<p>Hi everyone,
I have a good high school record (GPA: 3.98; fair amount of extracurricular) but bad SAT score (under 2000). I will go to a california community college for financial reasons and also because I was rejected from all my first choice schools. My only reasonable (but still dreaming) goal right now is to transfer to Haas at UCB. My real dream school is Yale University.
I am so crushed right now seeing most of my classmates excited to attend their dream college. Having an irreconcilable relationship with my family, a good college is the only thing that will make them respect/love/believe/.... me again.
I am completely lost so please help me. Any advices for where to start ? What activities should I take? How to survive community college and make the most out of it? seriously any advice would be helpful. For successful transfers from a ccc to uc or ivy or any other college, post your stats if you can. Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>I know how you feel I was rejected from my 1st choice schools too coming out of HS so I decided to take the CCC path while all my friends are in UCs right now. Honestly, I think it was one of the best decisions that I have made because I know I will enjoy college more at my 1st choice schools and because it’s so cheap. </p>
<p>After completing 30 Units, your HS stats don’t matter anymore, but I think your HS help you since your GPA is so good. Just make sure to take classes that are transferable to the colleges you want to transfer to via articulation agreements and the IGETC for UCs. You will probably find CCC classes to be easy for you too especially GE classes so a motivated student like you should have no problem getting a 4.0.
Your CCC’s honors program/society is a good place to start in terms of clubs and you could run for ASB as well.</p>
<p>To tha4nsw3r: thank you for your post 
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<p>any other advices are welcome !</p>
<p>bump…
bump…</p>
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<p>Start with the sticky thread at the top of this forum: Transfer Admissions 101</p>
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<p>That depends on what you’re interested in, there’s no list of specific ECs that will help you in transferring. Just get involved in clubs, volunteering or other activities that follow your academic or outside interests.</p>
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<p>Work hard, get top grades, take challenging courses, get to know your instructors.</p>
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<p>Use the Search function or read through current threads, there are many threads from this and past years with stats and results.</p>
<p>Be aware that it appears to be extremely difficult to transfer to Y from a CC. The past 2 years, only 1 student per year out of the 20+ accepted has come from a CC.</p>
<p>You “survive” it by not going into it with such a negative attitude that you seem to be thinking of it as a leper colony. ;)</p>
<p>Make your work harder – do extra projects, take honors courses, work closely with your professors, do extra reading, and so forth. Whatever you do, don’t just coast. Get involved with cocurriculars and leadership positions – not just resume lines, but meaningful things. And really, look at it as a really interesting and potentially amazing life experience, not a curse. A LOT of us chose to go to community colleges first, and somehow we’ve all lived. ;)</p>
<p>Some Ivies are not accepting any transfer students–I would check your favorite school’s policies on that. It’s so hard in this era to get into an Ivy. You could have had 2400 on your SATs and not gotten in. I know the valedictorian of my son’s fantastic school with awesome SATs didn’t get in. Don’t forget that out of 100 people who thought that they were so close to having a chance that they spent money and time on an application, only 6 or 7 made it. Obviously these schools have way, way more superbrilliant candidates than they can possibly accommodate. </p>
<p>I guess what I’m saying here is that you might want to widen your net a little–not because you’ve done anything wrong, but because the odds are just so ridiculous for anyone.</p>
<p>Endicott, that’s definitely true, but there are still the non-traditional programs if all the OP is concerned about is the Ivy “name.” Harvard Extension, Columbia SGS, and Penn LPS are still thriving, Brown’s RUE program and Yale’s Eli Whitney program are still accepting a handful (really; something like 5 each) students a year, and Cornell is obviously a huge supporter of transfer students, especially with its public colleges.</p>
<p>It’s definitely a backdoor route, and you can argue it’s a degree with an asterisk, but you could still say you hold a Harvard University degree, albeit not a College one. If your parents are genuinely obsessed with the names, those programs are an option…not that I endorse name-seeking and Ivy-climbing.</p>
<p>Thank you for all your advices.
I definitely will not just apply to ivy league schools. I know that the odds are not in favor of transfer students but I prefer to try and fail rather than not try at all.
My parents really think don’t believe I will go anywhere in life and have no respect for me at all so that’s a motivation for me to be successful Even though I got into 2 UC and some ok schools but the scholarships arent enough for me and my parents don’t want to pay the tuition –> me = community college
I have such a negative attitude toward community college because the cc that I will go to really looks desperate and its location is beyond horrible. I have taken classes there before so I know.
But anyway I hope everything will be fine
Once again thanks for all your comments. </p>
<p>PS: I live in US but I will be consider international student –> chance of transferring to ivy is like none…but I prefer to set a high goal :)</p>
<p>California community colleges are, in some cases, in a league of their own. I know a handful of people who’ve transferred to top ten schools from Santa Monica Community College.</p>
<p>To the above poster: a backdoor route? One of the pitfalls of the College Confidential logic is that admissions statistics define the value of an education. People here can, very often in fact, look wide-eyed at those who have gained admission to a HYPS and be completely uninterested in someone who has succeeded at one of those schools. Academic life is all about gaining practical and theoretical experience in a chosen discipline. It’s not about just getting in somewhere. </p>
<p>Lastly, from the details of the first post, I don’t think this student is eligible for Penn’s, Columbia’s, Brown’s, or Yale’s non-trad admissions programs.</p>
<p>You got into several UCs and your parents aren’t impressed? That’s crazy!</p>
<p>To Endicott: But I didn’t got in UC Berkeley 
and so for my parents UC Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara (I know not the 2 best schools in the world but still better than CC) are rubbish !</p>
<p>In reference to the post above: It’s hard to say that a four year school is better than a community college. The two are incomparable since the purposes of each contrast so greatly.
Students usually attend a CC with the initial intent to transfer out after a certain amount of time. It sounds like a CC is the best fit for the situation you are describing. You mentioned that you will be attending for financial reasons and that your completely set on transferring out. CC sounds like the perfect stepping stone for you.
I am currently attending a CC on the east coast. I had very high grades in high school and I enrolled at my current school for financial reasons. I was not too happy about it, but I now realize that it was for the best. I have not gotten decisions back from them yet, but I applied to a few Ivies and was accepted into a top tier Liberal Arts College as well as some other schools.
Go in expecting to do a lot of work. CC is not as easy as you think it will be and, though it is possible, a 4.0 isn’t a guarantee even for a student of your caliber.</p>
<p>To dfuent724:
I agree with you that CC is a good path especially if i’m in California, transfer from ccc to uc doesnt sound bad at all. I know that CC sounds easy but you have to work hard !
What I actually mean when I said 4 year univ > CC is social life. I’m feeling like I will miss out a lot of freshman and sophomore social stuffs. But well if I successfully transfer from a CC to the college I want to go then I guess my junior + senior years will make up for what I’ve missed
Also, I must say that I change school a lot from elementary school to high school so for college, I really want to just stick with one school but oh well…:)</p>
<p>hellojan, I was most certainly not endorsing the “backdoor route” option. I was simply saying that for students focused on names alone – and there’s usually nothing you can say to them to convince them to look at things differently – the option does exist. I’m blissfully about as far outside the usual CC elitist mindset as possible. ;)</p>
<p>in regards to bottom tier ivys such as cornell and colombia…its a high possibility…</p>
<p>if you’re aspiring to transfer into the likes of yale, harvard or princeton i dont think so…</p>
<p>goodluck in whatever you do</p>
<p>columbia admits <10% of transfer applicants. that’s not a high possibility for anybody.</p>
<p>to the op, as everyone said, make the most out of your time at the ccc. try not to be miserable, even if it’s difficult. work very, very hard and get to know your profs really well and show them how dedicated you are. it pays off.</p>
<p>its higher than most other ivies</p>
<p>yes, but it’s still no high possibility. for anyone.</p>
<p>in comparison its high…</p>
<p>reading comprehension</p>