4-year private to CC to 4-year private again

I transferred from a 4-year private univ to my local CC in California to transfer to a UC. But I’m thinking about also applying to private schools like USC, Cornell, Penn, or Columbia. Do these schools look down on the fact that I’m applying from a CC? How are CC students evaluated in comparison to other transfer students from 4-year schools? Thanks.

These are very selective schools which take few transfers. You have a checkered academic history, so unless you have some stellar accomplishment to hang your hat on, you’re unlikely to get into schools the caliber of USC, Cornell, Penn or Columbia. It’s not so much that you’re applying from a CC… but that it’d be your second transfer and third school in, what? three, four years?

Even with stellar academic stats, schools like Cornell, Penn, and Columbia are essentially a lottery for everybody.

While I don’t quite know the full extent of your academic standing (if you enlighten us with your CC GPA and whatnot, we might be able to give better advice), you should consider applying to all the UC’s you’re interested in, as well as applying broadly.

CC students and students from a 4 year institution are not treated differently (except for schools who hold specific preference over regional / state CC’s, like UC’s).