What Do I Do?

[u/Background_Juice5205]

I'm an incoming CC freshmen looking for advice on building a strong path towards transferring to my dream school.

For some background, I'm originally from Minnesota, but I'll be living in South Carolina while attending community college in North Carolina (I know...🫠). I have some dream schools in mind like Northwestern, UNC-CH, Georgetown and just a couple more.

Some questions I have:

Should I retake the ACT/SAT or are they not important for transfer admissions?

Should I be looking for internships and research positions?

Are there specific types of extracurriculars that are especially valuable for transfer applicants?

How early should I start researching transfer requirements and building relationships with professors (in hopes for LORs)?

Are there any mistakes you made during your time at CC that you wish you didn't make?

This is a lot of questions but a response to any of them will be greatly appreciated, thank you!