Transfer from 40's Forum

[tebowtime23]

Yale is a complete mystery. Odds are that you won't get in from a school in the 40s. Would need to be #1 or #2 in your class and have a really strong resume to stand a strong chance.

I can confirm - #1 in my class at a mid-30s school (w/ 4.0 GPA) and didn't get into Yale.
I did get into Harvard, and I am there now.
My transcript from my 1L school got lost in the mail for Stanford, so no response from them.
Got into Chicago (regular decision); got rejected from Penn; got into Michigan. I didn't apply to any other schools.

As far as grass not always being greener, there is something to that, at least immediately. It was a bit of a rough transition, the job hunt took me longer than expected, etc. But I think longterm it's definitely the right decision, especially if you find yourself doing well in your new school (which thankfully has been the case for me.) But even if you don't end up being all that special in your new school, if you transfer high enough, you won't need to be special, since there's more margin for error at the top.

Re: letters of recommendation, my recommenders were great, even though I didn't decide to apply for a transfer until 2 days before the deadline for a few schools. And they've continued to support me with clerkship letters, etc. YMMV, but it can work out well (though I would definitely give them more than 2 days to write the letter.)

Hope this helps! Good luck!

Just noticed that you got into Harvard (congrats!!) but rejected by Penn. Did you have strong Boston ties or was Penn the outlier? I only ask because I'm thinking of applying to transfer to Penn, but am worried that if they rejected someone who was qualified for Harvard, my chances may be slimmer than I thought!

[Goldie]

Yale is a complete mystery. Odds are that you won't get in from a school in the 40s. Would need to be #1 or #2 in your class and have a really strong resume to stand a strong chance.

I can confirm - #1 in my class at a mid-30s school (w/ 4.0 GPA) and didn't get into Yale.
I did get into Harvard, and I am there now.
My transcript from my 1L school got lost in the mail for Stanford, so no response from them.
Got into Chicago (regular decision); got rejected from Penn; got into Michigan. I didn't apply to any other schools.

As far as grass not always being greener, there is something to that, at least immediately. It was a bit of a rough transition, the job hunt took me longer than expected, etc. But I think longterm it's definitely the right decision, especially if you find yourself doing well in your new school (which thankfully has been the case for me.) But even if you don't end up being all that special in your new school, if you transfer high enough, you won't need to be special, since there's more margin for error at the top.

Re: letters of recommendation, my recommenders were great, even though I didn't decide to apply for a transfer until 2 days before the deadline for a few schools. And they've continued to support me with clerkship letters, etc. YMMV, but it can work out well (though I would definitely give them more than 2 days to write the letter.)

Hope this helps! Good luck!

Just noticed that you got into Harvard (congrats!!) but rejected by Penn. Did you have strong Boston ties or was Penn the outlier? I only ask because I'm thinking of applying to transfer to Penn, but am worried that if they rejected someone who was qualified for Harvard, my chances may be slimmer than I thought!

Penn was apparently an outlier. I had no ties to any of the schools I applied to, but I got into 2 schools better than Penn and one just a few spots lower than Penn. I wouldn't discourage you from applying, but I do get the sense that Penn might be pretty picky about who they let in.