<p>Congrats on your great academic performance - a lot of hard work! :)</p>
<p>What is your budget and what are your in-state schools? Transfer students usually have fewer options for financial aid than incoming freshmen, so you need to carefully consider the cost of your preferred schools.</p>
<p>Then you need to look mostly at schools you can afford. Your best bets are the SUNY system, which likely has a very easy and direct articulation program with your CC.</p>
<p>There are very few scholarships for transfer students and you CANNOT afford expensive private colleges. You will likely get only the $5,550 federal Pell grant and a whole pile of loans.</p>
<p>Your attitude about borrowing is way, WAY out of whack. Even two years at a $50,000-per-year school will leave you in six-figure loan debt that will BURY your finances for a decade or more.</p>
<p>You need to care about the amount of student debt you undertake. It’s OK to have a dream, but you need to think realistically about your future.</p>
<p>It’s OK to apply to a couple Ivies as your dream schools, but most of them take almost no transfer students - acceptance rates on the order of 5% or less are common. You need to research transfer policies as you make your application list. Cornell probably has the highest acceptance rate but even they are extraordinarily selective.</p>
<p>How good the Ivies are compared to SUNYs is irrelevant if you A. aren’t accepted to an Ivy or B. can’t afford tuition at an Ivy.</p>
<p>You CANNOT borrow more than about $6,000 per year for college. Only your parents can sign for loans more than that, and given your family’s financial situation, it’s highly doubtful they can or will do so.</p>
<p>Of course they do! There are almost half a million students in SUNY colleges and universities. They wouldn’t be there if a SUNY degree was a dead end.</p>
<p>Nobody knows. You could have a 4.0 and a 2400 SAT and be rejected. Harvard accepted 12 out of 500 transfer applicants this year, and accepted zero last year.</p>
<p>One of the best ways to get a job after you graduate is through internships, and work experience, not just school name. You need to build a resume and make connections. Are you open for going to school in CA? If so, you might look into Berkeley, UCLA, or USC, but even if you get in, don’t go to any of these schools unless they offer you a financial aid package that brings the cost down to (or below) SUNY levels. Period.</p>
<p>Very doubtful that he’d get any aid from the California state schools. They offer little to no aid for out-of-state students and transfer admissions at the UCs is heavily weighted toward California community college students.</p>
<p>@polarscribe – You’re right, but it’s not impossible, considering the OP has a spotless GPA. He might have a better chance at USC. Since USC is a private school, they might play by different rules from the UCs.</p>