So I am finishing up my first year at a community college and I am expected to finish this semester with around a 3.7 (I finished last semester with a 3.8) and was wondering if that is a good gpa for transferring. My high school gpa (2.5) does not reflect the student that I am and I am worried that I will be denied because of it. I also know that schools look at high school transcripts when the student is trying to transfer after one year but will they like the improvement? I just do not know really what to expect. The schools I am applying to are University of Indiana, University of Oregon, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Colorado Boulder, University of Arizona and (huge reach) University of Texas at Austin. I would also like to add more schools to this list so please recommend some! I would like to study finance and accounting. I know I should stay at the school I am at so I can use TAG but I really do not like it here.
If I understand your other threads correctly you’re a low income student from CA. How will you pay for an OOS school?
Public universities derive their funding from state taxes and the people of the state paying for those taxes.
The schools you have listed are public and that means your OOS fees are going to be high.
Most State schools will only provide Federal funding which means that as a non-resident, you won’t qualify for instate fees nor instate scholarships.
Example:
University of Arizona will cost you $38,000.
If you qualify for a full Pell Grant (from Federal funds) that’s $6K per year.
If you qualify for a loan, that’s another $6K per year.
That’s a total of $12K. You would still need $26K per year.
You cannot borrow that.
A parent or another person would have to borrow that for you. If you are low income, your parent may not qualify for a loan of that size each year. Where would you get the money?
You’re not a resident of Texas, so your chances there are not good.
FAFSA is the name of an application (Free Application for Federal Student Aid), it doesn’t give you money. The federal government provides those funds and that money wont go far at an OOS university.
California is a HUGE state and the schools are SO DIFFERENT from each other! They are not the same.
You sound like you want to get away from your current city, but you really need to consider instate schools. If you apply now, with just one year done, you will be competing against students who have the required units and EC’s for transfer. They will use your HS grades to evaluate your preparation so you wont be competitive and you wont have the funds to transfer.
None of these public universities will be affordable because they don’t meet need and won’t give you financial aid.
If you live and California and don’t want to wait one more year, apply to PRIVATE universities along the West coast or where you may bring geographical diversity.
What courses have you taken? What majors are you applying for? Are you Asian, Hispanic, pacific islander, native American, or Black/African American?
An alternative: transfer to another community College. There are literally more than a hundred of them in CA, some even have dorms. You could attend city college in San Diego or near Eureka, those would be totally different from San Francisco or San Bernardino.
Madison, Boulder and UofA might be realistic, but still not a sure bet with that HS gpa. After two years of college with a 3.7 you’ll have really strong chances at all of those schools save for UT.