I am a 23 year old married student with a child I gave birth to via an emergency c-section. I started college just 4 months after giving birth, and have a 4.0 since starting but I still feel like my application and life is radically uninteresting. I don’t play any sports, although I have been involved in a few research conferences (as a presenter) in the last year and have maintained club membership in a club relevant to my career goals. Beyond that, I have volunteered with three different organizations consistently. I guess when I am living day to day in my own shoes, it just seems so normal and like I won’t stand out. I am applying to transfer to my dream school of Stanford from a Community College in California and want to know what my chances are.
Schools I am applying to for transfer:
UCLA
UCSB
UC Davis
UC San Diego
SDSU
Yale
Cornell
Stanford
UMich
UNC Chapel Hill
Columbia
NYU
USC
Stats:
Major: Anthropology
GPA: 4.0GPA (One F, retaken for and received and A)
Courses: I am taking 18 units this semester, and have completed 39 units so far. 15 Honors units completed as well.
Extracurricular: Volunteer for child sexual violence victim support, Volunteer at public library, Accounting Society Gold Member, Certificate of Completion for three year ministry school (church leadership and theology emphasis), Community Outreach Intern at local church for one year, Student Presenter at research conference at Stanford and UC-Berkeley, Community Service trips to Eastern Europe poverty stricken communities, Fundraiser for international organization, Employed at Amazon, Cabin Leader/Staff at youth summer camp
The UCs have specific credit requirements for transfers - check their websites but you may not be able to transfer for two years.
NYU would be a tough place for a young family to move to given its exorbitant housing costs. In your situation I would focus on schools you know offer good married students’ housing and daycare options.
The Ivies take very, very few transfer students (some don’t at all) so your chances for any of them aren’t terribly good.
As long as you continue to perform well, you have a great shot of getting into UCs. So, it’s ok to shoot high for other colleges. The top schools tend to favor nontraditional, community college transfers (as @ucbalumnus has said above). Good luck!
The others gave great advice specific to your situation as a California resident at a CCC! I’d second what @ucbalumnus said in that while Stanford is a reach for everyone who applies, they certainly have a tradition of admitting academically excellent transfer students with nontraditional backgrounds. You certainly fit the bill I’d certainly encourage you to apply to reach schools along with a good amount of matches amongst the UC’s.
From personal experience, I would encourage you to apply after obtaining your AA or achieving an equivalent amount of college credits (60 credits, in most cases.).
Stanford and Ivies are probably not realistic. Even with a transfer, they are probably looking for almost all As in almost all AP classes and very high standardized test scores, including subject tests, in high school. Then they want really high grades at a top 30 or so college.
However, I would think you would have a good shot at UCLA and other UCs. That is what I would recommend focusing on.
I’d certainly encourage you to apply to reach schools along with a good amount of matches amongst the UC’s.