To summarize my situation: I am a high school senior who had unfortunate results from college admissions. I am a smart student, national merit finalist, 1470/1600, perfect Math II score, great extracurriculars, etc… however I was very lazy in high school and did not take rigorous classes. I was rejected to every school except my safety school (Santa Clara) but my dad is unwilling to send me there. My plan is to attend a community college and prove to colleges that I am capable of succeeeding in college level curriculum. I plan to enroll in honors program and transfer after a year to a top university in the nation to study business. Can anyone give me any insight to how transferring works from a community college? Does it work?
I’m transferring from George Mason to uva after one year, which isn’t quite the same but similar enough that I feel I can at least try to address your question. I was kind of in the same boat you were in hs, except not as well 
. I did okay on my sats, 1960/2400, and took challenging classes in hs, but just didn’t do the best, I ended with a 3.3 weighted gpa(though with a consistent upwards trend). I did well my first year, got a 3.8 first semester and a 3.66 on my mid term report. Which leads me to believe that colleges look for two primary thing when considering transfers: do they have the potential to do well at our university, and can they do the work to do well. Your sat scores will confirm you have the potential, and if you do well at cc, you’d also prove you can do the work and apply yourself. This applies no matter where your transferring from, cc or otherwise. I’ve definitely heard of people transferring after a year at cc, and there’s no reason you can’t be one of them.
I am transferring to my number one school in the fall. I’ll be a sophomore then. I did my first semester at a 4-year college and second half at CC. It all depends on where you want to transfer. Could you list some places? Some states have guaranteed transfer agreements with CCs and 4-year universities. Some colleges require a specific number of credits, specific classes, minimum GPA, etc. If you provide us with some places you would like to transfer to then perhaps we can offer more specific advice.