I’m already set on attending a community college. After community college, I plan on transferring to a four year university in pursuit of my Bachelor’s. As of right now, I’m not sure where I want to transfer.
If I decided to aim towards Ivy League or more selective/highly selective colleges, would it matter which community college I attended? Do those schools favor certain community colleges? If they do, what does it depend on?
If I tried transferring to one of those schools, could I be rejected based on how little known my community college is?
You need to understand that transfer acceptance can be more difficult than freshman. For example, the acceptance rate at Duke is 9.8% for freshman and 6.7% for transfer. The absolute number is also low. Duke accepted 80 transfer students. Some of those would be athletic transfers. Some would also come from peer institutions. The small remaining amount likely would have been eligible as freshman but were unable to attend a traditional 4 year for some compelling reason (e.g. military, health).
It’s easy to find out the transfer-in rates for any college (or about 90% of them).
Google and
That should get you to the college’s Common Data Set. Under part D. they should give you their transfer stats. How many applied, how many accepted, how many of the accepted ended up attending. You can also find out in that section of the college asks for a minimum GPA in high school and other important information.
Many schools eagerly accept transfer students and some even offer great FA. Many are as described above, harder to get into as a transfer and the FA is not great. Look at each school’s website for details. Do not be afraid of asking the Admissions officers for more information.
If you’re female, you may want to apply to Mt. Holyoke as it has great FA for Transfer students and it’s quite open about its great transfer-acceptance rate. Barnard doesn’t give great FA for transfer students, in contrast. Read its website carefully.
If you’re interested in co-ed, you may want to look at Southwestern University in Texas, which has good FA for transfer students and it’s close to Austin Tx, a hoppin’ place.
If you’re looking at Ivy or Ivy equivalent, look at Cornell. It has transfer agreements (articulation agreements) with several community colleges and accepts transfers from CCs fairly regularly. California has its own system of moving students up from CCs into UCs. There’s a thread on this website devoted to that. Some of the UCs are Ivy equivalent. If you’re out of state (OOS) for a UC it will be expensive. Most OOS colleges are expensive but not all. U of Maine at Orono has money for transfer students. I’d also check out Columbia U’s GS program. It’s one of CUs four undergraduate colleges (Barnard, Columbia College, their school of engineering, and GS) and it readily accepts students from CCs. The FA isn’t as good as in the other undergraduate colleges. The GS education is exactly the same as with Columbia College.
Yes, it’s a good idea to see what kind of transfer agreements a CC has with 4-years beyond just general articulation arrangements.
UNC Chapel Hill has the C-STEP program with nearby community colleges which is great for transfer students. Other public flagships may have something similar? You are part of a cohort that will transfer together.
NOVA in Virginia has some great transfer programs with George Mason, VT, and maybe UVA.
Good luck!
Also, you should check out this great transfer scholarship program from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. Very competitive but amazing opportunity!
The website also has a lot of information for CC students seeking to transfer to highly selective colleges so right up your alley!
https://www.jkcf.org/our-scholarships/undergraduate-transfer-scholarship/
Why are you starting at a community college? Is it primarily grade recovery or is it primarily cost?
Often there are three tiers of tuition rates at community colleges: in-county/district, in-state but out of county/district, and out-of-state. If you need to attend a community college to save money, it doesn’t make much sense to study in a different county/district or state where your costs will be a lot higher. If you are planning to commute from home, you also need to factor in the additional commuting time and cost if you choose to travel to a distant community college.
Each state’s flagship university has transfer agreements with the community colleges in that state. So you can get an excellent education in your home state by following that pathway. Some private colleges and universities do have special programs to recruit community college graduates who are ready to transfer. Search the websites of the colleges and universities that you are interested in, and look for their individual policies. If you are female, check out Bryn Mawr and Smith. Both of those actively recruit at community colleges.
@happymomof1 – not all CCs are associated with state flagships – FYI. Some are associated with other four-year schools, such as CUNYs in NYC. NYC CCs (like BMCC and LGuardia CC) also have articulation agreements with Cornell–or they have in the past until recently. They may still have them. Others have relationships with other private four-year schools. Vassar for example has a CC-to-Vassar program – https://eter.vassar.edu/
In the past at least TCCC in NY has articulation agreements with Cornell. It also has housing.
https://www.tompkinscortland.edu/campus-life
Guttman in NYC is one of the highest-performing CCs in the country and students can get housing at CUNYs.
@Eeyore123
Yes, I looked into the transfer acceptances. They look pretty grim, but I suppose that colleges of that ranking need to have low acceptance rates. I didn’t know about the athletic transfers and transfers from peer institutions. By the way, what are peer institutions?
You mentioned the need for a compelling reason to why I didn’t decide to attend a 4-year-institution. There was a number of deciding factors for me, but I’m not sure if they count as compelling. There were two main reasons:
They all tie in together. The first reason was, I wanted to save money. The second, was that I hadn’t decided on a major. A lot of institutions don’t demand that you declare a major right away, but I wanted to save money while deciding. Especially because I have so many passions and interests. I’m hoping that during my time at community college, I can find a major that I like. That way, I can choose a 4-year-institution that really caters to my interests. There’s a few more reasons, but they’re not as important.
@Dustyfeathers
I looked at the common data set for some of the Ivy Leagues. The information on the common data set is pretty
useful. I love how everything is in numbers and percentages. It feels a little brutal, but it gives me a better idea of what to work on. I looked into the two colleges that you suggested. They sound like nice options, but they’re pretty far from where I live.
My community college doesn’t have any agreements with Cornell. Do you know how many of their incoming transfers are part of their signed agreement? I want to look into the data to know what kinds of odds I’m working against.
I’ll keep looking around at OOS.
@AlmostThere2018
The community college that I’m trying to enroll in has signed agreements with multiple colleges/universities. I’m set on one of the colleges on that list. As long as I keep a certain GPA during my time at the community college, I will be guaranteed acceptance into that college.
I looked at that link you left. That scholarship program looks great. I’ve bookmarked that page for when I enroll.
Thank you for all your help!
@Dustyfeathers - The point I was trying to make, is that in all of the states that I’ve lived in, the CCs have had articulation agreements with the best public university in that state, as well as agreements with the other public universities in that state, so the OP needn’t worry about being immediately consigned to what some people might consider to be a second-quality educational experience. You are absolutely correct that the student needs to pay close attention to how the transfer tracks function. In some cases there may be much tighter pathways to one or another of that state’s public Us.
And what memories your mention of TC3 brings back! When I was a TA in CALS at Cornell back in the stone age, quite a number of our students came to us through the Cornell articulation agreements. TC3 sent us a lot of them. 
Good to know that about Vassar! It is harder to find out about transfer pathways and articulation agreements between private institutions and CCs
If I tried transferring to one of those schools, could I be rejected based on how little known my community college is?
Not sure about Ivy League Transfers. My son took the Comm. College route to 1)find a major (IMO, best to find a major and then the school) 2) to afford a LAC/Private School. He did well at a unknown Northern California CC and applied to schools on East Coast for Sp. '21 start. To our great delight he has been accepted to his top choices: Brandeis, Holy Cross, Colorado College and, last minute addition, Boston College.
It can be done. He got top grades at CC and worked a part time job. Hope this helps and good luck to you.
Please note this thread is two years old. Closing.