<p>I had only a 29 act, came from a community college, and had little community service at all but got into Rice engr. It’s certainly possible. (do know that the rest of application was extremely solid though)</p>
<p>As for whether or not your high school transcript matters, that depends greatly on whether you transfer after 1 year or 2 years of college. The less college work you have, the more weight your high school work will hold in general. If your high school work is weak, you might want to be prepared to transfer after getting 50-60 hours of 3.8+ college work. </p>
<p>As always, make sure you get some super recommendations and write stellar essays. I get the feeling those things matter a lot to the people who handle transfer admission.</p>