<p>I am a rising senior looking at which colleges to apply to. Unfortunately some things happened to me during HS, and I also made a few mistakes, and wound up with a 3.21 cumulative GPA, which basically puts me out of contention for top schools. I have a 30 ACT and 2070 SAT, both of which I believe I can raise somewhat substantially, as both scores are from my first try, and I really did not study very much before either. I believe I have resolved most of my issues, and am pretty confident I can get a 3.8-4.0 for the first semester of my senior year alone, but I know that still probably won't make much of a difference, so I thought I might share an idea I had. There are a few very small colleges in my hometown area that I could go to for a very low tuition if not for free. Would it be a good idea for me to scrap the idea of applying to prestigious colleges right out of high school, go to one of those small colleges, get really good grades there for a year and also build my resume outside of the classroom, and then after a year try to transfer to a big name university (some I had in mind were ND, Boston College, WashU, some lower Ivies, etc.) What do you think? Thanks for any thoughts!</p>
<p>Frequently those types of schools have a worse admission rate for transfers than for freshmen, not to mention the possibility of not getting much aid as a transfer. They also would generally consider your HS info until you’ve been in college for two years. Another alternative you may not care for is to go to graduate from the local college and go to one known more nationally for grad school.</p>
<p>The most transfer-friendly colleges tend to be public ones; many of the more selective private colleges admit very few transfers (though USC is an exception).</p>
<p>I wouldn’t call trying to transfer to a selective college a ‘good idea’ in general. However, with your HS gpa, I think it’s a ‘better idea’ than trying to get in as a fr applicant. And by that I mean apply as a jr transfer, because as a soph transfer applicant you will only have completed a sem of college work and your HS record and test scores will be weighted more.</p>
<p>If you can increase your ACT by 2+ and your SAT by 100+, you still might have a chance at Boston College, assuming your ECs and essays are good. Also try looking at other schools. Your GPA and test scores aren’t bad enough for you to consider community college as a first option. You don’t HAVE to attend a top school. Good luck. Just remember to explore other schools and that you still have options.</p>