I am probably going to be attending a California community college soon. How can I heighten my chances of being able to transfer to schools such as Cal tech, Berkeley, MIT, and other top tier schools for mechanical engineering?
Get fantastic grades. Get to know professors so that you will have excellent recommendations when you apply to transfer. Those apps will be due by mid March probably. Remain involved and active in activities or pursuits outside of course work.
As with any applicant, the quality and range of your list of colleges to which you apply will be important. Even at this early stage, you may want to learn something about additional schools that offer excellent programs in mechanical engineering, such as Lehigh and Lafayette, for example.
Also keep in mind that (just like undergrad admissions) it will be important to create a well balanced application list that includes reach, match, and safety schools that appear affordable and that you would be happy to attend.
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Be realistic on your chances to top schools as a transfer. As noted, apply widely and understand that for many transfer students, financial aid could be lacking. Do you have a specific budget?
If you will be attending a CA Community college, then I highly recommend you TAG to one of the UC’s that participate in the program. You are guaranteed admission as long as you complete the required courses and maintain a specific GPA.
Below is the UC TAG chart that is fairly comprehensive in terms of requirements for your transfer. For ME, UC Merced, Riverside, Santa Cruz, Davis and Irvine are the TAG campuses. UCSB does participate in TAG but Engineering is excluded.
https://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/files/tag-matrix.pdf
Also a link to UC transfer GPA by major, since you mentioned UCB. You will be needing a transfer GPA of 3.8-4.0 to have shot at UCB and many of the other competitive schools you are targeting.
Transfers to some of the schools you listed are more difficult than applying as a Freshman.
For Caltech 2021, 127 transfers applied and 5 were admitted
For MIT 2020, 623 transfers applied and 21 were admitted.
These schools are hyper-competitive, and there’s a razor thin chance of getting accepted. Just focus on the grades and see what happens. “Chance me” advice can get bizarre. I’ve heard everything from “eat broccoli pills,” to “acrobatic yoga,” but, while you’re doing hand-stands, your chances are still the same as they were before. You’ll be fine whatever the outcome.