<p>I am a senior in high school and I am just now starting to look for colleges. However, for the past year and a half I have been in an Early High School dual-credit program and taking classes at a local accredited community college. </p>
<p>My high school GPA is pretty low, freshmen and sophomore years are about a 3.3 average, while my community college average is about a 3.73. I took one IB course and two AP courses before I left high school, but I wasnt there to do any AP/IB testing. I haven’t taken the SATs or ACTs, as I was busy taking community colleges courses and I’ve been working nearly full time since before I turned 16. </p>
<p>I would like to know my chances of getting into decent private college as a transfer student (I’m graduating from high school in two weeks, will have completed my Associate’s Degree by fall). I don’t have many extracurriculars; most volunteering and clubs I did my freshman and sophomore years while I was still attending my high school and before I started really working.</p>
<p>I want to go to a school on the west coast. I’d prefer a school in California. Most private and Liberal Arts colleges I’ve looked at show very high incoming freshman GPAs, but rather low transfer student GPAs - does this mean I have a good shot? </p>
<p>Finally, with my below par GPA , nonexistent SAT and ACT scores, and limited extra curricular activities, to which private California schools should I apply? I want to challenge myself and try for harder colleges than just my state schools. I would like to major in Business and minor in Psychology or something similar. Ultimately I want to be in management or an HR rep somewhere.</p>
<p>no colleges on the west coast as far as I’m concerned will take you if you don’t take the SAT/ACT. Also your GPA isn’t too bad so you just need to take the SAT or ACT (take the ACT, I think it’s easier haha)</p>
<p>As far as schools, some ones that you should look at are:
Chapman, Loyola Marymount, Occidental, Pepperdine, Pitzer, Santa Clara, University Of The Pacific, University Of San Diego
other schools I would recommend on the west coast are: Lewis & Clark, Willamette, Gonzata, Seattle University, University Of Puget Sound and Whitman College.</p>
<p>Thanks for your reply! Interestingly, many of the schools you listed happen to be ones that I was looking at, specifically Occidental, Pepperdine, Pitzer, and University of the Pacific. In regards to the latter, how prestigious and difficult is UotP? It keeps coming up in the college matching searches that I’ve done, yet I’ve never heard of it before. </p>
<p>Also, this may be a dumb question but can I still take the ACT after I receive my high school diploma? What score would I need to have a reasonable shot at these colleges? I’m not a very good standardized test taker and I don’t anticipate doing exceptionally well on either the ACT or SAT.</p>
<p>Are you talking about schools that will accept you for the upcoming fall? If so, you should look at the list of schools that still have space…there’s a thread here…NECAC or something like that? I don’t know whether there are California schools on the list, but a place that might suit you in Florida is Eckerd College.</p>
<p>No, I’m not trying for this fall. I want to either transfer second semester somewhere or start in fall 2010. I haven’t heard of Eckerd before, but I don’t think I want to go outside the western half of the United States (though Florida might be a nice change to the constant rain in here in Oregon).</p>
<p>I think pierre is on point – you need to know where you stand SAT/ACT wise before looking at schools. You don’t want to be like my neighbor’s D, who was accepted “pending receipt of an acceptable SAT score” only to be rejected when the college got the score.</p>
<p>As for your UoP question, all I can say is that UoP is nothing like Occidental, Pepperdine, or Pitzer IMO.</p>
<p>Do you need financial aid? If yes, do you qualify for need based aid? Cost is a big consideration in choosing schools if you need aid because most you are looking at will be schools that don’t guarantee to meet need.</p>
<p>hmom5, yes and yes. Though I’m willing to consider relatively expensive colleges if they’ll accept my Associate’s Degree and let me enter as a junior.</p>
<p>Erin’s Dad, thanks for the list. It looks like most of the colleges I’m looking at will need to see my SAT/ACT scores, however…</p>
<p>I visited USF’s website and it seems pretty nice. They have a lot more information for transfer students than other college websites - which I take as a good sign! </p>
<p>Right now Pitzer is at the top of my list, but I’m very doubtful my chances since they have such a low acceptance rate (for me at least lol). Any idea how many transfer students Pitzer takes?</p>
<p>First, whether you want to apply as a transfer or a freshmen. Financial aid at most schools that don’t meet 100% of need is generally more generous for freshmen. Going in as a freshmen does not mean you will not get some credits for your community college classes.</p>
<p>Next, why a private college? You are likely to get more credits for your college classes at a state school. If you are from CA there is a tremendous network and they will probably be more affordable unless you score high enough on the SAT/ACT to make schools that meet 100% of need doable.</p>
<p>Also, is your family low income and in need of a lot of aid or can they pay most of the cost of a private college? If you are looking for a lot of aid from schools that don’t meet need, you’ll need to focus on those where your stats make you a top applicant as opposed to schools that are a reach.</p>
<p>It’s hard to advise you without the test scores that most good aid colleges want to see and without knowing how much aid you need.</p>