Hi I’m currently a freshman at a community college in San Francisco. (Not a US or EU citizen). I’m planning to transfer into the sophomore or freshman year in private universities like Harvard, MIT and am planning to apply in March.
I just took the ACT for the first time and got a 31 composite, should I keep it and just work on my college GPA and extracurriculars, or should i really retake it and apply next year instead?
What’s your current GPA? That’s going to be more important than your ACT score.
What are you majoring in? Can your parents afford to send you to college without any financial aid? Most aid, both merit and need-based, is reserved for incoming freshman, not transfers.
Also, to be honest, I have never heard of someone successfully transferring to Harvard, MIT, or similarly ranked schools from a community college. I think that’s a bit of an unrealistic expectation. It may be better to think of transferring to a UC or CSU (if you can afford it) for your junior year or look for a private university in California that’s less selective. Look into Santa Clara, Occidental, University of San Francisco, Pepperdine… if you want “reachy” schools (this would only be if you had a very competitive GPA, maybe think about USC.
? If you think you want to transfer to Harvard, you should be researching the transfer situation directly on the web site.
“Because of a remarkable 98 percent graduation rate, very few spaces are available each year for interested transfer students. Recently in transfer pools of more than 1,600, the number of well-qualified applicants far exceeded the number of students admitted and enrolled (12) each year as transfer students.”
ACT usually doesn’t matter for transfers. California has a good path for CC-> UC or CC-CSU , I’d explore that route.
Many colleges ask to see SAT/ACT scores for students with less than two years of college. They also request high school transcripts in those cases. They do not want those applicants to retake the tests, though, because they were designed for younger students. There is no competitive advantage for a college freshman to post a higher score than a high school student. Harvard, Stanford, et al are out of reach. The few students they admit as transfers are truly exceptional. They have accepted students from community colleges, but those are usually older applicants with compelling personal histories (e.g. military service, extreme hardship, etc.). The UCs only accept junior transfers, and admission is based almost entirely on the academic record at the C.C.
Here is what you should know-- the seats at Ivy-plus schools that are available for transfers is largely tied to attrition. Since attrition is almost non-existent in the top Ivy schools, so are the seats available. By way of example, recently, Harvard had over 1500 applicants and admitted about 15, and Yale had over a 1000 applicants in which about 2 dozen were offered seats. Brown is close to 5%. Princeton takes no transfers. So, while being qualified is certainly a criteria, the other portion must convey why these schools; typical reasons are that these schools offer programs and/or degrees not offered at your existing institution. Transferring because of the desire to attend a more elite institution is NOT consider a valid reason for transfer.
Second, that you could have obtained admission as a freshmen applicant. Third, that you have perfect scores at your current institution. Long story short…it is much more difficult to obtain admission as a transfer than as applying for a freshmen seat…
Transfer to MIT/Harvard etc… is not going to happen. If you want to transfer to a UC or CSU, you need to be a Junior level transfer with 60 semester/90 quarter units. ACT scores are not considered beyond High school. As noted above, the CC to UC or CSU is a excellent option.
If you want to transfer as a Sophomore, then look at the privates posted by @Qwerty568.
If you apply in sophomore year to the UCs, you could apply to UCLA and UCB, if you want a school similar to that caliber. But MIT/Harvard/Ivies do not take very many transfers (you really have to be exceptional)
I know it’s a crapshoot to try to transfer to MIT/Harvard, do you guys think raising my ACT from a 31 to a 34 would substantially increase my chances, or should I just work on my extracurriculars and side projects instead?
Their transfers are truly, truly exceptional. Pretty much perfect grades and test scores aren’t enough. You really need to focus on a more realistic plan.
NOPE
No, you don’t think it is a crapshoot, you actually think you have a good chance by changing things.. Why ask if you aren’t planning on listening to the advice here?:
**Also, to be honest, I have never heard of someone successfully transferring to Harvard, MIT, or similarly ranked schools from a community college. I think that’s a bit of an unrealistic expectation.
"Because of a remarkable 98 percent graduation rate, very few spaces are available each year for interested transfer students.
The few students they admit as transfers are truly exceptional.
Here is what you should know-- the seats at Ivy-plus schools that are available for transfers is largely tied to attrition. Since attrition is almost non-existent in the top Ivy schools, so are the seats available.Long story short…it is much more difficult to obtain admission as a transfer than as applying for a freshmen seat…
But MIT/Harvard/Ivies do not take very many transfers (you really have to be exceptional)**
You’ve read what the other posters said, but you don’t think (or hope) it applies to you.
**Unless you are an olympic caliber athlete, or are a celebrity, your chances are zero. **
But, I do know of a recent Y graduate, who went from the Army to a CC to Yale.
@boolaHI That’s probably a bit of a different situation considering the student was in the army. And one student having done so successfully does not mean it’s realistic for the OP, who still hasn’t told us his/her GPA.
No doubt, but I did want to convey that it occasionally happens. If I’m not mistaken. Columbia has a special program for admission for former servicemen/women.
I’m not even sure that one case would qualify as “occasionally”. It would be more accurate to say “virtually never”.
I am not sure about ACT, but the transfers that I’ve asked all had above 2200 SAT. OP, do I understand correctly that you are an international applicant? If so, your chances are even worse. This year Harvard admitted only 3 international transfers.
Do you have a specific reason for transferring?
If you are struggling to raise your ACT from 31 to 34, then you should realize that you are not in the caliber of Harvard/MIT. Why just 34? If your goal is Harvard then you should also put your goal at 36! If you do not believe in your own capabilities then do not expect the schools believe in you!
Even if by any chance you get admitted to such schools, do you think you can compete with your peers in school? I doubt that if your (self-acknowledged) ultimate potential is just a score of 34!
Listen to above posters such as @“aunt bea” and @Gumbymom who have extensive experiences and adjust your dream to a more realistic level.
At the upper end of the score range, test scores say little about academic potential and a lot about your ability to take the SAT or ACT. Someone with good reading comprehension will outscore a real dunce, but the difference in ability between a student with a 31 and one with a 34 is mostly fictional except in the eyes of admissions counselors.
The SAT, for instance, has been called the Scholastic Aptitude Test. It then became the Scholastic Assessment Test, a recognition that learning rather than raw ability was being measured by the test. Then it was the SAT Reasoning Test. Now the acronym is the name - SAT doesn’t stand for anything. The College Board themselves apparently don’t want to claim that their test measures ability. I see no reason to believe the ACT is fundamentally different.
I go to a full-IB school that produces a few Ivy (and equivalent)-bound seniors every year (out of 20-30 US applicants). An informal poll of last year’s senior class revealed no SAT or ACT essay scores above 9 and just two composite scores above 2250/34. The students in question are now performing well academically at Yale, Columbia, Berkeley (in the case of 3 students), and in one case Oxford.
Telling someone they can’t handle Harvard because their goal isn’t 35 or 36 on the ACT is, to paraphrase an overused example, like telling a fish it can’t handle the ocean due to its inability to climb a tree. Not that OP’s score won’t hurt his/her application, but telling a student that because of low test scores (by these schools’ standards) they can’t handle rigorous academics is irresponsible.
The SAT/ACT tests are designed for high school students. Harvard, Stanford, et al, reject the majority of freshman applicants with perfect test scores. Why is anyone here suggesting that the OP would have a better chance as a transfer applicant, whose scores would be handicapped by his age and college status? There is no point whatsoever in re-testing, because a score improvement is seen as a given. A college student is expected to perform better than a high school student. The OP might not want to hear the message, but he simply is not going to get into Harvard or Stanford.