Need Help w/ Transfer and suggestions (Unusual Situation)

Transfer Students
1

Hi CC members, I’ve been lurking this forum for quite awhile. First time posting here, I need help with transferring as well as school choices.

To start with, I am an immigrant (from a poor country in Southeast Asia). I got to the US in 2015 at the age of 17, I started at a community college. I did not want to go to high school again because I graduated in my home country in 2014. My home state is Illinois.

EFC : 0

My major is Computer Engineering. Second choice is Computer Science.

This is my 3rd semester at community college.

So far, I have 4.0 GPA and have completed the following courses:
ENG 1
ENG 2
CALC 1
CALC 2
CALC 3
PHYSICS 1
Intro to CHEM
Intro to Computer

and will complete the following after Spring and Summer 2017:
Differential Equation
PHYSICS 2
PHYSICS 3
General CHEMISTRY 1
may be one or two GenED courses

ECs:
PTK Memberships
Spend one semester doing service learning. I helped high school student to prepare for college. Essay tips, etc. (Kinda ironic i never went to high school in the US)

After talking to several colleges in college fairs, I need to take either SAT or TOEFL (Some schools need both) to prove my English proficiency and Math skills (It’s for high school?) I have been prep’ing for the SAT and I am confident that I can get to the 1500 range.

Now on to the main question, I need help with university choices. For public school, I am not going to apply OOS (money reason). I’ll be applying to the following state flaghships schools:University of Illinois at Chicago and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

However, I also want to explore my options for private schools. I’ll be applying to Northwestern University, Illinois Tech, Cornell and University of Chicago.

I want you to suggest some other private schools with grants for transfer.

I know for private schools, it’s a long shot but I only have this one chance in life. If I could not get into any private, I’d still have my state flagships.

Thank you for your time.

2

Also, what are my chances at Ivy schools?

A little bit more info, I took placement test at the community college and started directly at college level. (ENG and CALC). It took me a bit to become efficient at English.I’d say I have transitioned to college life really well.

Edit : I am working on my application right now, I want to transfer in Fall 2017.

Edit 2 : The reasons I want to transfer without Associates are not so good family situation and I do not want to lose any credits especially if I take GenED courses. So the courses that I have taken are all only core courses for Engineering.

3

Also I am the first in my family to attend college.

4

Bump

5

Illinois has the IAI (Illinois Articulation Initiative) which guarantees that with an Associates degree all of your credits will transfer from a Community College to any of the state schools and several privates as well (Google can give you details). You’re gen. ed. requirements would be considered satisfied automatically unless you transfer to a private religiously based school which can still require theology courses. Without the associates degree none of the course transfers are guaranteed (I believe). Definitely look into this.

6

Does your CC have a Transfer Advisor? That peson will be able to help you find out about all of the articulation agreements, and can help you learn about scholarship opportunities. You might be a candidate for the Jack Kent Cooke scholarship.

7

My courses will be transferred in state, I talk to an advisor.

It is too late for me to apply for JKCF scholarships.

Can you sugguest some other out of state prviate universities? Should i also aim for Ivy?

Thank for your inputs

8

Hey! Saw your comment on my post. Our situations are pretty similar so thought I’d put in some input. Bucknell is an excellent school for computer engineering, or so I’ve heard. They have agreements with several community colleges, and grant full scholarships to community college students who were accepted into their summer program. (Look up Bucknell Community College.) I don’t think you could attend their summer program, since they seem to have partnerships with PA schools, though I would imagine they are generous with grants for community college graduates. (They used to have a partnership with Jack Kent Cooke.) Could be worth reaching out to their admissions office!