<p>Hello guys, I am a community college student, planning to transfer for mechanical engineering in fall 2013. I have recently immigrated to USA, and I started a job right after high school in my home country. I did well at my job and was promoted, and held that job for 3 years before coming to USA. I have 4.0 GPA in 22 units i took this spring. i am planning to take 10 more units in summer (I am rushing as I need to finish 60 units before fall 2013). I recently landed a job at Mathnasium working as a math tutor for about 13-15 hours/week. I want to apply to Stanford or MIT and wanted an to know is my profile decent enough to be considered at those schools? or I should stick to UCs?</p>
<p>You might as well apply for those top schools. I know that students transfer from community colleges around here to top schools like Columbia if they have a good enough GPA (which you clearly do). Do you have anything which could set you apart from fellow transfer applicants? Are you a URM (under-represented minority) or the first one in your family to attend college? Factors like these often can prove to be the difference in college admissions. No matter what happens, though, I would definitely be proud of that 4.0 GPA!</p>
<p>It’ll be really tough to transfer to Stanford, MIT, or Caltech, as transfer admissions are usually even more competitive than undergraduate admissions. However, I know UCs hold a huge number of spots for transfers from California community colleges, so you might want to look into that a bit more. UCB, in particular, is on par with MIT for engineering.</p>
<p>@xcalculatin, well I am a minority (I am a brown guy from India) but I dont know if I am under represented or not, haha. And both my parent are graduates, so no I am not the first one to attend college in my family.
@WollyMannoth, I would be more than happy to go to any UCs (I prefer UCLA over Cal, I like LAs big city feel over Berkeley) but getting in to Stanford/MIT/Caltech for engineering is a great boost for confidence. I know I need more than 4.0 to get in to these schools, so I just needed to know if being an unconventional student with 3 year experience and by fall '13 i’ll another year experience in tutoring makes me good enough candidate to be considered at these premium schools? or it would be just the waste of application fees.</p>
<p>You may as well apply, but chances are very slim. You do have a good shot at UCLA or UCB, which should set you up for grad school anywhere you’d like (if that’s your plan), as long as you do research, maintain a high GPA, etc. </p>
<p>Being Indian will actually hurt you, because you’re an over represented minority, which makes chances at private schools even less. </p>
<p>Is there any way you can get involved with research? That will make you a much more competitive applicant. </p>
<p>However, if you have a 4.0 and ECs, there is absolutely no reason not to apply. They’re a reach, not an impossibility. Also consider Harvey Mudd.</p>