<p>When does your current school matter in transfer admissions? It obviously does to some extent, but how much? Anyone talk to any admissions people about this?</p>
<p>I think of it this way:</p>
<p>If you are comparing two applicants with equivalent courework and GPA:
Top 20 school - very great effect
Top 50 school - great advantage
Top 100 school - slight advantage
Not Top 100 school - some disadvantage
CC - great disadvantage</p>
<p>I wouldn't know how to quantify, but I would strongly disagree with cc being a "great disadvantage." CC > 4 year school is a well-planned path for some students; perhaps due to financial reasons, perhaps lack of readiness for the 4-year, perhaps a desire to improve credentials before applying to a more selective 4-year.</p>
<p>Some top 4-year schools have formal transfer paths established with cc's (particularly within the same state system, but there also privates who have this). Others, I think, recognize what cc students can bring to their campuses. I'm a Stanford alum and I specifically recall reading an article in the alumni magazine a few years back chronicling the backgrounds of some recent cc transfers and why their applications were successful.</p>
<p>Hopefully that is the case what you say, because I am in a top 10 liberal arts college trying to transfer into the Ivies. But I actually think it has more to do with your essays, your reasons for transferring, and what kind of niche the admissions officers think you will fill in their school.</p>
<p>I wasn't dissing the choice to go to a CC. I just think that most school will view most CCs as less difficult than a top 100 school.</p>
<p>^ I don't know why people assume that. Do you think all CC's are just giving busy work and using high school text books?</p>
<p>That being said...in some cases CC's are harder simply because the teacher's DON'T have to be as qualified. Learning chemistry from someone who is known to teach chemistry well is a lot harder than trying to basically teach it to yourself when your chemistry teacher doesn't even have a degree.</p>
<p>I'm using the CCs in my state as a comparison, and alot of the classes DO use high school textbooks. My friend graduated HS with a 1.4 GPA and says he did the same amount of work at his CC and got a 3.7 GPA.</p>
<p>OTOH, sometimes cc teachers are quite dedicated to teaching, per se, and developing excellent didactic techniques. Whereas some faculty at top unis are much more interested in their research and look at their teaching responsibilities toward lower division courses as a necessary evil. As well, some very accomplished faculty in their fields at top unis have English as a (distant) second language and their students have great difficulty due to that.</p>
<p>These are just generalizations; and I think soccer_guy makes valid points. Just that it can cut different ways.</p>
<p>To the OP's original point: certainly I think that if a student is excelling at a top-20 school, another top school will take that as evidence that the student will be able to handle the work. As such, the hierarchy in the OP makes some sense.</p>
<p>OTOH, such students may not have as compelling a reason for transfer as those who find themselves at schools which do not challenge them sufficiently or who are at cc's and thus absolutely must transfer.</p>
<p>In the end, I think it is a combination of all factors (including essays, recs) and the picture they paint taken together.</p>
<p>Many of my science professors at community college have PHDs. The current chemistry teacher received his from Stanford, the previous from Carnegie Mellon.</p>
<p>I think the community college lure was in being able to focus on their role as educators and not being hired on the basis of their willingness and ability to do research. That said, I have talked to professors that did take time off to do research, through means of a sabbatical. For one reason or another, all of the professors I have asked questions on regarding research (a career I am considering) have mentioned a different dark side.</p>
<p>i was actually wondering about something similar to this, and maybe you guys can help me out...
i'm a freshman at usc (south carolina) and trying to transfer to emory. my gpa first semester was 3.8 and i took pretty much the harder gen ed classes. but i've also heard that 3.8's from state colleges and "lesser" regarded universities don't carry the same amount of weight, so how will the adcoms at emory look at my gpa??</p>
<p>If you go back and look at the transfer results from last year, there are numerous instances of students that were accepted to certain schools from lesser ranked schools or CC's, while others at more challenging or higher ranked schools were rejected or waitlisted. </p>
<p>It all depends on what else the applicants had to offer, compared to other folks in the app pool. I can see it going either way, depending on the situation. Much as we would like to reduce the process to a simple equation to relieve the uncertainty, we know that's not always possible.</p>
<p>(That was to the OP's original thought, not the post above btw.)</p>
<p>I know a lot of CC people that transfered into the likes of Yale and Stanford.
The one thing that those adcom value above all else is "diversity". They want people from all walks of life. Whether its from MIT and other Ivies, international universities, or community colleges.</p>
<p>Its certainly NOT as cut and dry.</p>
<p>I wish there was some kind of comprehensive ranking system for CCs. My CC is awesome. Most of my professors have PHDs, and have gone to top graduate schools (my philosophy professor has a PHD from Yale and is absolutely brilliant), but they choose to teach at a CC because they like having smaller classes where they can actually teach, rather than just lecture and hope the students "get" it.</p>
<p>Lots of pluses and minuses on both sides, it's not as simple as your post.</p>
<p>I would say that if you've gotten into a top school, that's a mark in your favor: obviously you had to be pretty good in the first place to get in. Getting a 3.8 from a top 10 LAC may or may not be more impressive than a 3.8 from a good State U, however, depending on grade inflation, course load, etc. Your recommendations might be worth more coming from a top school, but you've also got to make a stronger case for why you want to transfer because you're presumably already experiencing excellence.</p>
<p>I'd say that the biggest problem with applying from a CC is that you haven't had the opportunity to really prove yourself in upper-division coursework, etc. I'll just guess, though, that there's little institutional bias against these schools...it's just that it's tougher to get a great application out of one. Of course, you could benefit from a clear motivation to transfer if you're coming out of a CC.</p>
<p>--Joe</p>
<p>I think you're oversimplifying it a lot. I think you also have to take into comparison the program the person is coming from. My school is ranked in the 80s (I think...), but has one of the strongest poli sci programs around (which I'm in - and have a 3.94 in). If someone from a higher ranked school but one that has a mediocre poli sci program comes in with similar grades, I doubt they would have much of an advantage on me.</p>
<p>ThatPoshGirl, the last thing we need is a CC ranking. CC's are where people can finally just chill...not worry about all this ranking crap...just go to your local community college, and one's disadvantaged because their all just "local CC's" I couldn't imagine what it would be like if they were RANKED. The one's at the top would start filling up, the one's at the bottom would lost people and shut down, therefore depriving that community of a community college. One's at the top might start charging more or making it hard to actually be addmited. Nope...be a huge mess.</p>
<p>CCs are designed to function as an educational resource for the taxpayers of a community without the for-profit vagaries of universities. Although some CCs are clearly stronger than others in terms of resources and faculty, ranking them is a horrible idea.</p>
<p>I doubt there is a formula, but let's be realistic: a 4.0 at Yale is not the same as a 4.0 at [state school X] which is not the same as a 4.0 at a CC. This can be attributed to many things, but the bottom line is that top-tier schools have more money to pay more qualified professors and are vastly more competitive than their lower-tier counterparts. That is not to say people at mid-tier state schools or CCers cannot transfer up, but that it is appreciably harder for them than for those who go to higher ranked private schools.</p>