I chose community college as a cost savings and I am now entering my 4th semester (sophmore year). I am admitted to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for engineering but would like to have other options for schools. I work part-time during a full class load every semester, I am an Eagle Scout, I played for the varisty soccer team for my college, and I have already had a paid engineering internship. Currently, I have a 3.93/4.0 GPA (only received 1 B) from the following classes:
-Introduction to Engineering
-Engineering Mechanics/Statics
-Engineering Mechanics of Solids
-Engineering Dynamics
-Chemistry 121
-Calculus 2
-Calculus 3
-Differential Equations
-Physics mechanics
-Physics Electricity/magnetism
-Physics thermodynamics
-Computer Science (1st level)
-Microeconomics
-English 101
-English 102
-Anthropology 101
-Humanities 105
-Humanities 102
I was also chosen as the #1 student in STEM related classes at my community college.
I am looking to apply to the following schools for Mechanical Engineering:
Stanford, Notre Dame, Rice, California-Berkeley, Northwester, Georgia Tech, UCLA, and Texas-Austin.
Even though I have excelled very well at my community college, it is still a community college and I do not know what to expect for transfer applications. What do you think are my chances for getting accepted as a transfer student to the schools listed above?
Transfers get very little funding, if any.
At the state publics, you will have to foot the bill.
The UCs don’t offer ANY financial aid to non residents, so it will cost $60k per year.
At UT, priority admission goes to instate residents.
At Stanford, you have to hope that someone drops out to have a seat for you.
I know transfers do not get much aid at all. Currently, I am more concerned with getting accepted than the cost issue. Do you think my credentials are good enough for the schools I listed or is it not worth the time to apply to some of them?
That’s your call. I can’t make that recommendation to you.
If you were to get in to some of these schools, how would you pay? What good would it do you to get admitted if you cant afford to pay? Loans? You are only eligible for $7500 per year, on your own, through the federal loan program.
In California, they are capping out of state, nonresident admittances. Priority admission for transfers goes to California community college students.
I think the public colleges will be more difficult than the privates, because their obligation is to instate residents. Stanford is reach for everyone.
Actually, many transfer-friendly publics offer the same level of financial aid for transfers as frosh.
However, this usually means no financial aid for out-of-state students, even though in-state students may get significant financial aid whether they are transfers or frosh.
Since you probably have 2 years of your college debt free, you might as well go for the big tamale! Nortre Dame has tons of financial aid need based grants and scholarships
If you are in-state for UIUC it is probably the most affordable option and UIUC is one of the top engineering schools in the country. Certainly apply to other programs but given the lower financial aid offered to transfer students and the limited seats, UIUC might be your best option as well.