 2004 - 01:09 am: Edit

for the people that got into harvard as transfers, what were some of your reasons for transferring?

By Khoa019 (Khoa019) on Thursday, May 20, 2004 - 02:09 am: Edit

rejection day sucks putting my hope on stanford, mit, and hopkins.

By Yodisistim (Yodisistim) on Thursday, May 20, 2004 - 10:15 am: Edit

WOW you guys 230+ hits strong! We definitely made our mark. Sorry about the news Up40. I wonder if I could have gotten into an Ivy or one of the top 20, but my major limited my schools to apply to. Actually, I could have applied to Northwestern, but I would not have considered going there.

So I'm going to re-list my acceptances once again before I say goodbye to CC until "grad school time"! I graduate from my community college on Wednesday, the 26th. I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO happy!

Temple University - Pending Honors Program (safety) rank?

American Universiety- Honors Program/Scholarship
(match) rank? 2 Tier of National Schools

New York University- Scholarship (reach)
rank? #34 Nationally 2004

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill- Scholarship Pending (reach)
rank? #29 Nationally 2004

I will be going to UNC in the fall. My major is journalism. After I graduate in hopefully 2 years, I will come back up north to attend Columbia (dream) or NYU (reach) for grad school. Good luck to you all; the hardwork payed off. Congratulations to the Junior College class of 2004 as well.

By Kepler797 (Kepler797) on Thursday, May 20, 2004 - 10:37 am: Edit

Yodisistim, what was your GPA and stats?

By Noodleman (Noodleman) on Thursday, May 20, 2004 - 10:43 am: Edit

Thanks Yodi! Congrats! Don't even worry 'bout the Ivys. UNC Chap is an incredible school!

By Dinotopia (Dinotopia) on Friday, May 21, 2004 - 08:20 am: Edit

Hello Again, Friends!

I managed to get onto the internet again today.

Rejected by Harvard, but oddly enough I almost knew I'd get rejected. The e-mail is pretty well written; I think they're pretty frank in what they say; I'll post it below. From what I've read here, Stanford hasn't yet sent out decisions, which is good because I haven't heard from the people getting the mail for me back home; they will only call with good news, so if Stanford mailed stuff out last week, I'm out of luck! I've pretty much got my belongings packed up and ready to go back to my present school for at least another year, more likely than not for three more. I knew what the odds were ;-)

Good luck to everyone else, and congratulations to those who succeed! Be sure to keep this thread alive, and remember that admissions decisions don't necessarily reflect on you as a person in any way.

Harvard's e-mail decision:

Mr. [ My full legal name ]
Dear [ My name ]

I am very sorry to inform you that it is not possible to offer you a place
as a transfer student at Harvard College during the academic year
2004-2005. I wish I were writing to report a different decision, but the
competition was so rigorous that there were many outstanding young men and
women to whom we could not offer places.

This year the Committee on Transfer Admissions was faced with many
difficult decisions: one thousand students applied for seventy places in
the sophomore and junior classes. The great majority of the applicants
could certainly have been successful here academically, and most candidates
presented strong personal and extracurricular credentials as well. The
Committee was therefore faced with the necessity of choosing from a great
many more talented and highly qualified students than it had room to admit.

We can assure you that the Committee's deliberations were conducted with
the utmost care and with the knowledge that no one can predict with
certainty what an individual will accomplish during college or
beyond. Each application was reviewed thoroughly by admissions officers
before the selection meetings and then discussed and voted on by the
members of the Committee on Admissions.

We wish it were possible for us to admit more of our fine applicants. We
appreciate how difficult the college application process can be for
students and their families. However, we have learned from past experience
that the particular college a student attends is far less important than
what the student does to develop his or her strengths and talents over the
next few years.

We very much appreciate the interest you have shown in Harvard College, and
we hope that you will accept the best wishes of the Committee for success
in all your future endeavors.

Sincerely,
Marlene Vergara Rotner
Director of Transfer Admissions


This e-mail message is sent for your convenience. A letter sent by post
will confirm the decision of the Harvard College Admissions Committee.

This is a post-only email. Please do not reply to this address

By Noodleman (Noodleman) on Friday, May 21, 2004 - 09:30 am: Edit

Crazy Harvard Fools!

By Khoa019 (Khoa019) on Friday, May 21, 2004 - 04:10 pm: Edit

i'm in stanford!!!!!! yayyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!
still waiting for MIT and JHU :"(

By Dinotopia (Dinotopia) on Saturday, May 22, 2004 - 07:39 pm: Edit

It is now official!

I have been rejected from all of H, Y and S. Looks like I'm digging in for at least another year at my current school.

Best of luck to everyone else, and congratulations to those who succeeded, though our numbers are few. This is probably it for my regular presence on these boards, but if you want to keep in touch with me for any reason, my e-mail is in my profile.

I'm disappointed (really; basically in tears), but college is a place to develop myself: that's why I like the Harvard rejection e-mail, because it really emphasises this point. Of all the of H, Y and S, Harvard makes their applicants the most comfortable; they've got a transfer office separate from the freshman office, and they'll check your application status for you over the phone, which was hard to get Yale to do.

This line, I think, is important to remember:

"we have learned from past experience
that the particular college a student attends is far less important than
what the student does to develop his or her strengths and talents over the
next few years."

I could never have the same experience at my present school as at H, Y or S; there's no denying it. Rejection sucks, as someone put bluntly before. This is the first time I've been rejected by any school, and I'll be laminating the letters and posting them on my wall. They'll be a good reminder of why humility can be an asset.

I'm not sure at this point whether or not I'll try to transfer again next year, though I know I went wrong on a lot of points, and I'd be going into the process much better armed. There's grad school, professional school and tonnes of other stuff ahead, and maybe one of H, Y or S will take me then. Till anon, I hope those of you who were successful have a blast, make the most of it; you've clearly been chosen for a great opportunity. For the rest of us, it's an opportunity too, but we'll find out what it is after we swallow some fat, bitter pills.

By Liza (Liza) on Saturday, May 22, 2004 - 08:15 pm: Edit

Dinotopia,

If you really can't stand it try a mid-yr transfer. Plenty of good schools have it. I can think of Amherst and Rice off the top of my head. (I did a little investigating before I got in for the fall.) A nice bonus: the mid-year transfer round is often less selective because the applicant pool is much smaller.

Good luck!

By Sfahad (Sfahad) on Saturday, May 22, 2004 - 11:57 pm: Edit

Hi,
Please can you guys evaluate my chances of getting in one of these school ( Upenn, Cornell,
Carnegie mellon, Harvard, University of michigan, berkeley, Columbia) where i would be applying as 2005 transfer applicant.

My SAT 1: 1230, Math 650, Verbal 580
Currently attending rutgers school of engineering

Looking forward to do double major in economics and chemical engineering.

My gpa and grades are as follows: Cumulative Gpa: 3.7857.
Grades: Fall 2003: Physics B, Intro to experimentation B, Intro to computers for engineers A, microeconomics A, Chem for engrs A, Calc 2 B+
Spring 2004: Physics B+, engineering mechanics statics A, Honors Chem A, macroeconomics B+, Statistics for Business A, Calc3 A

and will be taking 4 econ classes and organic chem and differential equations in the coming fall semester. As you could see i have been taking lot of classes so it's kind of hard to get good grades with this course load. anyways i would be waiting for candid evaluations . thank you very much.

By Hulala (Hulala) on Sunday, May 23, 2004 - 01:17 am: Edit

what are your SAT-IIs Sfahad?

By Noodleman (Noodleman) on Sunday, May 23, 2004 - 11:05 am: Edit

Dinotopia. For what it is worth, judging from the feedback you've gotten in this thread, we all think you're pretty stellar.

I think it is great that you're going to frame the rejection letters. I have my NYU transcript, for the one semester I attended in 1986, with my C+, D+, and Incomplete out in plain view for me to see, right beside my 4.0s from my community college and my aceptances from Cornell and UVA. I like to see how far I've come and how much I've changed.

Just make sure you don't confuse humility with humiliation. Self-deprecation is healthy. Self-derision is not. I'm not too worried, though; you've got a good head on your shoulders, from what I can glean.

Best of luck to you, Dino. You have been inspirational.

Noodleman

By Sfahad (Sfahad) on Sunday, May 23, 2004 - 12:05 pm: Edit

hey,
not that great, i took them without even practicing for the test b/c i came here only two yrs ago and my stupid counselor never even told me about Sat's so i just took Sat 1 and Sat 2 in my senior yr and i was learning english at the same time as i had no previous experience in english. anyways they were 600 in math and 600 in chem, b/c i never practiced, otherwise i thought that it was pretty easy and i m pretty solid at math and chem as u can look at my grades in freshman yr of college. I usually ace those tests and rutgers engineering is very tough and has a pretty reputation too and most of teachers there are all ivy league graduates. I just want to transfer, just for the name of the school. Waiting for more evaluations. thank you

By Talrasha (Talrasha) on Sunday, May 23, 2004 - 12:59 pm: Edit

Hey Dino,

Its me Arvid (Or Eugene if you prefer)!

Listen, we should never give up hope. God knows we'll make it eventually. If you exhibit the same degree of effort consistently, it is clear that you stand a formidable chance. Like you said, there is always the mid-year transfer and grad school as alternatives. Grad school is less competitive too, especially if you have a high GPA coupled with an exceptional LSAT/GMAT/MCAT Score.

By the way, I've created a laundry list of things to do during my first year at the University of Toronto. I'm already determined to apply to HYSC and Wharton.

Life is full of road blocks my friend, but we must dodge them and keep moving!

By Up40love (Up40love) on Sunday, May 23, 2004 - 02:10 pm: Edit

Dinotopia:

You live in Canada. How did you hear from Stanford before me??!?!?!?

Has anyone other than Khoa and Dino heard from Stanford?

By Khoa019 (Khoa019) on Sunday, May 23, 2004 - 02:14 pm: Edit

up40love, u can call them and ask for the decision starting on monday. they told me that on the phone just right before i went downstairs and got the envelope. did u hear from any other schools?

By Up40love (Up40love) on Sunday, May 23, 2004 - 03:50 pm: Edit

nope, nothing yet, Khoa, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

By Khoa019 (Khoa019) on Sunday, May 23, 2004 - 04:21 pm: Edit

good luck!!! my bf doesnt want me to go to duke/cornell/or nyu so stanford is the only choice now . If i dont get in MIT we will be 5000 miles away and it will cost 600 bucks every month for flights

By Dinotopia (Dinotopia) on Sunday, May 23, 2004 - 07:28 pm: Edit

International students get e-mail decisions from Stanford. I got mine on Friday. I suppose it kinda goes along with the fact that asking for financial aid hurts the chances of an international applicant (which hardly makes sense anymore).

I will probably try again next year. I wouldn't mind at all going to a school like Amherst or Dartmouth (I'd really like to, in fact, even more so than to an Ivy in some ways); it's just hard to justify to my parents that it's worth the cost to go to a school that they haven't heard of before but which costs as much as an Ivy. Now that I think of it, I'll apply for a much larger contingent of schools next year, so I have a better chance of going somewhere; the money factor can be dealt with afterwards (and it would only be for 2 years then). Another lesson is to not make applications too large (more is not usually better unless you know exactly what you're doing). This'll be a test of patience but I could learn a lesson or two from Prospero.

By the way, Up40, did you get into Brown? How have your decisions gone, Noodleman?

I sincerely wish you success with Stanford, Up40, and the school(s) you're rooting for, Noodleman.

By Blah1111 (Blah1111) on Sunday, May 23, 2004 - 07:39 pm: Edit

Dartmouth College is part of the Ivy League; Stanford isn't.

By Up40love (Up40love) on Sunday, May 23, 2004 - 07:59 pm: Edit

Dinotopia:

When I first started considering schools, I researched books and internet for stellar English programs. Then I looked up faculty, sent them emails, and visited schools as well as some of the folks I emailed. I think I began with a list that looked like this:

Yale, Harvard, Stanford, Brown, Dartmouth, Penn, UChicago, NYU, Columbia, UNC Chapel-Hill, UVA, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Emory, Michigan, Wisconsin-Madison, Penn State, Amherst, WUSTL, Vassar, and Pomona.

Eventually, I whittled down the list based on locations and overall feelings to:

Yale, Harvard, Stanford, Brown, Penn, Columbia, Berkeley, LA, Emory, Mich, Wisc, WUSTL, and Pomona.

I know that visiting the schools may burden you financially, but go to the ones you really like and get a feel for the campus. Email professors. Talk to your specific adcom and build a relationship. These are the things I've learned in this process, and I'd love to see you attend a dream school.

When I finally started tackling applications, I found that I elimated many schools based on requesting my favorite professors to complete too many recs, along with successfully conquering the sea of essays before me. Then the list tapered to:

Yale, Brown, Emory, Tulane, and Wisconsin-Madison. Then Stanford snuck in there somehow, and that's where I've landed.

To make a long story short, start with a heavy list and whittle it down as you get to know each school. Maybe you'll find a diamond in the rough.

Because I would much delight in you being successful, here are suggested "fits" that you might want to consider in your major as well as schools which encourage exploring the spectrum of other disciplines:

Yale, Harvard, Brown, Stanford, Berkeley, LA, Amherst, Vassar, Columbia, UChicago, Northwestern, Dartmouth, Reed, Pomona, and Penn.

Good luck! I'll update you with my Stanford decision whenever I receive it.

By Treyy685 (Treyy685) on Sunday, May 23, 2004 - 08:13 pm: Edit

khoa--sorry, but your boyfriend cannot control which school you go to. one of the silliest things is to give up any sort of academic opportunity for your boyfriend. too many people make that mistake. if you don't like duke, cornell, or nyu, then it's fine it you don't consider them. but how you said it, "my bf doesnt want me to go to duke/cornell/or nyu so stanford is the only choice now," you make it sound like you're just letting him decide for you. sorry if this is not the case, but i just wanted to tell you to be sure that you are making the decision for yourself. those three are great schools....why not consider them? (stanford is too of course)

By Noodleman (Noodleman) on Sunday, May 23, 2004 - 08:39 pm: Edit

Hi, Dinotopia! Accepted all 3, going to Cornell...

By Up40love (Up40love) on Sunday, May 23, 2004 - 08:51 pm: Edit

Dinotopia,

My decision from Brown.

By Khoa019 (Khoa019) on Sunday, May 23, 2004 - 08:54 pm: Edit

well it's sort of complicated. he helped me alot /w my apps so i asked him for advice in picking the school. he discussed /w his friends who are alumni of those and so far people told him it's best to go to stanford for undergrad level. I'm the one who doesnt know where to go even though stanford is my dream school ( i didnt think about harvard/yale and other in the first place until he brought up the idea of safeties/matches/ reaches). however, i cant just tell him I wanted to go to stanford cuz i think it sounds so selfish. when i was sick and almost got deported. he was there for me and now i got in a great school and i cant just leave him alone. it's just the basic rule of being a human being. and plus, he wants me to go to stanford because he knows i love it. thats;why it;s so hard for me to decide.

By Khoa019 (Khoa019) on Sunday, May 23, 2004 - 09:02 pm: Edit

also i'm pretty much settled down in ca. I cant stand college life /w shared bathrooms and no kitchen apts. it would be hard if i go to duke/cornell/ nyu and start looking for a place again so stanford is still the best choice.

By Noodleman (Noodleman) on Monday, May 24, 2004 - 08:16 am: Edit

Good for you, Khoa! Enjoy Stanford and enjoy your BF. I hope he knows what a good catch you are!

By Khoa019 (Khoa019) on Monday, May 24, 2004 - 10:30 am: Edit

thanks... I think we've been together long enough ( 14 months) for him to know. i'm still praying for MIT. someone toldme they took 5 out of 322 last year. it was insane. but yeah who knows maybe i'm the lucky one :P

By Arc (Arc) on Monday, May 24, 2004 - 11:25 am: Edit

khoa019...hahaha, who do you pray to?

By Variance173 (Variance173) on Monday, May 24, 2004 - 12:35 pm: Edit

khoa19...what schools have you gained acceptance to? and at what schools were you rejected/waitlisted?
thanks.

By Hulala (Hulala) on Monday, May 24, 2004 - 02:58 pm: Edit

Khoa when is Mit going to mail their decisions?

By Wackipaki (Wackipaki) on Monday, May 24, 2004 - 03:20 pm: Edit

anyone has any idea when George Washington is mailing their transfer notifications?

By Nenita1985 (Nenita1985) on Monday, May 24, 2004 - 06:24 pm: Edit

Wackipaki: I think they are going to mail it this week. I'm also going nuts since I haven't heard from GWU, as well as my other schools yet.

Khoa019: Awwwww...you and your bf are so cute! Good luck with everything!

By Sargles (Sargles) on Monday, May 24, 2004 - 09:35 pm: Edit

Hey

GW has started to mail out decisions (I got mine friday).

Good Luck!! The admission packet is one of the nicest I've seen for transfers

By Nenita1985 (Nenita1985) on Monday, May 24, 2004 - 09:47 pm: Edit

Which school did you apply to Sargles? And when did you submit your application? I submitted mine in mid March and they told me that they are still processing my application.

By Khoa019 (Khoa019) on Monday, May 24, 2004 - 10:08 pm: Edit

arc: i'm praying to virgin mary


variance:
i got in duke, cornell, nyu, and stanford
rejected by harvard, yale
waiting for hopkins, mit

hulala :
I dont know when Mit will mail their decisions. i called them 10 times this morning and noone answred the call

nenita: thank you

anyone heard from stanford. so far people i know all got rejected

By Variance173 (Variance173) on Monday, May 24, 2004 - 10:22 pm: Edit

khoa...how many years of community college have you completed? will you be tranferring to a new college as a sophomore or as a junior? and what were your college and high school GPAs?

if you don't mind, i was also curious to know why you didn't apply to schools like stanford, duke, cornell, yale, harvard, jhu, and mit as a high school senior. in other words, why did you prefer to attend a community college first instead of just trying to gain freshman admission to the schools to which you applied as a transfer?

thanks...

By Khoa019 (Khoa019) on Monday, May 24, 2004 - 10:48 pm: Edit

i've been at my school for 2 years but i guess i'll lose 1 yr for this whole transferring thing.
my collge gpa is 4.0. highschool 9.3/10 (in my country anything above 8.0 is considered an A and 9.0+ is an A+)
yes i know it was stupid that i didnt apply for those schools when i was a highschool senior. but i had reasons no to do so
+ i was late for the deadline. Didnt even think about it until late may ( which i told those schools in my apps)
+ my english was bad and i wasnt prepared for SAT ( i got 1130 when last year (800 math and 330 verbal). i studied kaplan this summer and i gained 290 points on verbal)
+I was unfamiliar w/ this whole us college scene.
I think i would have much better chance as a freshman at harvard and yale if i was equipped like this 2 years ago
u cna check my stats at prstats. com khoa019... or email me for other questions. i have to go for dinner /w my bf now .. last question... did u apply to any schools and did u get in any?

By Noodleman (Noodleman) on Wednesday, May 26, 2004 - 02:53 pm: Edit

Up40Love: Where are you? What happened with Stanford?

(Inqiring noodlemen want to know.)

By Chunsah (Chunsah) on Wednesday, May 26, 2004 - 05:08 pm: Edit

i finished community college in ca (de anza) in 1 year. deciding between cornell or berkeley. want to do finance/econ on wall street im thinking more of cornell now.

By Depressedkid (Depressedkid) on Thursday, May 27, 2004 - 01:45 pm: Edit

hello everyone, i have some questions about transfer admissions, would you please kindly answer if you could.

Im a graduating high school senior and I only got into safety college(SUNY school), rejected at all other schools(expected). I came to U.S three years ago and i hardly got to know the system here in U.S, didn't know the SATs and didnt take it utill the end of my junior year, i don't really want to blame my couselor for this because this really is a learning experience for me, but I know i want to go to a better school and i know have the ablilities and am willing to work hard for it. My questions are what are some qualities transfer adcoms are looking for? I know college grade is defintely a major factor, but are ecs seen as hard as in freshman admissions? Also does anyone have any recommendations for schools that have good engineering programs? If im going for transfer, can I apply after my first year? When do I usually start on the application? Is there any point of retaking SATs since mine is too low? Im fairly confident if i really study for it this summer(mainly memorizing vocabs, no problem with math) I would get a better score, but then again SATs are changing, is that going to affect?

Some of my high school stats
class rank is 10% - when i first came here i was put to low lvl classes (got As), and my school ranks using weighted gpa
TOEFL CBT 260
SAT ~1200
SAT IIs physics math IIC 690 710 (could be higher if i studied more)
Taken AP Calc AB(4), AP Physics B(4), AP English lang., taking AP Physics C exam with no class
overall i got almost all As with a few Bs except a few really hard calc classes(calc 2-3) i took in college while in high school

Sorry if i have too many questions, but i really dont wanna my high school experience to happen to me again. Thanks a lot if anyone(especially those who have had experience) could give me any advice!

By Hulala (Hulala) on Thursday, May 27, 2004 - 02:25 pm: Edit

Depressedkid,

Qualities like Good coolege grades and GPA of above 3.5,if possible above 3.7 will make a good impresssion.

They also look at your toefl and SAT scores.You have time and you can improve them.For sat vocabulary read kaplan. Also I will advise you to retake SAT-IIs and get 750+.

Ecs some colleges especially elite colleges like stanford,cornell need them but good engineering schools like Umich or UIUC won't need that good ecs.

You will surely need some recommandations so keep contact with atleast 2-3 professors.

You can apply after your first year to some colleges but some of them may also consider you as freshman.

If you want to apply after freshman start now for preparing for SATS(esp vocab) as some universities like UC berkeley have deadlines in december and many have deadlines in march.They need you complete your tests by january.For application you can start before two months of deadline.But in rolling admission type apply ASAP.

Good engineering schools

Extremely competitive regarding transfer admission

Mit
Stanford
Caltech
Cornell

Competetive

Berkeley
UIUC
Umich
Purdue
Texas Austin


You can also consider core engineering schools like Rose Hulman,georgia institute of Technology and Cooper Union if you are strongly interested in engineering.

By the way which SUNY are you in?

By Depressedkid (Depressedkid) on Thursday, May 27, 2004 - 04:09 pm: Edit

Hulala,
Thanks for your reply, Im in at Stony Brook. Which SAT IIs are usually required? I suppose it's usually writing and science(for me its mathIIC and physics then?) Is it necessary or should i rather say are SAT and SAT II scores taken into that much of consideration? Because I've heard that SATs really isnt as important in freshman adminsion than in transfer process. Can you elaborate on that? Also would the new sat be so much different than the old one to prepare for? If i am going to take it, should i start prep now and take it once available in the fall?
What kind of ecs are they usually looking for? In my understanding, ecs in transfer process wouldnt be evaluated as much as in freshman adminsions just simply because it's in college, it makes sense to me that what you wanna do and how well you are at it should be placed on top of everything else. Thanks again for your help and please excuse my long posts!

By Up40love (Up40love) on Thursday, May 27, 2004 - 05:35 pm: Edit

When I have time, I will scan the rejection letter I received from Stanford.

I'm considering taking a year off. What do you guys think?

Depressedkid:

As far as I'm concerned, a lot more goes into the transfer process, because schools want to know why you've specifically chosen them and in what specific ways the schools can help you achieve your goals while simultaneously having you contribute favorably to the student body.

That said, top Engineering programs want to see a rigorous courseload. This tells them that you're truly exhausting available resources which illustrate a necessity to transfer. You'll want to develop close ties to two or three professors so that they may write you stellar, anecdotal recommendations. You'll also have to try and maintain a 3.5-4.0 GPA.

Some people suggest not retaking SATs. However, when I contacted schools about putting myself at an advantage, you'll want to do everything possible to make yourself competitive since transfer admissions to most of these schools are painfully small. Retaking yours SAT and gaining 100-200 points may seem pointless, but it's one less thing to worry about when gauging your profile against other applicants.

SATs will not change until the January test date. I'd suggest taking the next one in October (I think it's October) so that all of those surface credentials are handled prior to the new year.

However, at Stony Brook, don't limit yourself to taking only Engineering-related courses. Some schools like Stanford prefer that you build a solid-foundation of courses outside the E discipline to illustrate well-roundedness. Holistic admissions at schools like Stanford, UIUC, and Berkeley will weigh factors outside of your major curriculum.

Also, Berkeley does not accept transfers with less than 60 credit hours, so you should consider that as well.

Get on the mailing lists now of about 10 colleges. If you have the funds, visit them and see which ones you'd really like to attend and whittle down the number of applications you submit.

Oh yes, I almost forgot: You should work on writing essays beyond the mediocre level.

As far as ECs, participating in activities shows that you're a person capable of juggling multiple duties. You can get straight As, but not having ECs shows adcoms that you're probably an isolated bookwork who seldom seeks social delight. Participate in something and show some leadership skills. Join an Engineering group or something. Schools will want to see how you'll positively impact the community and prove to be an asset.

By Markm2004 (Markm2004) on Thursday, May 27, 2004 - 05:40 pm: Edit

wow so many long entries

By Depressedkid (Depressedkid) on Thursday, May 27, 2004 - 07:07 pm: Edit

Thanks a lot for your help, Up40love
BTW, Northwestern is a great school, just curious why would you consider to take a year off?

By Collegedadz (Collegedadz) on Friday, May 28, 2004 - 02:07 pm: Edit

Noodleman,

Like you, I'm a nontraditional student (married but no kids). I was rejected from 2/4 of my schools (I'll be at Penn this fall).

Alan, that sucks man. I was also rejected from my top choice. Did you hear from Emory/WUSTL?

My only tips for tranfer kids...try and transfer to schools that traditionally take a lot of transfers. I lucked out with Penn, but I could have easily been rejected across the board (LACs apparently don't like transfers much...must have to do with their tiny size and high retention rates). Make sure you have a high GPA and stats comparable to successful freshmen admits. This is apparently very important, as most/all of the Penn admits I know had 1370+ SATs and 3.6+ GPA from a top 50 school (most from a top 25).

By Noodleman (Noodleman) on Friday, May 28, 2004 - 02:40 pm: Edit

Collegedadz: Congratulations! That's awesome! Have a ball at Penn (within reason, of course, you married man, you!)

By Mgp (Mgp) on Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 02:36 pm: Edit

I am planning to apply for transfer admission into the fall '05 school year. I will be attending DePaul University for my first year-- and will hopefully maintain a high GPA. My high school GPA is so-so, in the 3.4-5 range. I hated high school and find that I have a hard time caring about my grades when I have no interest in the work I am doing. I've done a lot of extra stuff over the summers, I interned at the National Institute of Health, volunteered, worked, took classes at UChicago, etc. My ACT is 28, and my SAT is 1190. My intended major is sociology/social work.

Would it mean anything to the schools I want to look into transfering to if I took my ACT/SAT again? I know I can do better, especially in the math sections (my weak area). Or will it be a waste of money and time?

BTW. I am looking at the following schools for transfer:


-U Chicago ( I applied for my freshman year and was rejected. This is my first choice)
-Northwestern (Also applied and was rejected)
-Sarah Lawrence
-NYU (Applied to School of Social Work, and was accepted. Decided not to attend for family reasons)
-Brown =)
-Barnard
-Bennington

So, do I have a chance?

By Ticklemepink (Ticklemepink) on Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 07:58 pm: Edit

Mgp... I've heard that it's not a great idea to re-apply to the same universities you were rejected from exactly one year later. You want to be forgotten completely so I dunno, they will totally view you as a new transfer applicant. I'm trying to decide one or two years of wait myself too. Re-taking SATs/ACT can't hurt!

By Up40love (Up40love) on Friday, June 04, 2004 - 02:17 am: Edit

Tickleme:

I know of many students who were rejected at their colleges as potential freshmen but were admitted as rising sophomore transfers.

Mgp:
DePaul, eh?

Anyhow, it would definitely not hurt to retake your boards and score higher. Increasing your numbers can only help you. You'd really have to make sure to maintain an A- average at DePaul to make yourself a competitive applicant. UChicago likes people dedicated to consuming knowledge, so your best bet is to illustrate how you're exhausting DePaul's resources which necessitates a transfer to a much much much much more academically superior institution.

By Noodleman (Noodleman) on Friday, June 04, 2004 - 08:52 am: Edit

Tickleme:

Unless you were initially rejected for being found passed out drunk and naked in front of admissions (or some such thing), I'd think an adcomm would be rather pleased to see how impassioned you are to matriculate.

Chances are, they won't remember you at all anyway. None of us are as important as we think we are. The center of the universe is elsewhere, grasshopper!

By Ticklemepink (Ticklemepink) on Friday, June 04, 2004 - 01:27 pm: Edit

But I heard the other side of the argument that if they see you apply again, doesn't it mean that you don't accept their rejection?

By Noodleman (Noodleman) on Friday, June 04, 2004 - 01:59 pm: Edit

I'd think that would be a good thing. Perseverance, steadfastness, focus, willingness to try again, self-improvement, all that sort of guff.

What sayest thou, up40?

By Up40love (Up40love) on Friday, June 04, 2004 - 03:26 pm: Edit

I know someone who applied to Northwestern as a transfer applicant last year and was denied.

Going over his materials this year, I've seen that he's emailed his adcom and made himself appear very interested in the university. From the responses from the adcom, I can see that he's encouraging a reapplication. He's helping my friend make his application stronger, emphasizing how he needs to make himself stand out in a really strong crowd.

Plus, I'm sure you're winning points by letting that school know that you're really determined to attend, that it really appeals to your keen sense of knowing what you want from an institution. That drive really helps rather than hurts an applicant.

By Khoa019 (Khoa019) on Friday, June 04, 2004 - 04:57 pm: Edit

up40love so where r u going next year?

By Collegedadz (Collegedadz) on Saturday, June 05, 2004 - 02:07 pm: Edit

Khoa, you get into JHU? I called and they said I was denied, even though I've already settled on Penn, yet I've received nothing in the mail.

By Khoa019 (Khoa019) on Saturday, June 05, 2004 - 03:26 pm: Edit

sorry to hear that. yeah i got in jhu bme but will go to stanford. i'm not sure if i want to risk my future with bme

By Dinotopia (Dinotopia) on Monday, June 07, 2004 - 01:33 am: Edit

Up40love, taking a year off might not that bad of an idea; Harvard says they've taken people the second time they applied after they took time off and had a unique experience that was valuable to them as a student and to the college for having a student w/ such a background. It might work out for the better in every which way. I'm thinking about it myself if transferring doesn't work out again for a second time next year. Like I said before, I think I will do things differently that will make me stand out better; the biggest way is to adjust the focus of my essays.

If you apply again to a college, I don't think you have anything to lose except 75$, and that being said, if you don't think you'd ever be satisfied unless you applied again, then apply again. I know there's some kind of trepidation, and they keep your file from last year, so they can refer back to what you sent them before, but surely they don't *remember* you offhand in most cases, and if you do things better the second time around, are much improved in many ways, it could maybe be beneficial to have applied before, having context/a reference point for how you've improved.

I like how Northstarmom quoted Martin Luther King Jr. as having said that the true test of a man is in times of difficulty and challenge, and dealing with rejections is definitely one of those times, especially when you're rejected across the board and you realise you have to dig in, for better or for worse. It could make a victory next year all the more sweeter, or it could later highlight why transferring wouldn't have made a difference to my future anyways. It's been very depressing, stressful at times. When I picked up those envelopes, a scant sheet of paper in them, I could feel all that hope, energy just bleeding out in bright, red gushes, and I just couldn't get my head around it, not because I thought there was no way I could be rejected, but because I really hoped it wouldn't happen, and thought that something good would happen this time. Rejection after rejection, one shot after another that carved away whatever hope I had.

But that's challenge, and maybe I'm sitting in the bottom of a crater, but the landscape outside's changed too.

I really feel happy for you, Khoa019 that you got into Stanford; I can only imagine how it feels, but I know it's great. You may be a little annoyed with some of the logistics of it, but you're on the good side of the fence, and the majority of us who tried are over here, undaunted but still shaken. I hope you enjoy your time there at Stanford!

By Khoa019 (Khoa019) on Monday, June 07, 2004 - 02:33 am: Edit

thank you dino. Wish you all the best in your future.

By Danqa (Danqa) on Tuesday, June 08, 2004 - 02:21 am: Edit

Wow... I just found out that I was accepted to Yale off of their transfer waitlist!

By Sarahw (Sarahw) on Tuesday, June 08, 2004 - 03:10 am: Edit

congrats danga!

what were your stats like? are you accepting their offer?

By Up40love (Up40love) on Wednesday, June 09, 2004 - 04:20 pm: Edit

I'm really ready to give up on this entire process.

from University of Wisconsin-Madison:

Dear Allen:

We have completed evaluating your application, and despite your strong academic credentials we are unable to offer you a place in the entering class for the following reason(s):

Foreign Language requirement not fulfilled.

If you meet the expected guidelines before the Spring semester, we invite you make application again. Thank you for your interest in the University.

I thorougly checked each school's requirements before applying. Could it be that I overlooked this? I didn't take a language SAT II, nor have I taken a language in college.

Could I have been rejected because I planned on taking language after transferring? Holy. Moley.

By Demingy (Demingy) on Wednesday, June 09, 2004 - 05:01 pm: Edit

Wow, I have to admit that is the first time I've heard that. I guess I should rethink some of my plans re: foreign language (I'd planned on taking it after transferring as well).

You should probably contact them if it wasn't listed in their requirements. That just seems wrong.

By Avs21 (Avs21) on Thursday, June 10, 2004 - 01:04 am: Edit

Up40love,
Did you ever finish off your application for Tulane?

By Up40love (Up40love) on Saturday, June 12, 2004 - 02:59 pm: Edit

Well, I've about run out of steam now that the admissions procedures for this year are closing. Thanks to those of you who supported my endeavors this year! I haven't yet heard from Tulane, though.

I'm going to take the year off and reapply to a longer list of schools early next year. In the meantime, I'll concentrate on playing tennis and perhaps travel abroad. The exhaustive list, which will probably change every couple of days or so, includes:

Brown, Columbia, Dartmouth, Grinnell, Harvard, Pomona, Rice, Stanford, UC-Berkeley, UCLA, UMich-Ann Arbor, UPenn, Vassar, and Yale.

I've already started collecting essay prompts! Good luck to those of you who have been admitted to your dream schools this year!