Poor high school gpa and test scores, much better college gpa and ECs

Transfer Students
1

I’m a sophomore at a small community college with a 3.01 HS gpa and a 26 composite ACT. I had a couple of Ds on my HS transcript as well. At my community college though, I have a 3.80, am president of our chapter of PTK, ran for PTK regional president, on the speech and debate team, play in the jazz band, was a student of the month, a peer tutor, and made the all-state academic team. I plan on studying physics at a university next fall, so I think it is worth noting that I have only taken Calculus I (got an A) and am enrolled in Calc II right now. So no physics classes taken at my CC.

With all that being said, I am looking at places like Vanderbilt, Wash U STL, Rochester, and maybe USC and Amherst. I have applied to a couple of my state schools as well, which I should not have trouble getting into. In a perfect world, I would apply to all those schools and more, but the application fees will begin to add up, as I am paying for these myself. My main concern is that after looking through a lot of transfer threads on this forum, many of those who have been admitted over the years had excellent HS stats in addition to college stats (usually at a peer university or flagship often times). What are my chances given these circumstances? Also, I am open to suggestions about other schools physics departments which I have not listed. If I need to specify or clarify anything, let me know

2

If you have not taken any calculus-based physics courses, you probably need three years starting from next fall to finish a physics major, due to the prerequisite sequencing. If your community college offers calculus-based introductory physics for physics majors, multivariable calculus, linear algebra, and differential equations, it may be a good idea to stay at your community college for another year to get these prerequisites done inexpensively before transferring to a more expensive four year school. If you apply as a physics major, the four year school may want to see that you are capable of graduating in a reasonable time.

The good news is that with a lot of college record, your high school record will matter less (or not at all for some four year schools).

State of residency? Cost limits? Have you run the net price calculator on your target four year schools?