Hello, I’m Erik and this is my first post at this site. I’m writing to seek help and advices as to what to do in my current situation. I’m graduating this summer with my associates I’m part of my college honor society and got a GPA of 3.8 I would like to ask if is possible to get to an Ivy League school coming from a community college?
It’s very, very hard to transfer into an Ivy or Ivy-caliber school. And even harder from a community college. Some don’t take transfer students at all, or limit it to a handful of people each year. Some will require your SAT scores and high school record as well.
Is it possible? Technically yes. Is it likely – not even remotely.
I looked into about 4-5 of the Ivie’s respective “transfer programs” a couple of months back. As katliamom noted above, we’re literally looking at a handful of successful applicants per year. Frankly, I don’t even think I could call that a “program” with a straight face if I were an AO at one of those schools, but sure, technically, they take transfers.
By the way, even though I was blessed in being able to attend my undergrad school directly out of college, I am very bullish on CC’s and probably will become even more so in the coming years. Congrats on earning your AA!!
It’s not impossible but Ivies are extremely difficult because they don’t “have” to take in transfer students like your in-state public universities do. Also, they look at your high school performance, including the SAT which automatically disqualifies prob more than half of the CC population when you consider that CC is mainly for students who didn’t care about HS and needed a second chance. People who successfully transfer to the ivies, stanfords, U of Chicagos, John Hopkins of the world were students who were stellar students in HS and were borderline of being accepted. Kids who maybe had sufficient grades but possibly needed just a few more points on the SAT or a bit short on ECs, maybe a less than “spectacular” essay, compared to their competitors. And honestly, I commend you for a 3.8, that is awesome but that may even get you rejected from some of the UCs even as an Californian CC student, I suspect the average GPA for transfers to Ivies is gonna be higher than that, I know it is for some of the other elite private colleges.
Still, of course you can always try and do the app! It’s not impossible. You can still take the SAT if you’re not happy with your HS score. But I’d recommend you to prep for some public schools as a back-up, as a transfer student myself I liked applying to the UC system because I could have more of a “one size fits all” approach when it came to my requirements, although some campuses do differ on major prereqs. You should also talk to a counselor and see if he/she can make a course plan tailored for the ivies, or another private college of your choice.
Cornell takes a lot of transfer students. Look into Cornell 
If you’re in NY, Cornell is worth looking into
Columbia has a very interesting transfer program under the School of General Studies. You have to meet a specific set of requirements to be eligible to apply though.
Transfer acceptance in the Ivy’s is based on how many students drop out, so the only seats you can compete for are open seats, (in your particular major), so its not impossible, but extremely hard for that key reason; (nearly nobody drops out of ivy league schools).
I woudl look at your state school…they are familiar with your CC’s courses, are the easiest to get all your courses transfered…may have scholarships for CC transfers.
Ivys may not take your credits and may just use them for placement…they don’t have merit scholarships (they have need based). They also don’t take many transfers.
You would have to have a exceptional situation for you to be able to transfer to an Ivy from a CC
I would look at your state U, then excel there and then look for Ivys for Grad school
No.
Kids that transfer to an Ivy from a CC are the ones that would have been the kind of kid admitted to an Ivy when they graduated HS but for one reason or another (family circumstances, etc) chose to start at a CC.