<p>Hey everyone.
So, I am halfway through my Senior year in HS, and I am pretty sure I am going to go to community college. I have been accepted to a couple of universities, but I just don't have the money. I want to get some scholarships, and I think that I would have a better chance at that if I transferred since my GPA would be much better than it is now. I want to get into a good university, such as Yale, UCLA, Duke, or Boston U. I know that I need to take my required courses, I am going to be majoring in chemistry because I want to go to med. school, and I know that I need to have good EC's and volunteer, but I have no idea how to get those while in community college. In HS, it's easy to just join a club or try out for a sport, but I am clueless as to what I am supposed to do to show leadership and how I'm unique while in a community college. Could someone please explain exactly what Yale is looking for me to do while in community college in order to be accepted there as a transfer? Thank you!</p>
<p>Really quick, I completely understand that it is extremely slim for me to transfer from a community college in California to a college such as Stanford, Yale, Duke, etc. With that being said, I do not care about the slim chances. I already know about the cost, and I already know how hard it will be to transfer. What I am asking is, in the off chance I was accepted to one of these great schools as a transfer, what is it that I would need to have done to show that I am unique. Like I stated above, in high school, it's pretty easy to join clubs and do something to show that one is unique, but, in my view, that all changes at a community college. I may be wrong, but I want to know what I can do to be admitted to a great college after two years at a CC besides achieve great grades because it is already apparent that great grades are a must have. The only reason I am elaborating on this is because I posted this question on Yahoo Answers, and the two people who answered me were of no help whatsoever.</p>
<p>The problem with this is that there are significantly fewer merit awards for transfers than for fr admits, and they are generally for lesser amounts. Also, understand that some of the schools you listed don’t give merit aid, only need based FA.</p>
<p>Yes, I understand that, but my GPA right now is not that great because of my Freshman and Sophomore year, so even if I don’t really get that much money, it will still be cheaper no matter what because I will have spent my first two years at a community college. Once again, my question was not answered.</p>
<p>What do I need to do to stand out for great schools such as Notre Dame, UCLA, Duke, Yale, etc. as a transfer student?</p>
<p>After doing a bit more research, I found out that most schools mainly look at your GPA and EC’s don’t really count as much UNLESS the school one wishes to transfer to is a school such as Harvard, UPenn, Stanford, etc. Once again, to be clear, I am asking this: For these top tier schools, what could I do to stand out as a transfer applicant? Please help me because I am really starting to become worried.</p>
<p>^ Start a successful company. Build homes for the homeless in Africa. Win a national award. Test 170 in IQ and build your own nuclear reactor. Star in a Broadway play. etc.</p>
<p>If you want to goto CCC you should be realistic about your chances. For most people that means UCLA, USC & Cal are the limit. Maybe Cornell if you have a 4.0 GPA with almost the complete STEM sequence completed.</p>
<p>Every year, Yale accepts a couple of transfer students, along with Notre Dame, Duke, and the other schools I mentioned. I understand that what I am shooting for seems to be completely out of reach, but I have gone almost my entire life without trying to achieve what I am capable of achieving. Even if I am not accepted to Yale, I want to know that I gave it a fair shot. Like I said before, someone has to be accepted as a transfer student to these schools. Why can’t it be me? I’m not asking for a sarcastic response. I am asking for a real response. What can I do that will make me look good for these schools? Where should I volunteer? What kind of clubs should I be involved in during my time at my community college? What internships should I look for during this time? Does having a job completely unrelated to my major have any benefits? Those are the types of questions I want answered.</p>
<p>The problem with those schools is that they judge HS academics along with ECs and SATs into the application process. So if you messed up in HS, CC isn’t a second chance.</p>
<p>You want realistic advice? Be 6’5+, go to Orange Coast College and join their crew team. Be an amazing athlete and get recited to Stanford’s crew team.</p>
<p>My comment was not about your fr admissions, it was about your comment about merit awards as a transfer, that’s why I cited that part of your OP. </p>
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<p>Have you read the Transfer Admissions 101 sticky thread? Have you gone to the Resources sticky thread and read the links to past transfer Results to see what others have done?</p>
<p>To be accepted to those schools as a transfer student, if the school accepts transfers:
Have a killer GPA AND
Be an amazing athlete at Olympic level
Invent something used by at least a million people
Become internationally famous.
Have 10000 hours logged at a homeless shelter or hospital actually working the job not sitting around looking pretty.
AND I am being completely serious.</p>
<p>I think he’s trolling, bruh. Lot’s of trolling going on ITT.</p>
<p>And I’m in a similar position. The transfer process is uglier than regular admissions, and it’s harder. It drives me up the wall at times. There are fewer resources, guides, and advice for transfer students, and transfer credit can get messy. I obsessed over transfer guides and I’ve still messed up the little things; with high school, all you need to do is take the right AP courses for your prospective major and a few others to balance it out and you’re pretty much set for everything. </p>
<p>At top 20 universities, you’re being judged on 4-6 years of work as a college student, not 3-3.5 like high school students, something i have to account for myself as I did poorly in high school. College level courses are obviously harder, so it requires more work to keep a 3.7 or higher. Keep in mind that you’ll either obsess during break over your apps, or be forced to balance them with a college level courseload (and if you’re like me, a job and 16-17 credits). And you’ll have to work with both college officials and high school officials to make sure things like transcripts, registrar reports etc. are sent out in a timely fashion.</p>
<p>My understanding of it is that it’s generally harder to get into the very highly ranked but not amazingly ranked schools but not impossible. Brown, NW (bad transfer aid aside), Cornell etc are all relatively transfer friendly and have similar acceptance rates for transfers relative to RD. The absolute top ones like Harvard, Yale, Stanford probably won’t take you unless you’re sponsored by faculty or absolutely outstanding because their transfer rates are so low… keeping in mind that transferring to Harvard is 2-4 times more selective than regular Harvard admissions. SAT and ACT, as well as ECs, also still matter at these colleges.</p>
<p>If you want to go to community college and go to a good college, keep in mind that it’s harder to so, basically. Don’t let it wear you out like it is currently doing to me. :p</p>