<p>What kind of college grades would you need to be seriously considered for transfer admission to SCU? I didn't do great in high school and this will be my freshman year, so how much will my high school grades be factored into this decision?</p>
<p>Which community college are you attending? Some of the community colleges in the Bay Area have Guaranteed Transfer Admissions programs to Santa Clara University (West Valley College is one of them, I'm pretty sure there are others). To go that route, you need a 3.3 GPA in college courses.</p>
<p>If your community college does not have a Guaranteed Transfer Admissions program with SCU, it still stands to reason that averaging 3.3+ is probably a good goal. </p>
<p>Putting a Guaranteed Admissions Program aside in case you don't have that available - I have read that SCU is trying to balance their school demographics - right now a large percentage of students are Business Majors and over the next few years that they want to reduce it so that no more than 25% are Business Majors. This is likely good news for non-Business majors... transfers to Letters & Arts probably can get in with lower GPAs (I've heard as low as 3.0) assuming there is room. This also probably means that Business majors need to have more than 3.3.</p>
<p>Again, on the downside, I've also read that SCU has been having trouble stabilizing their enrollment numbers - a few years back they were very low on the number of freshmen who came in (low yield) and at that time, SCU also took transfers for Fall OR Spring semester. Last year or so, SCU's incoming freshman class has been over expectations (high yield), and my best guess is that this lowers the number of spots opened up for transfer students. These days they accept transfers only in the Fall. Some of this space crunch could be tempered by the economy as some students may decide not to attend/return because of daunting tuition costs. (Note - SCU's financial aid packages are not robust. Unlike some other private schools, SCU relies heavily on actual tuition payments to fund their operations. Compare this to Stanford, which is now offering free tuition to students whose families make less than 100K a year.)</p>
<p>Other tips: get involved in one or two ECs at your college that you are passionate about and get into leadership roles. If your college has an honors program, look into it (taking honors classes, etc.). Be sure to build a relationship with one or two professors that can write you strong recommendation letters... all the better if it is in your major and/or you can take more than one class with the professor.</p>
<p>All the tips above will make you a good candidate for transfer to any school - so in some ways, just concentrate on having a successful 2 or so years at community college!</p>
<p>Annika</p>