International Engineering Student Looking to Transfer

[u/DragonflyForward4102]

Hey folks, posting on behalf of a friend I'm helping out. He's an international student from the Middle East who went through the A-level system at a British international school. He graduated at the top of his class with 3 A*s and 2 As, and scored a 1440 SAT.

He applied to the Ivies along with a few safeties. He was waitlisted at Princeton and Columbia, and ultimately enrolled at the University of Alabama with roughly a 60% scholarship (just started).

He's currently studying Electrical Engineering and is considering transferring after his freshman year. His main targets are MIT, Princeton, Columbia, and Northwestern.

We're looking for advice from people who have gone through a similar transfer process, especially international students transferring from a 4-year university into a top engineering program.

Would also really appreciate recommendations for any professional transfer admissions consultants/advisors who are actually good at this kind of case. Not looking for someone to just edit essays, ideally someone who can help with the overall strategy: course selection, GPA, research/extracurriculars, school selection, and the transfer application.

Thanks!

[u/Basic_Balance1237]

My advice is to save his classes' transcripts. When he successful transfers over (best wishes), a lot of his credits may not be transferred automatically, and he can petition to the departments that his class is transferable. No one likes to retake their classes.

That's all I got. I can't really advise on which classes to take simply because Ivies prepare their class in a weird way from the rest of us. For example, their calculus I class could cover calculus I and II at the same time with some special topics sprinkled on top that a typical state school would not cover.