Transfer into Chapman University's Dodge College from CA Community College

Hello all - I’m wondering if there are ever chances for someone to transfer into Dodge at Chapman from a California community college such as OCC. I’ve been a filmmaker my whole life, have a long resume including winning film festivals and state and international competitions and being hired by companies and an up-and-coming musician for his charting single…but I had health issues for the first half of high school and my GPA isn’t good. My SAT wasn’t high enough to save me either. I doubt that anyone from Chapman even read my application, was probably eliminated by the GPA number alone. I don’t know whether I can be admitted into ANY film school at a university, and I know that I’ll miss “the college experience” if I don’t ever get in anywhere. It’s frustrating and kind of depressing. Any advice or insight would be MUCH appreciated, even if it’s bad news. Thank you for your thoughts.

Chapman is a good school, but it is expensive and transfers get minimal aid.

Can you afford it?
OCC is a good school. Is your GPA really low? Once you attend a CC, your High School record is in the past. Your CC record is the one that will matter.

Money is, fortunately, not the issue. My GPA (3.1) and prob my SAT (1200) are the issues. I worked hard on my essays, have letters of rec, and even college credit from Emerson (6 week summer program with grade of “A”). I’m just wondering if there’s any hesitation because OCC is a 2 year college, might not rank as well with Chapman as coming from a 4 year university. Thoughts?

Contact Chapman and ask.

You’re supposed to transfer from a 2 year (OCC) to a university.

As long as your grades are good, you should apply.
The SAT is typically taken by high schoolers. Once you complete the CC requirements, the HS record is not used for admission purposes.
Chapman doesn’t need that info anymore because you are in a CC.
Repeating: Remember, once you’ve done your 2 years at your CC, with transfer acceptable coursework, your high school record isn’t used for transfer admission.
https://www.chapman.edu/admission/undergraduate/how-to-apply/transfer.aspx

Did you apply? Here is how Dodge admission works. Chapman admissions office checks to make sure you meet the minimum stats for admission (which while your Stats aren’t stellar, they definitely do). Then they pass your creative supplement over to the Dodge admissions team who ONLY looks at that! Unless they specifically ask for more info from the admissions office they never see those stats. I can’t tell if you are a junior or senior, if you are a senior and haven’t applied it’s too late, if you are a junior–APPLY! Have a killer two minute film for their prompt (they won’t look at any other video for the film production program) and a bang up resume, writing sample and supplemental question answers.

If you do decide to try the transfer route, choose your school carefully based on their transfer agreements. I have tried to post that link but CC won’t let me so Google Chapman Transfer articulation agreements and the link will appear.

Especially use the transferology link and enter in the freshman required courses for film production and see what community college have equivalencies. Take them! Try and get as many of the freshman courses done so you can stay on track. And unlike many schools that want two years completed, Chapman (especially Dodge) likes it if you transfer early so apply earlier rather than later!

@hatsrus

You’ve actually got it backwards, 4 year universities will give more of the transfer spots to students applying from CCs than those who are already attending a 4 year university.

Hey, quick question, where did you find out that dodge doesn’t look at your stats like gpa and SAT scores?

I spoke to the Chapman admission officers and they said most film schools don’t look at the common app stuff. I’m applying as well for film production.
They did admit that it is harder to transfer into Dodge than it is to even get in through first year after highschool. The dodge admissions person said that they don’t like having many kids entering dodge after freshmen year because they don’t have the same connections as the others, experience in the dodge program, and they are behind on creating relationships and teachings, if that makes sense.