How hard is it to actually get into a university like Stanford or Harvard if you start at a community college? I want to go to a good school but there was no way I could move away this year and I didnt want to wait. Can i still get into a good school?
Also I had a 3.7 GPA in high school and graduated a year early If that changes anything
The acceptance rate for transfers at those schools is less than 5% regardless of where you are transferring from. You need to get realistic and get rid of the notion that only schools like Harvard and Stanford will get you where you want to be in life.
Is it so bad that i still want to get into a really good school just because i couldn’t this year. Also I never said i had to go to one of those schools to be where i want to be. All i asked was how hard it was. So if you could answer the question I asked that would be great.
It is extremely hard.
At Harvard the transfer acceptance rate was 1% a few years ago:
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2012/6/21/transfer-admissions-one-percent/
At Stanford it was 2% with preference given to CA community college transfers:
https://www.stanforddaily.com/2013/09/17/transfer-student-experience-offers-rewards-challenges/
From the Harvard common dataset for 2017:
of Transfer Applicants: 1,553
of Transfers admitted: 16
Check the common dataset for your target schools section D2.
Thank you I’m honestly not expecting to get into one of those schools. I just want to get close to the top 100s but if i am really high and do everything i can do get into those schools i feel it’ll give me a better chance for other schools.
Most tippy top colleges prefer people who really bring something new to the table, usually veterans or returning students from unique backgrounds. It is much more difficult to get in as a transfer than not.
The good news is there’s plenty of transfer friendly colleges in the top 100. Your state flagship probably has a solid transfer pathway, too.
It tends to be more difficult to transfer to an Ivy League school. However, there are several prestigious colleges that accept a lot of transfer students, including UNC Chapel Hill, Northeastern, UVA, Brandeis, American, and many other.
You can definitely get into a good school, but you need to expand your focus from beyond just Harvard and Stanford if you really want to be successful.