Somewhat Unique Community College Transfer Situation?

I am currently enrolled in an A.A. degree program at my local community college, and I am looking to graduate in spring and transfer to a four year school in the fall. Ideally, I would like to transfer to a private school that has a small undergraduate enrollment (~2000 to 5000) and an emphasis on undergraduate research.

However, I have followed a more nontraditional path. I did well academically for the first three years of high school, but all but failed my senior year. Immediately after high school, I went to a four year school for one semester and got a 2.15 GPA. I left after this semester and went home to work full time for a year. (There were extenuating circumstances at home that negatively impacted my academic performance over this year and a half time period that could be explained in an admissions essay.)

I am not sure what kind of schools I should be looking at applying to due to the abysmal grades I earned in my senior year of high school and first semester of college. I now have a 4.0 cumulative GPA at my community college and several professors who told me that they would be happy to write excellent letters of recommendation speaking to my work ethic and academic ability.

Has anyone here been in a similar situation or know of any schools who value transfers who have worked hard to get a poor record turned around? I would like to apply to some more selective schools but don’t want to spend time and money on applications that will be dismissed immediately.

If you earn an Associate’s degree, then your high school transcript will not receive the same scrutiny as it did before. Colleges will be impressed that you have proven yourself to be successful in college-level coursework. Unfortunately, your earlier college grades will be included as well, but you should be able to make the legitimate claim that you were not originally prepared (and/or able) to do the work required, but you can show that now you are.

Is there a Transfer Advisor at your CC? That person should have useful ideas for you.