<p>I'm a community college student preparing to transfer for spring 2012, and as such am preparing college applications. When I was a young teenager my parents had me placed into a group home system and the "high school" I attended was a mixture of 5th graders - 9th graders (I was the oldest); I never received a good high school education. When I finally left the group home, real high school was far more advanced than I was ready for. I dropped out of high school in January of 2006 (with a 2.8 GPA), and have since obtained GED, and taken the SAT, on which I scored just over 2300. When I returned to college in spring of 2009, I got straight A's except for one class, which was a telecourse format history of cinema class; I received an F. Since then I have received two B's, a B+, and straight A's (74 total units). My current (cumulative) GPA is 3.71.</p>
<p>I'm hoping for some feedback as to whether I realistically should be looking at applying to the schools listed below. Any feedback, good or bad would be appreciated.</p>
<p>My major is mechanical engineering with a focus in aerospace technologies.
Ideally I would like to go to Cornell.</p>
<p>MIT
Cornell
University of Michigan
Georgia Tech
University of Maryland
Cal Tech
University of Illinois
Purdue</p>
<p>I guessed as much regarding MIT and Cal-Tech… probably gonna scratch CT, but waste my $75 on the MIT app, there’s always a change. Anyways, here’s couple other pieces of info, I’m going to repeat the course that I got an F in over the summer and am expecting an A. That will push my GPA up to 3.87, and I forgot to include that I have over 200 hours of volunteer work that I have been doing for the past year and a half as a member of a statewide honor society.</p>
<p>Does this change anything, or does it really not make much of a difference?</p>
<p>I say you have chances. Yet, you should realize that transfer admissions to MIT and Caltech are highly selective, and your competitivity would mostly be defined by your essays.</p>
<p>Even with 100 people chancing you here, you’ll never know of a clear result if you never apply. Your list is good; it contains safeties and reaches. IMO, go for it.</p>
<p>The person who is best qualified to help you with this is the transfer counselor at your CC who is responsible for students in your major. Talk with that person and with your departmental advisor. They have helped lots of engineering transfers over the years, and they should have a very clear sense for your options.</p>