Terrible grades in high school affecting transfer admissions at upper tier schools?

Transfer Students
1

Many claim that my high school stats don’t really matter in transfer admissions if you’re applying for junior standing. I’d imagine this is true for most students, but my hs grades were especially terrible. I ended up graduating w/ a 1.9 gpa with no extracurriculars or anything of that sort.

To make up for that I’ve been taking a course load at my community college of 20 credit hours a semester (of mostly honors credits) and have gotten straight a’s. I also received a 32 ACT when I took it in high school despite my poor performance in the classroom.

Assuming I keep up my grades this year and continue some of the extracurriculars I’ve been doing at my current school (which, though not amazing, I view to be pretty solid) would I have a chance at some upper tier schools as a transfer - notably: Emory, Vandy, Reed, NYU, Amherst (since they seem interested in cc transfers), etc.

Also, I’d be transferring as either a film studies or philosophy major. From what I’ve read, these majors (at least philosophy) may have less rigorous admission standards.

2

My GPA was a 2.5ish in hs and my SAT’s were tragic(in which I’m trying to take again and claim I never took them in the first place) and I’m doing really well in my current college but I want to go to an ivy, im pretty sure this puts an impact on my dreams

3

Honestly? I think you’ll be fine. Your high ACT and low GPA shows that in high school, you were just screwing around. Your GPA in college, combined with your scores, shows that you’ve buckled down and become serious about school. A 4.0 in college says more about you than a 1.9 in high school.