Getting into elite colleges after community college

[Hot Lava Mama]

I was wondering if going to a community college before entering a 4 year college will hurt my kids chances of getting into an elite college. What I mean by this is if they do their freshman and sophmore years at a community college, will it be more difficult (or less difficult, or the same) than if they went straight into the 4 year school as a freshman? I am talking about the

1st and 2nd tier colleges. Also, are there feeder community colleges for certain 4 year schools? If so, how would I find that information.

 

I have read many forms of financial aid that are only for the 4 year colleges for freshman years. I assume that going to a community college for the first two years would exclude them from these kinds of financial aid packages.

 

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Hot Lava Mama

[jennynd]

I only know that Notre Dame doesn't accept junior college transfers. If you have specific school in mind. Maybe you can call the administration office and ask??

[Kareni]

A number of elite colleges accept few or no transfer students. It would certainly be worth researching a few colleges that your child might be interested in to determine both their general freshman acceptance rate as well as their transfer acceptance rate.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Jane in NC]

Many public universities have articulation agreements with two year colleges. But, as others have noted, private colleges may be less open to accepting community college credits or transfers in general.

 

Websites will assist you in determining basic transfer policies, but I have never seen published rates for transfer students. You'll probably need to phone once you have narrowed your list.

 

Jane

[Samuel]

Admission to elite private schools will almost certainly be far more difficult as a cc transfer student than as a freshman.

 

Transfer to a state university system (in the same state) is quite possible, but in many cases CC students are guaranteed admission to a state university campus, which may not be the flagship but rather state university at somewhere. Which may be fine, but not elite.

 

Further, for many of the non elite private schools that take lots of transfers, available aid is less. The college I will be teaching at, for example, offers up to full tuition for incoming frosh and does not come close to that for CC transfers (I think the most is something like half).

[Kathy in Richmond]

If you google "Common Data Set" and the name of the college you're interested in, you can pull up some information. Each common data set has a section of transfer applicants & admissions.

 

For instance, if you look at Harvard's CDS, you'll find they don't accept transfer applicants at all. If you look at Stanford's CDS, you'll find that 1253 kids applied for transfer admission for this school year, and 25 were admitted.

 

hope that helps!

[Bostonian]

I went to an elite school and do not recall there being any transfer students from community colleges. Even if you could transfer, I wonder if it would be a good idea, especially for STEM majors. I really doubt that two years of math or physics at most community colleges would prepare a student to take junior-level math or physics courses at a school like MIT.

 

A better way to save money and still attend an elite school is to get good scores on several AP Exams and enter with sophomore standing, finishing in three years.

[FaithManor]

I went to a tier 1 LAC. They accepted NO community college classes from any CC in America, zip. Transfering from other four year universities was dicey. They accepted some credits in gen-ed, but the entire major and minor had to be completed in their program and one could not transfer in more than 30 credits and still graduate there. In art and music, no gen-ed credits could be transferred in either unless pre-approved by the institution during your senior year of high school or gap year. Very, very picky these two departments were!

 

I'd recommend making a list of colleges your student is interested in and contact each one individually.

 

Faith

[creekland]

Princeton does not allow any transfer students. Period.

 

A colleague was telling me he knew a student who spent two years at Penn St (hardly a "lower tier" school), then transferred to Brown and they wouldn't accept any of his credits. This is hearsay, but I do trust my colleague in general.

 

Several of the top tier schools won't accept outside credits from cc courses and not all of them accept AP or Clep credits either.

[Bostonian]

Several of the top tier schools won't accept outside credits from cc courses and not all of them accept AP or Clep credits either.

 

Yes, and I don't think the reasons for this are entirely educational. College is partly a credentialing scam, and colleges would prefer that the only way to get the credential be to hand them tens of thousands of dollars.

[asta]

I look at it this way: if you want to attend a cc that does not have a reciprocity agreement with a uni you want to attend, then you have to assume those courses will be a wash for anything other than either general or additional learning. Eg: for all intents and purposes, you're taking the classes to fill a gap in your education, not to 'further' it - IYKWIM.

 

I think the better solution, if someone does indeed either have gaps or simply needs to "ease into" college is to take a class here or there while working and then apply later as a "non-traditional" student.

 

I'm sure most people here would disagree with me on that, though.

 

 

A

[Yolanda in Mass]

Yes, and I don't think the reasons for this are entirely educational. College is partly a credentialing scam, and colleges would prefer that the only way to get the credential be to hand them tens of thousands of dollars.

:iagree: I mean really...$50k/year for some of these most definitely non-top tier schools is absolutely absurd.