<p>HS GPA = 2.9 (including 1 D!)
No HS ECs (this wasn’t even ASKED about on the application)</p>
<p>went to cc
GPA = 3.93 (one B)
major ECs - just a few but I devoted years to them and was very passionate about them
major academic awards (All-Arizona 1st Academic Team, Coca-Coca Bronze Scholar, Jack Kent Cooke Scholar)
very involved in Phi Theta Kappa
sent SATs but i didn’t have too (score was average)</p>
<p>i only applied to cornell and my state school (ASU)</p>
<p>it’s possible BUT it’s about GPA and who you are a person. your essays and letters of rec should be amazing. i dont think just going to cc and getting a 4.0 will get you in to a tier 1/ivy</p>
<p>plus, with cornell you have to research the academic program you are applying to and really explain WHY it’s perfect for you. i was lucky in the sense that their public policy major is absolutely perfect for me, so it wasn’t hard to write about in one of my essays.</p>
<p>Oh thanks, Hyperlite brought up a point I didn’t consider in my previous comment.</p>
<p>It depends on the schools you apply to if they want to evaluate SAT scores. But I can tell you that from my perspective and with kids doing chances here, majority of the top schools will want SAT scores no matter for what level of admissions.</p>
<p>However, with the exceptional ones like Wake Forest, UMichigan, George Washington, NYU, and Cornell, I believe they’ve opted out the SATs once you have 30+ collegiate credits.</p>
<p>It is almost impossible to transfer to Brown, Yale, Dartmouth, or top 5 schools if you did not make it in as a freshmen. Those who got in as a transfer were likely to have had circumstantial situations. Unless if he’s applying to UPenn, then he might have a chance.</p>
<p>Penn is my top choice next to Cornell. In all honesty, I would be happy at any Top 50 school. With that said, I am making it a priority to gain admission into an Ivy. If my application is rejected, surely I will be admitted elsewhere if I continue to do well.</p>
<p>if you really want to go to an ivy or top 20, i recommend doing a full two years at cc and completely killing it - 4.0 GPA, take cc honor’s courses, phi theta kappa (cornell LOVES this, that’s how i applied - they sent me a letter inviting me to apply b/c of my ptk involvement), a few dedicated ECs that you spend A LOT of time involved in and are meaningful to you…and maybe, with some luck, you’ll get into. </p>
<p>there is no magic number or formula, it just depends on so, so many things. </p>
<p>the longer you are out of hs the less that record will matter, and if you’re trying to shake HS records, you’re going to want to put some major distance between your college record and your HS days. applying as a sophmore only gives them 1 year of college. it’s not a whole lot for admin committee’s to go off of </p>
<p>however, there are NO guarantees or even likely candidates… and which cornell college are you looking at btw? there are certain majors and college (AAP, Hotel, Engineering, certain CAS majors, certain CALS majors) that are extremely difficult to get into, so that will certainly factor in your admission. i know I would not have gotten into cornell just b/c of my college stats, it really took fit…</p>
<p>By the way, I’m taking this fall off primarily to take the SAT and subsequently enrolling at the CC during the Spring of 2011. Moreover, I already have 13 credits from a Dual Enrollment program I was in this year.</p>
<p>^yep, ECs are very important and they really do need to be personal and unique. like, don’t just volunteer somewhere and rack up hours - you need to be involved in a cause that you are passionate about and then use that in your essays.</p>
<p>SATs/ACTs are not extremely important in admissions decisions. A stellar GPA, powerful/moving essays and specific extracurricular activities with leadership roles are the deciding factors in the overall admissions decision.</p>
<p>Simply because a university’s admit rate is 4-5% does not mean every applicant has a 4-5% chance of getting in. One may have a 1% chance, whereas another may have a 90% chance. Everything is based on the strength(s) of the individual.</p>
<p>Akunamatatta: You have failed to understand my conversation and the individual perception of the colleges.</p>
<p>I did not strongly enforce that SAT scores are the extreme factors in decision making process. Although the GPA and essays are taken into account, the test scores are a little more important because it helps the adcoms to break or make the applicants: they are used to help them admit students when both kids have a 4.0. </p>
<p>You need to hinder a step back before making a commitment with what anyone has said. The reason why schools use SAT scores for both level of admissions is because the test’s nationally standardized and used to see which brightest students can perform well. That’s why the schools have rankings too (highest GPA and test score).</p>
<p>There are many other things that LeekIs mentioned along with mine. Please refer back to the previous page before having a debate.</p>
<p>I would just make sure you focus outside the Ivies as well. Northwestern, Rice, WashU, Georgetown, Emory, UVA, UNC, Michigan, and others have many more open spots than the Ivies. Among the Ivies the most transfer “friendly” Ivies are Penn and Cornell.</p>
<p>Seachai is generalizing too much. The truth is every college and university judges transfer applicants by their own arbitrary criteria. Not all of the top tier universities and colleges put greater weight on SATs than GPA, essays, or other life experiences. For example, Amherst College doesn’t even require community college students to submit standardized test scores. Also, Columbia University’s School of General Studies puts far less weight on SATs than life experience in general. </p>
<p>In fact, at some of the top liberal arts colleges and universities, the attitude toward community college students has greatly changed during the last few years. I sat at a budget committee meeting at Amherst College last semester and the prevailing attitude was that transfer admission should be seen as an opportunity to increase diversity at the college. In other words, they would rather take underprivileged CC students than transfer applicants from peer schools like Columbia University, Dartmouth, Brown, ect. because CC students tend to bring unique perspectives gained from real life experience that the average “traditional”, straight-from-high-school students just don’t have. I’ve heard that similar attitudes are emerging in other top universities that have a real commitment to diversity.</p>
<p>As a general rule of thumb, the longer you’ve been out of high school, the less weight is placed on your high school transcript and your standardized test scores.</p>
<p>As for me, I was accepted to UCBerkeley (from out of state), Amherst College, Columbia U GS, and Brown. My high school record was poor, standardized test scores were average by their standards. It was definitely my life experience conveyed through my essays that got me through the door at each.</p>
<p>I suppose some schools opt. out the test scores only if you’ve taken gap(s) after high school for one or more years. However, majority of the people head straight to college so there is emphasis in the pool put on the SAT scores. It depends on some of the colleges because each one have distinct priorities. If you look at Boston College, Notre Dame, UPenn, Georgetown, and Colgate, they all still request students to submit SAT Is no matter what level of admissions. So yes, couple of schools opt. it out, but majority of the good schools still want you to send in the scores unless you have been out of school for that long.</p>
<p>I’ve been told couple of times that kids can improve their chances of getting into their top choices if the SAT I is retaken because the standardized test score helps adcoms separate all the 4.0 applicants.</p>
<p>^
The average age of a CC student is 27 years old. Many people applying to top schools from CCs have had gaps in their academic careers. Furthermore, just because a school asks for SAT scores, that fact says nothing about how those scores are weighted for each individual.</p>
<p>Yes, that was the point I took from him. Gaps do tend to reduce the importance of test scores. However, if one is enrolled in college right after HS, then the test scores are still considered for the schools mentioned.</p>