Transferring from Community College to Cornell or Duke

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

First off I want to start by saying I never would have even thought this was a plausible goal for myself but considering the things I have accomplished in Community College I am considering schools like Cornell, Duke, Notre Dame, and Georgetown for transfer. My credentials are:
GPA : 3.76 with no basic skills courses and most focus on business. This includes both accounting 101 and 102 macro and micro Econ statistics two English comp classes and many more in 44 credits.
Phi Theta Kappa board member as the Vice President of scholarship for our chapter
Member of the students for global citizenship
Public speaking tutor
Member of the surf club
Member of the investors club
Currently applying for English Honor Society
Playing a large part in many on campus events such as an international students support panel, tattoo convention, toy drive, rally for women’s rights and many more.
Most importantly I travel with my father to Hong Kong as well as Ningbo China on business to meet with buyers from target and Walmart to discuss with them the purchase of his companies products to see how international business works. I will also be traveling to Germany this year to see how the European side works.
I have been offered an internship in Toronto while traveling for a toy company

My SAT scores and Highschool GPA were not great I was very average as a student. I had around a 1600 on my SAT and and final GPA of around a 2.9.

I would never consider these schools but recently I received a letter in the mail accompanied by a packet of information from the admissions director at the ILR school at Cornell saying they see my as an excellent transfer student. I spoke on the phone with the admissions director and he said that the minimum GPA is a 3.4 so I am fine in that aspect and the China travel was very impressive.

In no way am I saying these are the only schools I am applying to at all. But these are my goals and as of now I’m kind of in the dark with the whole experience. If anyone has any information on what my chances are I would appreciate it.

2

Did you ever ask how the admissions office found out about you? Did you ever apply to Cornell? How else would they know about your background?

3

I think they knew through Phi Theta Kappa. The classes I did well in matched the criteria for their ILR program I believe.

4

Here is what you should know, at least for Ivy schools–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%.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…

5

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6

Why would they go out of their way about contacting me then? Why would they waste their time? And actually Cornell has a higher transfer rate than it does admittance for freshmen. The admittance rate for a transfer student is around 20%; Cornell being top Ivy for community college transfers.

7

I’m not sure about your chances, but I know you are absolutely right about Cornell. It’s nowhere near Harvard/Standford/MIT in terms of transfer admittance. If you are a junior transfer, HS GPA may not even matter at all.