<p>I'm 17 years old, graduated high school two years early to help with parents financially. </p>
<p>I'm not sure whether or not that's bad on my apps.
I am currently a sophomore at a community college hoping to transfer to a top university. </p>
<p>I graduated two years early from high school (left after my sophomore year) due to financial reasons (i had to help my parents out because they're getting older- and in the long run this would be the smarter financial decision). </p>
<p>Anyways, here are my stats:
ACT Composite: 35
College GPA: 4.0
High School GPA: 3.9 </p>
<p>major of interest: anthropology
EC:
Vice-president anthropology club
-internship at non-profit organization dealing with middle eastern/north african culture
-creator and head of music teaching program at a non-profit organization that caters to children from low-income areas suffering from mental disorders
-creator and head of cultural enrichment program at the same place listed previously
-tutor for reading at low-income school
-soprano student at music conservatory for 3 years
-presented&won anthropology symposium at school (presented on original research on anthropological topic
-i work at a local pharmacy as a clerk for the past two years
-been helping out at my dad's small business for the last four years
-created a youth council that is active in local govt.
-research on cancer cells (tested various pharmaceutical drugs)</p>
<p>I’m not too familiar with chancing transfer students, but you are definitely a strong candidate. Your stats are solid, and you ECs are quite impressive. </p>
<p>Top universities (like the ones you listed) can be very unpredicatble, so I would suggest also applying to some match/safety schools if you aren’t planning to already.</p>
<p>I don’t know how the dropping out of high school/community college thing will look to colleges. Might look really impressive or they may just consider you as a regular transfer candidate. Your scores are extremely good and you have nice, diverse ECs (your passion for anthropology shows). I’m not sure what kind of “top” schools you are targeting but I say that you have a good chance at them.</p>
<p>Just reading through your profile, you seem like an awesome person. I don’t know much about transfers, but here are some tips:
-Explain why you didn’t apply initially and instead decided to go to CC. This is probably an interesting story and will make you stand out.</p>
<p>-I don’t see a list of colleges, but I’m assuming top as in ivy league. As you could probably guess, a lot of the ivy-league fanatics who didn’t make it in during high school try again as transfers. You need to make sure the admission officers know that the prestige is not one of the main reasons you want to go there. An easy way I could see you getting the point across is speaking about the research you have done, the research ideas you have, and how your current situation doesn’t provide you with enough resources to conduct research. You could also find research that is going on at the institution and mention those, which shows interest.</p>
<p>-Try to contact an admission officer, even if it is initially just for a simple question. Ask the admission office to put you in touch with someone in the research labs or something, and then report back later telling them how well it went and why you are so interested. Just an opportunity to spark some conversation.</p>
<p>Sorry I wasn’t much help, but your ECs clearly have focus and your grades/scores are high enough. Best of luck!</p>
<p>You look pretty darn good for the transfer. I agree with wallrus75 on making your essays really pop by talking about why you did not go to a top school originally. Your ECs sound great and I think any school you apply to will be happy to have you.</p>
