Community College Transfer to Top schools, RATE ME

Transfer Students
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School: LaGuardia Communtitu College, NYC
Female/Latina/First Generation College student
Major: Political Science
GPA: 3.85
Major GPA: 3.9
SAT/ACT: I took them in 2014 and got a 1500ish out of 2400 - i did not care about school as much due to my family and unstable living situation.
HS GPA: 78 - 80, at the time NYC did not do do it out of a 4.0 scale - once again low due to my many factors in my person life.
EC: Student Government: Governor of Political Awareness, Phi Theta Kappa Member, President Society, P.S Alumni Mentor for HS students, Interned at the NYC Comptrollers Office and got legislative and policy reasearch published, member of the University Student Senate (coalition of all City of New York Univeristies) and sits on a CUNY board of trustees committee, creating a transfer guide to be used by future community college students with the department of education, honor classes, volunteer and organizer for volunteer projects, Malave Leadership Academy, Scholarship receiptent, and founded and was president of my own club at school. A ton of big events and projects and got published in the honors journal. Coordinated a huge citizenships drive with over 300 people who got serviced.

Applying to: Wellesley, Tufts, Vanderbilt, USC, Yale, Vassar, Duke, George Washington Univeristy, UPenn, Princeton (last year a kid from my school got in as a transfer), Brown, Pomona, Stanford, Georgetown, American, Washington U St. Louis, John Hopkins, NYU, Boston College and University, Barnard, U of Virgina, Cornell, Bryn Mawr, Emory, Dartmouth and Columbia.

Top choices: Yale, Stanford, Georgetown, Vanderbilt, Tufts, Brown USC, Pomona and Emory.

I am applying to CUNY and a State schools for safety as well

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Also been on the deans list every semester, have 3 professors and 2 administrators who can write me recommendations letters (they love me).

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What did you study in cc?

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Political Science is my major

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Was that your major in cc? Do you have an associate’s in political science? What was the club you founded?

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I will have an associates by June 2019 in political science. I founded the Latinx Unidos club in school which has collaborated with many Hispanic based non profits to do citizenship drives, citizenship free testing help and English classes. We also have ran workshops on Latinx history in many different area like tech, politics etc., and helped raised many for charities or natural disasters relief.

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That is pretty impressive work and I hope you have a long career in public/community service! Have you looked into transfer scholarships, too? I can’t imagine any school that wouldn’t give you a good look but you picked some very hard schools to get into. Do you have to submit your SAT score and HS transcripts for those schools as a transfer? What were the individual scores on the different SAT sections?

Your list is all over the place, to be honest. Why those schools? What is your ultimate goal? Honestly, if you were my daughter I would tell you to be prepared to be rejected at each and every school on that list (my daughter will be transferring from cc the year after you). Are there elite schools La Guardia has a special relationship with? Here locally the cc has a special relationship with the local Ivy so transferring is viable but it’s primarily from the Honors program. Are you in the Honors program at La Guardia?

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Thank you! I appreciate the feedback! I’ve done very extensive checks on each school in regards to majors, support for transfer student and first gen student, opportunities for me at the schools and etc. Each school has different majors that appeal to me and offer different types of communities and opportunities. I can name a reason for each school, I didn’t just pick them to pick them. I have also have my safety schools that I did not list just because my college/major have agreements with them. For all schools you need to submit HS scores but not SATs, I haven’t been in HS for 5 years so some schools like Georgetown will let me apply for a waiver. I just took the regalar SAT.

My main career goal is to become and a lawyer and get my PHD. I want to mainly focus on international law, human rights and education and find a way to integrate all 3. I’m already prepared emotionally to be denied that’s why I’m applying to so many. I am currently in the honors program, and it does not have any special relationship with tops schools. However, we have had a high success rate with getting students into top schools. We have students in Cornell, Georgetown, Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Smith, Columbia, Princeton, etc. Our honors program director is very well connected and attended Cornell so she is usually to go to person for top school info, she’s also writing me a letter of recommendation.

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Strong GPA, solid SAT score, excellent grades. leadership roles, graduation from a CC & first generation should get you serious consideration.

You reasons for applying to a particular school will be important.

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Hi–

To go into law you can study anything at all. No need to focus just on political science. FYI. Just keep yoru GPA high (above 3.7) and get a top score on your LSAT. You can start practicing your LSAT now. Seriously. For your Ph.D. – in law? That’s called a JSD. Or in political science? Don’t worry about grad school just yet. Just get into your undergrad 4-year school and then keep your grades up. The rest will take care of itself.

I think LaG CC has an articulation agreement with Cornell, so that doesn’t suprise me that people are accepted there. Columbia has a GS program that accepts a lot of students from CCs – so that doesn’t surprise me either.

Vassar takes few transfers and they tend to take students that had high HS GPAs. That being said, they do have a special program for students coming out of CCs – especially CCs in the larger Vassar vicinity. https://eter.vassar.edu/
Vassar also has one of the most generous need-based FA programs.

As for the rest of your list –

Wellesley–takes very few transfer students. They just don’t have room. FA excellent here however

Tufts–takes about 10% of transfer applicants; excellent FA

Vanderbilt – 31% of transfer applicants, excellent FA

USC–25% of transfer applicants, acceptable FA levels

Yale – 2% acceptance rate for transfers; excellent FA

Duke – 7% acceptance rate for transfers

George Washington Univeristy–absolutely dreadful FA. Don’t bother applying.

UPenn-- 10% acceptance rate

Princeton (last year a kid from my school got in as a transfer)–I guess that you can try and FA is excellent, but few places available. They didn’t take any transfers until recently. They may be attempting to make up for the many years of never accepting transfers.

Brown-- 5% transfer-in acceptance rate

Pomona – 6% transfer-in acceptance rate

Stanford – 1% transfer-in acceptance rate

Georgetown – 15% acceptance rate

American–the worst FA ever. Shockingly bad. Still you can throw your hat in the ring and see wht they offer yo.

Washington U St. Louis – 20% acceptance of transfer students – upper classmen tend to live off campus, I heard from a friend whose daughter currently attends.

John Hopkins–? can’t find the stats

NYU–terrible awful no-good financial aid. Don’t bother.

Boston College – could not find the transfer rates.

Boston University-- bad FA – don’t bother

Barnard–tends to NOT give FA to transfer students. Ask them directly.

U of Virgina–as an OOS (out of state) student you will pay through the nose for this school

Bryn Mawr–takes few transfer students but some; financial aid is quite good, both merit and need-based, you would be part of a consortium of other colleges allowing you access to all sorts of school personalities and classes. If you were my child, I’d suggest tossing BMC an application and seeing what happens. In your application be sure to do the following: 1) emphasize that you’re interested in learning more so than grades and BMC fosters that sort of community; 2) emphasize that you want to participate in the student government (look up the proper name of it) and that you understand that it’s what makes the Honor Code work. (you can research the honor code but basically it’s what makes the communit of BMC so nice; Mt. Holyoke also has a similar honor code and community); 3) spend much time on the Why BMC part of the application. BMC wants students who “get” what they’re about more so than a the best best best stats. They want to form an intellectual community of people who value learning. Emphasis on community. Emphasis on learning. An intellectual community that’s very pleasant.

Emory–25% acceptance rate, pretty decent FA

Dartmouth – .3% (not three percent but three-tenths of a percent) acceptance rate

Columbia – Columbia GS would accept you and maybe would provide some merit, but the FA in general might be awful. If I were you, I’d toss GS an application and see what they offer. Also: no housing for GS. Also: are you willing to do the core if you’re starting so late?? I suspect that you wouldn’t have time to complete your classes in political science.

Top choices: Yale, Stanford, Georgetown, Vanderbilt, Tufts, Brown USC, Pomona and Emory.

MAYBE THINK ABOUT THE FOLLOWING SCHOOLS

  • If you like Bryn Mawr, consider either Smith or Mt. Holyoke. SMITH -- a top school; has excellent merit-based and need-based FA; and they would probably accept you. It's also part of a consortium similar to Bryn Mawr. The consortium includes Amherst College, UMass Amherst, Hampshire and Mt. Holyoke. Smith's personality is much more overtly political and has women who are competitive and strive forward. 33% transfer acceptance rate https://www.smith.edu/

MT HOLYOKE – part of the same consortium with Smith; has excellent FA and a gorgeous campus. The personality of the school is homey, the setting is rather majestic, and it’s a top notch school with ambitious creative women. – 40% admit rate for transfer applicants. https://www.mtholyoke.edu/

Also possibly consider –
OBERLIN – 36% transfer-in acceptance; good FA – https://www.oberlin.edu/arts-and-sciences/departments/politics
REED – a top school on par with the U of Chicago, but in LAC form; excellent FA – https://www.reed.edu/poli_sci/

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Hi thank you so much for all the info!!!

Of my top choices there have been past student from my CC who have gotten in. Also I am low income student, below 25k a year so I do qualify for need based finically aid in most schools. NYU has a good program with community colleges and offer good FA packages for them if they were in PTK. Thank you for all the FA information, it’s helps me narrow down my current choices a bit. I was considering Hamilton but haven’t done enough research into majors and resources they offer.

I am studying political science currently but want to double major in international politics, economics or Latina/o studies. I genuinely enjoy politics and learning about it, it’s a passion of mine. Also I meant that I want to purse a law degree and a PHD separately possibly in a area of politics.

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@Publisher for my top choices it has largely to do with the major they offer, (varies from school), curriculum for those majors, location, the support in terms of transfer students/first gen/minority with clubs and programs. And of course internships, the professor and network possibilities

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@Dustyfeathers: Hamilton’s acceptance rate for transfers was most recently 21%, as indicated on its CDS.

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College Transitions lists undergraduate schools commonly represented at highly regarded law schools, though they nearly all appear to be extremely selective:

Amherst
Brown
Claremont McKenna
Columbia
Cornell
Dartmouth
Duke
Georgetown
Hamilton
Harvard
Middlebury
Northwestern
Pomona
Stanford
UChicago
UMichigan
UPennsylvania
U of Southern California
Yale
Yeshiva

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Hi, thank you for the info! Just for a reminder I’m looking to transfer to a competitive 4 year. I am current at a community college

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“1500ish out of 2400”

I think this score may hurt you at the most selective schools. Are all of the schools affordable? Have you run the NPC? Note that some colleges are “need aware” for transfer students.

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Well, the schools in reply #13 are certainly competitive, then, @polyscidreamer. For the original source, you can search “Top Lawyer Producer Schools – Infographic.”

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Maybe someone else can answer whether these schools will likely take in the OP as a junior? I’ve seen it posted here a lot that schools often will not accept credits. Curious about that.

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@suzy100 that was I was worried about! I’m going to apply for the SAT wavier since I have been out of high school for 5 years. I was also wondering that if the fact that I’m currently in college and doing well may let them overlook my SAT. I was living under extremely difficult circumstances at the time. Should I just retake them?

For aid, I am qualified for need based aid in all the schools that offer it and have been applying to smaller scholarships in case! I am applying to more affordable schools but did not list because they are my safety’s and I have guaranteed acceptance b/c of CC agreements with them.

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@CCtoAlaska most schools have a max of 63 credits that they take to transfer. All the schools accept Incoming Juniors, that is the cap I believe. Most likely not all of my credits will transfer but I’ve known that already.