I am an independent student, as I am an orphan and lost my mom when in high school, and also a minority, I am hispanic. I have attended community college for the past 4 years and have a 3.58 GPA (all As and 2 Bs, with one failed class that brought the 3.8 GPA to 3.58 GPA due to medical reasons). I am a member of the USA-Today Academic Team, have done 900 hours of volunteer work, won the Outstanding Student Award two years in a row, and the Presidential Volunteer Award two years in a row. I have never taken the SAT.
Do I have a chance at transferring to a school such as Stanford, where my great aunt went in 1945, or other good schools with my low-GPA?
What very good (preferably ivy) schools value diversity and strong personal stories? Are there any really good schools that do not require an sat for transfer students?
Have you taken a break in your education? You could consider Columbia’s School of General Studies. You might qualify for their PALS scholarship as an URM with excellent community service.
Stanford will be very tough, they accept only a handful of transfers of any kind each year.
Almost every college, including the elites and ivy schools accept non-traditional transfer students. There is literally only a handful (half dozen or so) that I’ve ever heard of that do not. So, that is the good news. Pick your 3 or 6 or 9 colleges that you want to fill out transfer applications for and just read the fine print on their websites to make sure you qualify and go from there.
As for Stanford, they accept about 2% of the transfer applicants, so treat their app like a lotto ticket. I could happen, but 98% of the students are turned away. You MUST take the SAT for Stanford’s application–need to hurry if you want to apply this year because you need to take the SAT by Nov or so to beat the SAT reporting deadlines. Again, read the college’s website carefully for details.
I would actually advise you to look for schools that interest you and build your list organically, vs just picking a big “name brand” school just because it has an elite reputation.
Where do you want to live/what region of the US? What is your major? What kind of networking with alumni or within the actual business community do you want to do? Big school or small? Taught by professors in small classes or by TAs in giant lecture halls? Small LAC or giant state university?
I would start by looking in your state… then branch out and look in your region… and then branch out nationally. At some point you’ll start seeing schools that excite you and/or are a good fit for you. Right now it almost sounds like you are ready to throw a dart on a map rather than systematically look for good intellectual and financial matches.
Thanks for the grt advice anika! I’m not a transfer student but I’d like to finish my second bachelors at an ivy — I’m thinking upenn or yale… Its great to know I still have a chance for an undergrad degree at an ivy … What advice do u have for my situation?
Most Ivy league schools, in fact, the majority of all colleges these days, do not accept applicants for a second bachelor’s degree.
I spent about 3 minutes on a google search, and it seems that Yale does NOT accept applicants for second bachelor’s and the pre-lim search on UPenn is the same (there are a few exceptions, such as doing two bachelor’s concurrently while still an undergrad and some Nursing degrees, etc.)
You will need to carefully check each of your target schools for the policy on a second bachelor’s degree and see if any of them even still do this.
thank you for your response! However, I’ve taken post-bac classes at my university without a problem. I just sent in an application as a post-bac, and then registered for a few classes without any issues. Do you think I could enter an ivy as a post-bac?
just pick the college that you like and you think you could get in, the rest is depend on luck(I am serious, since luck play a important role in our life)
"Do you think I could enter an ivy as a post-bac? "
only if you are accepted into a graduate school there. And that involves an entirely different application/ requirements. Ivys’ and most top PRIVATE U’s dont let you just register for classes regardless of your enrollment [ UG / Post grad status.] Public U’s are a different cup of tea.
@annikasorrensen - wow what an awesome post. Hands you know what you’re talking about. I’m glad I found this thread, I love CC but sometimes it gets a little difficult finding specific information about transfer students. Most of the talk on this site is geared towards high school students. I can’t wait until I transfer and I’m done with all this aggravation.
What I did want to advise kelkel587, or anyone who is currently facing a similar dilemma, is that it’s better to just take the SATs. I’m finishing my time at my Community College and I knew that I plan on applying to Ivy schools as well as my safety net schools. Rather than tailoring my school choices based on who or who doesn’t want the SAT scores, I just decided that I would take the test and simply get it over with. Surprisingly, the test wasn’t nearly as difficult as I thought. I think it helps that I’ve been in college, therefore I wasn’t too nervous and I found most of the material to be pretty simple and “standard” …go figure
I’m a little late to this party, but to kelkel587: assuming you’re female, try Smith’s, Mount Holyoke’s, Wellesley’s and Bryn Mawr’s non-trad student program. These women’s colleges are top-notch and really care about personal stories. And you do not have to take the SAT! (Definitely not for Smith and Wellesley; a quick Google search for Bryn Mawr’s and Mount Holyokes policy is needed but I can’t imagine that they would.)
Here are other colleges with specific schools/programs for non-traditional students:
Brown RUE
Penn LPS
Tufts REAL
Columbia GS
Trinity College Individualized Degree Program for Adults
Connecticut College Return to College Program
College of Charleston - adult students
Please do post updates about what has happened since/has been happening!
@emeraldpen
Yale has a non-degree students program, which you can read up on its website. Although, I’m assuming that you want that piece of paper and this program explicitly does not grant it.
Harvard has its Harvard Extension School and it grants degrees and I’m quite confident that you can get a second bachelors from HES.
Bryn Mawr, Smith, Yale, Columbia.
I got into Cornell @ 33. So add them to the list.
Nontraditional transfer here. I recently got into Tufts REAL myself! I haven’t started attending yet (classes don’t start until September), but I’ll update you on my experience once I get there.
(Also, seconding the advice to “treat Stanford’s application like a lotto ticket.” I tried, didn’t get in, but they admit very, very few transfer students, and probably even fewer from CC. They don’t set aside places for transfers; they admit them based on the number of freshmen who commit to attending.)