I’d like to try transferring into a better college—is it worth retaking the SAT and/or ACT?

I’ll be downvoted for saying this, but if you got a 720/28 in math — even without studying — you really oughta ask yourself whether MIT, Cal Tech, Berkeley, and Stanford from your list for CS.

With MIT (and CalTech before going test blind) you’re talking about schools where a 780/35 is the BOTTOM 25th percentile. >99% of MIT students who submitted an ACT score had a 30 or better on Math. It’s fair to assume that Berkeley and Stanford CS majors are in that same realm. We’re talking about the types of kids who win international math olympiads and do multi variable calculus in their head.

Test scores notwithstanding, these schools are far harder to get into as transfers than first year students.

  • Cal Tech enrolled FOUR transfer students last year (and is test blind anyway)
  • MIT enrolled 20 transfer students; they specifically look mostly for community college, ex-military, and other non-traditional students
  • Berkeley only takes junior transfers; mostly from California community colleges; UC’s are test blind anyway
  • Stanford had 50 transfers last year; I’d wager half of those were D1 athletics transfers

I’m not saying this to be mean; I’m just suggesting that you should undertamd what the level of competition is for spots at these schools.

/r/ApplyingToCollege Thread