Hey guys, transfer student here. It’s now dawning on me that I won’t really have much EC’s by the time I apply to colleges this upcoming fall semester and next spring.
I faced many struggles in high school, and I graduated with a 2.8 weighted GPA with an extreme upward trend. I volunteered as a stage technician, I was the lead in a few plays (with over 600 hours, and I participated in a national debate competition (didn’t place) because I won first place in a local debate comp. That all happened in high school, though. I’m just about to finish my freshman year at a California Community College, and I don’t really have time since my semesters are packed. I could take one less class a year and spend an extra year here, but that would be a financial burden on my family. I’m a first gen latino student from a poor household. My upcoming summer break is going to consist of Summer Classes too.
Here’s what I’ve done so far in College:
- During my first semester, I was invited to present at a state research conference for honors CCC students.
- I was also invited to another research conference at a top school in California.
- I'm a member of the Honors program at my CCC lol.
- Phi Theta Kappa Member (PTK).
- 4.0 GPA w/ honors classes.
- I'm a private writing tutor. That's all.
I was hired to a leadership position at my school this summer, but I can’t do it because of the summer classes that I need.
Next year, I’m planning on doing more research and getting more involved in PTK. I love research and investigating topics, but I know that my extracurricular activities are lackluster compared to the superstar transfer students here.
Should I bother applying to UC Berkley, UCLA, UCSD, Pomona, Princeton, Stanford, and Harvard as a transfer? I know the acceptance rates for the latter institutions are abysmal. My intended major is International Relations.
I don’t really know if this belongs here, but thank you guys for any help! -
The UCs don’t care too much for ECs for transfers. I got into LA and SD with literally one EC on my app, which was my job. I never volunteered or joined a club. I think my strong gpa (4.00) made up for it, but it seems like the UCs don’t care too much for ECs across the board for transfers. Only school I’d say might actually care is Berkeley.
As far as all the other schools, people who get into ivy league level private schools as transfers are students who were borderline in high school, and didn’t get in cuz they were short just a bit, or maybe even got in but chose to go to CC to save $. These schools only select a handful of transfers every semester, and Stanford explicitly states that getting in as a transfer is even harder than getting in from HS. They generally don’t like to accept transfers from a CC either. Sure, it’s possible. But your chances are very, very, slim to the point where idk if it’s even worth it with your tight schedule. Just aim for the UCs, all of those UC schools you listed are fine institutions. Your high school record is gonna make it nearly impossible for you to get into Stanford or an Ivy.
Hi, I didn’t do very well in high school. In fact, I was just there for two months. I eventually got my GED, but this meant that the highest level of education I had completed before I started CC was the 8th grade.
When I first tried to apply for transfer, I mainly went after reach schools with not a lot of safeties. I applied to UCLA, UCSD, UCB, USC, and CSULB (my only safety). I had a 4.0 GPA, but I was rejected from every single school. I was devastated. I thought at least CSULB would accept me, but nope. I had nowhere to go, so I stayed at CC for another year and applied more broadly. I added schools like CSULA and CSUF. This time, every school that had rejected me the year before had accepted me. I ultimately wound up at USC and recently graduated (Summer 2017). My EC’s were nothing stellar. I just did a lot of volunteer work at a hospital that is infamous for having 24+ hour wait times in its ER.
I wanted to try for some Ivy schools, but I found that I was not suited for many of them. Several required SAT/ACT scores and I never took those exams. For this reason, I do agree with what has been said above. I see no harm in reaching for the stars, but make sure to have some safety schools as well. You wouldn’t want to end up like me with nowhere to go 
Best of luck in your academic journey.