Should you attend community college? We believe that transferring from a community college into UCLA or a prestigious school like Berkeley is an excellent idea. While transferring into an Ivy League is a totally different ballgame (we would recommend going to a strong liberal arts school to pull that offer), there are many strong community colleges that send many kids to UCLA and Berkeley every year.
More importantly, you pay less at a community college and save yourself the tuition you’d be paying at UCLA or Berkeley for the first year or two. We’ve helped many students transfer from strong community colleges in the past, and many of those CC’s have a really strong track record of sending kids to top UC schools.
Community colleges are an excellent opportunity to develop your basic and raw academic strength as many of the courses are well taught and go at a pace that builds a solid foundation and understanding of the subject material. On the other hand, the coursework at schools like UCLA or Berkeley go at a much faster pace and without a solid foundation you may struggle.
Enjoy your time at a community college if you didn’t get into UCLA or Berkeley. It’s totally worth it in our opinion if you’re trying to get into the UC’s.
However, transfer admissions to the Ivy League are incredibly difficult. Transferring from a lowly ranked school into one like MIT, Stanford, or Caltech is much more difficult than trying to get accepted straight out of high school.
Just to put this in perspective, the transfer acceptance rate is typically in the ball park of 1–2% for the top schools. The acceptance rates for students who apply straight out of high school can be anywhere from 4–7%. While transferring into an Ivy League is extraordinarily difficult, you do need top notch grades especially in the first semester of your freshman year to get in. In addition, your extracurricular activities and essays need to reflect why you want to transfer to the new institution.
Feel free to consult with us today if you would like some advice on the transfer admissions process.
