sucky grades at a top college Vs good grades at an "average" college

<p>Do you have a better chance transferring to an ivy league college: with a great gpa from a normal college, or an OK gpa from a prestigious college?</p>

<p>mmm...how about a great gpa from a prestigious college?? lol i dunno...i know that ivys like to accept from cc's, but i dunno how a 4.0 from a cc compares to a 3.5 from a top lac or public university</p>

<p>idt an ivy would accept from a cc unless the person had a perfect GPA and serious ec credentials. Even if a person does prove himself/herself in a cc there are many excellent institutions in this country that can provide a superior education to those students. Tons of qualified kids from presitigious universities dont get into ivys.. it doesnt make sense that an ivy would accept most students from a cc based on what else there is out there.</p>

<p>The acceptance rates for transfering into Ivy's is less than half of the freshman acceptance rate. Princeton doesn't even accept transfers, and Harvard has announced that they accepting only 2.5% of transfer applicants this year.</p>

<p>Clive: Cornell and Amherst (among others) are taking an initiative to recruit and admit CC students from all backgrounds. It's all about socio-economic diversity now, not just racial.</p>

<p>i guess if for socioeconomic reasons that would make sense, but fundamentally unless cc was best a deprived person could get it doesnt make sense to me</p>

<p>I go to a CC. There are many reasons I chose it over a Univ. $ being one of them. You're also assuming that a CC is always a lesser experience. I have teachers who have taught at the Univ. level full time. I also have had a teacher who is revered by everyone who take his classes. Most say he's the best teacher they ever had in college, even after they transferred.</p>

<p>gumgum: I think the answer is neither. Sucky grades at a good university I'm assuming is a 3.0 @ lets say Carnegie. Not good enough. Good grades at a CC would be 3.7+. </p>

<p>ECs+App just count way too much to make such a dry assumption like that.</p>

<p>Let us still hope in the equity of man.</p>

<p>Jay, when u say Ecs, does this include high school Ecs if ur a freshmen or sophomore transfer? cause man do my high school Ecs suck (did the best with what i had though).</p>

<p>and i have a lot of friends who go to CCs who say that they could teach the profs are so stupid... though admittadly that can happen anywhere</p>

<p>no offense intended but the education at a CC is not as strong as most private liberal arts colleges</p>

<p>since when does "top college" = private liberal arts college exclusively?</p>

<p>I was comparing an average Univ. to a CC.</p>

<p>The fact remains most elite schools reserve spots for CC transfers.</p>

<p>I agree that the teaching at CC's might be comparable, or superior, to the teaching at University, based on horror stories of TA's on power trips and professors who are excellent at research, but not excellent at English. Furthermore, CC's tend to have small classes and a lot of interaction with teachers.</p>

<p>However, this discussion is less about the educational experience and more about what your GPA means to adcoms to an Ivy League college. Fundamentally, I think the difference between a college class and a high school class is that in high school, you can try really hard and get a 4.0, while in college, you have to try really hard, but it still is going to come down to your wits come test time. Part of this is due to the level of competition at universities, where professors have to differentiate between the best and the merely good. This level of competition simply isn't present in most CC classes, and I think CC's run the line between high school and college in terms of difficulty. </p>

<p>I admit, though, that the difference sharply narrows, at least at my CC, for the students who take a heavy math/science set of classes.</p>

<p>But then again, if you have a former univ. prof. who writes a letter of rec. stating you are one of the best and brightest of all of the students he's encountered at any level (4 and 2 year) it helps.</p>

<p>From what I've seen on reading on Ivy transfer literature and articles, most successful Ivy transfers are coming from elite universities - with the single exception of QUALIFIED students with financial or personal circumstances that required a CC career. Most of these schools do not have to give a "second chance" with the high number of applications they receive. </p>

<p>There are schools (such as the one I am attending) where the average grade is a B- (GPA: 2.7). Considering every student in the class received at least a 4.0 in HS + high SATs + major ECs, this makes considerably low marks - seem impressive. But how much do adcoms value that?</p>

<p>It would be interesting to see if there there are any facts regarding GPA + institution for admission.</p>

<p>"Ivy transfer literature and articles"</p>

<p>Any chance of naming these?</p>

<p>Here's one source I used for my info: <a href="http://www.jackkentcookefoundation.org/jkcf_web/content.aspx?page=1493126%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.jackkentcookefoundation.org/jkcf_web/content.aspx?page=1493126&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I've seen that in addition to various other transfer articles you find that school newspapers run after transfer decisions are released. Nothing substantive...</p>

<p>Since I'm doing this first hand I'll let you know how I fair, should be substantive.</p>

<p>I remember there are a couple of CC => ivy league right here from the transfer forums.</p>

<p>I'm pretty sure you are better off getting that great GPA (3.8-4.0) at a really good university. The ivy's and other top schools are more likely to accept students from a Top 40 school (following USNEWS rankings) than from a CC. However, you always have a good shot if your a perfect student and have awesome supporting credentials from a CC.</p>