Community College transfer: What are my chances?

<p>I am a community college student planning to transfer as an economics major to a four year university for fall 2007. I did well academically, but I feel my extracurriculars are lacking breadth. Assuming my essays are well-written, what are my chances at getting into my top choice schools?
These are the schools I am applying to:
University of Chicago (early decision)
Northwestern
Columbia
Harvard
<em>no backup yet, need suggestions</em></p>

<p>Here is my information relevant to admissions:</p>

<p>College GPA: 4.00 out of 4.00 scale
Coursework: Liberal arts curriculum focused around social sciences, 27 honors units. (18 honors units is the requirement for the campus-wide honors program eligibility).
High School GPA: 3.5 weighted
SAT1: 1430 out of 1600, 650 Verbal 780 Math
SAT2: Japanese 800
ACT: 31</p>

<p>Extracurriculars: (1) Founder/president of a club (focus on sustainable consumerism and global warming).
(2) I run a nonprofit organization as an offshoot of my club on campus.
(3) On my free time, I surf, play guitar (blues/jazz) and read.
(4) I only work in the summer. Jobs I have had were part-time and insignificant (no internships, etc).</p>

<p>As a transfer student, I am finding it difficult to compare myself to people on this forum who have been admitted to colleges straight out of High School. What do you guys think my chances are?</p>

<p>If you have any advice to give me, please do not hesitate to be brutally honest. I am here mainly to be realistic, not to relieve anxiety. However, a combination of the two would also be great. :)</p>

<p>Thanks in advance for all your help.</p>

<p>University of Chicago -reach
Northwestern -reach
Columbia- reach
Harvard- reach
Try looking at Boise State, Idaho, or Western Michigan University, Michigan.
Good luck.</p>

<p>ouch</p>

<p>thanks for the input</p>

<p>At the top schools, most transfers come from other top schools. Nothing stands out unless your non profit has really accomplished major things. Then there's no job or internship which is unusual for a CC student so they would expect great grades. Even for a school below those you list, you will need amazing recs. What abput your state flagship?</p>

<p>I know people from my community college with gpa's lower than mine, lower test scores, and no outstanding extracurriculars that got into Berkeley and UCLA, so I assumed I would be able to do better and didn't even bother to apply. This may have been a mistake on my part however, since UCLA and cal both have agreements with my community college making it fairly easy to get in. Maybe I will stay for one more year and apply to Berkeley for 2008 if I don't get in anywhere. This makes me sad though because I would really like to go out of state and get an education that is actually worth $40k a year.</p>

<p>There are plenty of good colleges in CA, and you are more likely to get into them than a top school in another state. They will know the CC and its programs. If you are looking at spending 40k, there are some very good private schools in your own state to consider.</p>

<p>Hmm...some of the posters here are a little harsh. You have no need to look at Boise State. :rolleyes: And there are community college students that transfer to UChi and Northwestern with less-than-spectacular ECs...I dunno about Harvard and Columbia though. </p>

<p>Definitely check out your state school and also shoot an application over to NU and UChi. The others are up to you but accept about 10% each, so it's tough. However, while one poster was correct in that many transfers to top schools come from other top schools, that is simply not the end of it. At Yale, for instance, a strong priority is given to community college students and students from other ivy league schools. They really like traumatic stories and such of those that turned their life around. At Stanford, data sheets that I have seen show that usually 20-30 CC students are accepted per year, though priority is given to California CC students. </p>

<p>I dunno about Columbia. Harvard only takes 1 or 2 a semester, generally, so that's tough. Your biggest downfall is that you only have 27 units - less than one year. Your high school stats still play a large role at this point and will keep you out of all 4 schools, most likely. </p>

<p>If you ARE in California, definitely look there. As I said, Stanford likes CCC students (to an extent), state schools like Cal and UCLA have transfer agreements, and liberal arts colleges like Claremont McKenna and Pomona also give preference to CCC students. Hope that helps.</p>

<p>Thanks for all the help</p>

<p>And sorry I failed to specify that I actually have 60 units, which is two full years . The 27 I specified are the honors courses, which are much more rigorous than the non-honors courses.</p>

<p>UChicago is my first choice, but I will definitely try Stanford after what you just told me.</p>

<p>Hey, I don't know anything about transfer admissions but it sounds like you did really well in college and had a good high school record. Best of luck, it sounds like you'll do really well.</p>

<p>if u apply to berkeley or ucla, I'm sure ur in
how could a 1430/1600 SAT 1 go to a community college? that would be really hard to do. I wouldn't say those schools are far reaches. They always have transfers accepted every semester (not much) but not a sure acceptance. U of Chicago will most likely take you.</p>

<p>Unless I'm missing something, a 4.0 over 4 semesters is extremely good, regardless of where you're coming from. Given that you have 60 credits, the SAT score isn't even looked at by most schools. I wouldn't be surprised if you were accepted ED by the University of Chicago.</p>

<p>
[quote]
but I will definitely try Stanford after what you just told me.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Good luck. Realize it's somewhere between a 5 and 10% acceptance rate, so it's very tough.</p>

<p>This may sound like a stupid question, but are my chances at being admitted to University of Chicago as an economics major hindered by the fact that they have such a good economics program?</p>

<p>I was under the impression that MOST universities don't care about your major too much.</p>