Vanderbilt is a dream school and a dynamic school. They offer a strong education in a super fun city, Nashville, with tons of opportunities for personal growth and career development long before your graduation date. It’s not surprising, then, that there is a lot of demand for transferring to Vanderbilt. Students get a fun college experience and a prestige college experience all in one, and that’s a strong pitch. 

If you are looking for a change of college and are pondering a switch to the University of Chicago, you know what you are missing and what you want instead. UChicago is specific. It’s a hard school that expects a lot of students and offers a lot to match. Plus, they love transfers.

The Stanford transfer acceptance rate hovers between 1% and 2% most years. Even when it spikes, it’s still under 5%. As a result, it’s statistically extremely unlikely that even a highly qualified applicant will get into Stanford through the transfer admissions path. To be fair, though, it’s just as hard to get in as a first-year, so no matter what you’re rolling the dice.

Princeton is an iconic university, most often associated with exceptional academics in a stunning environment that pushes students to expand beyond perceived intellectual limits. Students who seek to transfer to Princeton often do so because whatever college they are currently at isn’t, they feel, pushing them as far as they can go.

The University of Chicago, or UChicago, is a private research university located in, get this, Chicago, Illinois. UChicago is ~quirky~, famously very hard, and attracts a specific type of student. If you’re that kind of student, you know it, and you probably really, really like UChicago, which of course is why you’re here.

If you are a student who loves the commercials more than that tv show, who relishes a good billboard campaign or who finds joy in a clever social media strategy, you may be looking towards a marketing major come college. Some of the best colleges in the country have exceptional marketing programs, including the University of Pennsylvania, Northwestern, the University of Michigan, the University of Texas at Austin, and UC Berkeley, just to name a few. But getting into these schools requires more than a strong transcript and a love for snappy marketing language.  

High school juniors interested in economics tend to have fallen in love with the subject through one of a few avenues. Either they had a teacher who emphasized economics or who taught an elective course fully focused on economics, and it was a fabulous class, or they are fascinated by the world of business and fell in love with economics through the lens of national or global markets. Possibly, it was both — a fantastic teacher and a penchant for following what’s happening in the markets and how policy and current events impact the economic landscape. And now you are a junior passionate about economics and only months away from writing your college applications. So, what do you do to stand out?

Sophomores are in a weird middle of their high school experience. Nothing all that big is happening yet towards college outcomes. It’s not time for most students to take the SAT or ACT. You aren’t in a leadership role yet for most of your activities, as that will come junior or senior year. Your grades are great, but you also haven’t been pushed to your limit yet with the most advanced courses on offer at your high school. At the same time, everything is building towards junior year and senior fall. Nothing that a sophomore does is inconsequential. Instead, it is a building block — and that includes college visits.  

Carnegie Mellon University, sometimes just called Carnegie Mellon or CMU, is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The school has many great programs, but it is mainly known for its STEM majors, including its engineering programs through its College of Engineering. CMU is competitive to get into. Last year, their acceptance rate was just around 11%. However, if you are applying to popular programs like those offered by the engineering school, that number can be even smaller. If you are serious about CMU, you need to be an elite candidate, and there are a couple of steps you need to take to set yourself up for success.