How difficult is it to transfer from community college to an ivy league school?

<p>Let's say this certain community college is known to send most of their students to UC Davis.</p>

<p>Two of the eight Ivy League colleges </p>

<p>Ivy</a> League - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia </p>

<p>don't have any transfer admissions at all. (Those are Harvard and Princeton.) At a highly selective college, it's generally harder to get in as a transfer student than as a first-year student. But some transfer students do get in each year, you just have to be amazing and lucky, that's all.</p>

<p>...Why does it have to be an Ivy League school?</p>

<p>Successful transfer applicants to the top tier schools are generally those who would have been more than competitive if they HAD applied as HS Seniors. What did your GPA/transcript look like in HS? What were your scores? Did you continue academic excellence in community college? If the answers to these isn't absolutely YES, I WAS TOPS then chances are next to nil. Yale accepted ~2% of transfer applicants last year. The fact is not many slots open up.</p>

<p>However CC transfers do happen very occasionally. Being in CC alone isn't a death sentence. The numbers are staggeringly against all transfer applicants, that's all.</p>

<p>I agree that most successful transfers from CCs are those that had a chance out of high school and have the high scores the schools require. Then it would be important to have taken the honors track if the CC has one and to have developed relationships with profs who will say you're exceptional among all students.</p>

<p>There were a number of students[I can think of 2 close friends off the top of my head, although I am sure there were more] in Penn's transfer class this year that came from community colleges. It wasn't the majority though.</p>

<p>I would say that the answer to this question depends on why you are asking it. If somebody is telling a high school student that he can go to community college for a couple of years to save money, and then just transfer to an Ivy League school, this is not very good advice--it's highly unlikely. Students from cc's can and do transfer to good schools, though.
If you are currently a community college student who is highly qualified and exceptional in some way, then why not apply for transfer to a highly selective school?</p>

<p>I have a feeling I may not get into Berkeley, USC, or LA. And I was wondering if I do perhaps end up going to community college, I may as well shoot for the best in the country. However, from what I've read, that seems to be impossible. Hopefully, however, it may be possible for me to end up in an excellent ivy tier grad school. </p>

<p>Though, I do have another question. I want to major in business and I'm wondering how difficult it is to transfer to Berkeley for their business program. Let's say I'm transferring there from UC Irvine or Davis.</p>

<p>You would have a better chance transferring into Haas from a cc. Try to go to one with an honors program and work hard!</p>

<p>yah i wouldnt recommend transferring to haas from uci or ucd over transferring from a cc. </p>

<p>your best bet would go to a cc, get a 3.8, and then apply for a transfer. if you look at the numbers, its easier to go from a cc (a californian one that is)</p>

<p>I know that a lot of CC in california have special "deals" with the UC system where you get guaranteed admission into certain UCs. I also know that there's quite a number of individuals who went from a CC in my city to Stanford. As for Ivy league, not sure. Ivy-league caliber-- absolutely</p>

<p>I don't know exactly where you're from, but Santa Monica College has a system that makes it very easy to go from there to UCLA or USC. I also know of a number of people that transferred to Berkeley from there.</p>

<p>From any school, transferring into ivy league colleges is going to be extremely hard, it's more than likely that a good GPA isn't going to do it. Try to transfer to some of the "top" public schools instead, and some larger privates</p>

<p>Naturally, a cc student comes in with a slight disadvantage because even if admissions officers say they will not hold the fact that the student could not afford an accredited university against them-- it is almost a visceral feeling to say cc coursework is easier than that in regular universities ( which many times may not even be the case).
It ultimately depends on your strength as an applicant. I know someone who got into Penn and Brown, as well as Middlebury with a full ride, from a cc; but, he had amazing ECs and was a top-notch writer.
Look at the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation; if your cc has a partnership with them, then it makes it a lot easier to transfer out into one of those schools ( I'm pretty sure Cornell and Stanford are in it)</p>

<p>
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it is almost a visceral feeling to say cc coursework is easier than that in regular universities ( which many times may not even be the case).

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Uh...most times it definitely is the case. For example, CC work simply cannot compare to classes at Dartmouth. Cannot.</p>

<p>I haven't met any transfer student this year that came from a CC (I go to Dartmouth) and I'd like to think that I'm one of those people who know a lot of the transfer students here. How amazing do you have to be coming from a CC? You have to be pretty darn amazing - just look at the stats of that one girl from here who got into Yale from a CC a couple years back.</p>

<p>I know one from my cc who goes to Dartmouth :)
That is not always the case. I have taken classes at Penn and the cc. The material is the same, the difference is the number of "stupid" kids increases in cc classes. This does not mean the education overall is worse. I, for example, have two professors who formerly taught at Penn and Hamilton respectively.</p>

<p>aerialblue, it really depends on the particular CC I would imagine. The one I attended was huge and had mostly full time professors teaching classes (small number of adjuncts), and most of my professors were highly qualified and demanding of us. One of my former accounting professors continues to write accounting textbooks that are used in universities across the country, and the same was true with a music teacher. Teaching at a CC allowed them more time to do things such as writing books than a university would. Many of them had advanced degrees from elite universities (ie my english prof who had a JD from Georgetown hated the lifestyle of a lawyer and quit to teach here) and I found them to be great (1000x better than my HS teachers). Sure I had a few less than desirable professors, but I am sure that is true of pretty much everywhere. And I will admit the classes were almost certainly easier to get excellent grades in due to the students surrounding me, but it doesn't mean I didn't learn the same material as people at any other school taking a similar class. So no, the work required to do well in a class at a good CC does not compare to Dartmouth, but I learned the same principles of macroeconomics that someone at dartmouth would.</p>

<p>To the OP, yes it is possible, but certainly not easy. I got into Cornell (only ivy I applied to) as a transfer.</p>

<p>Yes, def possible</p>

<p>my friend got into brown, columbia, and cornell</p>

<p>Then again, he was literally the face of the community college, perfect in every way, and never slept</p>

<p>While I cannot claim by any means to have transferred to an IVY school, I did transfer from a CC to one of the best engineering schools in the country. I am not writing to address the OP's topic, but I am writing to address the topic of the differing levels of difficulty between CC's and university courses. The CC I went to was well known for a strong math program and having strong math students. However, when I got to Purdue Engineering I quickly found the foolhardiness of thinking that the two schools would be similarly difficult. While the material may only be slightly different, the classes are at least three to four times harder to do well in, maybe more than that. This is for any number of reasons, including larger class sizes, less information about what is going to be covered on exams, harder exams, and competition with many bright students. The problem with accepting good students from CC’s into top programs, is that you cannot look at the student’s grades and assume they are really as good of students as their grades reflect. I held a 4.0 in CC, however, I have worked much harder here at Purdue, taken far less credits each semester, done far less community and extracurricular activities, and have only managed a 3.5. When I first got here I was shell-shocked at the difference, highly overwhelmed, and even felt at times like I was in over my head. I came with expectations of continuing my 4.0 streak, soon realizing that it wasn’t going to happen, I eventually just accepted that despite what I was told about CC’s comparing to universities - this was not the case.</p>

<p>just to put things in perspective, I remember a TV ad from a very well reputed and community college - they featured this ONE student who supposedly got to transfer to MIT (well, not an Ivy League, but a very good school).</p>

<p>My feeling is that if it's something that they felt compelled to advertise about it, then you have as much chance as getting struck by lightening.</p>