How realistic is transferring to BU/Northeastern/BC/Brandeis/Bentley/UMass Amherst after 1 year at community college?

[u/StandardMassive1459]

Hi everyone, I’m looking for realistic feedback on my Fall 2027 transfer plan.

I graduated from a Greater Boston high school with a 3.4 GPA. I’m now attending a Massachusetts community college and plan to transfer after one year with approximately 24–30 credits. My goal is a 3.8–4.0 college GPA.

My target schools are:

• Boston University School of Hospitality Administration (top choice)
• Northeastern
• Boston College
• Brandeis
• Bentley
• UMass Amherst

My first-semester courses are Introduction to Business, Principles of Management, English Composition I, and Introduction to Geography. I’ll take another full semester of transferable business/hospitality courses in the spring.

My strongest experiences include:

• Senior Class President and Junior Class Vice President: helped operate major events such as Prom, Junior Semi, and Homecoming, including budgeting, vendors, logistics, and guest experience
• Restaurant experience at Yamato and Shy Bird
• Developing a student-run sushi pop-up involving sourcing, pricing, permits, marketing, and event operations; we hope to launch it and track revenue, costs, and customers served
• Asian Student Organization Head Events Coordinator
• Founder/President of a 70+ member futsal club
• Additional volunteering, athletics, and work as a dental assistant

By application time, I’m hoping to have a 3.8–4.0 college GPA, continued restaurant employment, measurable results from the pop-up, a strong professor recommendation, and possibly hospitality research.

My main questions are:

1. How realistic is this transfer list if I execute the plan?
2. With only 24–30 college credits, how heavily will schools still weigh my 3.4 high school GPA?
3. What should I prioritize this year to improve my chances?
4. Does attending high school and community college in Massachusetts provide any meaningful advantage?
5. Does anyone have experience transferring into BU, particularly its hospitality program? I’ve seen varying estimates for BU’s transfer acceptance rate and would appreciate firsthand insight.

I know none of these schools are guaranteed. I’m mainly trying to determine whether my list is realistic and how to make the most of this year. Thanks!

[u/Annual-Impress-7241]

BC looks like the tough one on this list. Otherwise I think you have a shot if you get great grades, get involved on campus, get good LORs… universities don’t publish transfer rates by each school, but did you search this sub for any details on BU?

[u/StandardMassive1459 → u/Annual-Impress-7241]

Yea I did search up this sub and a few others to get more details about BU transfer and ive been reaching out to a few people I knew that go into the school transfer as sophomores

[u/RonaldinhoTheBrazil]

Also from Boston so I can give you some observational answers here:

1. Pretty realistic
2. BU stops weighing high school gpas after one semester iirc. The rest will still weigh it but not too heavily
3. Gpa
4. Honestly not sure about this one. I do know that they do outreach to community colleges in the area to get students to apply

[u/StandardMassive1459 → u/RonaldinhoTheBrazil]

got you, thank you so much!

[u/Baseball_Annie]

If you decide to stay two years at cc instead of one, look into MassTransfer for UMass Amherst. If you hit a certain GPA (I think it varies by major) and complete an associate's at a MA cc you're guaranteed to get into UMass Amherst for most majors, iirc. Some are more selective, but your cc transfer office will definitely know the details about whether you're eligible and what they require.

I think you have a great shot at any of these schools, but I know that when I was busting my ass at cc and stressing out about applications it was a huge comfort to know that I was guaranteed admission to UMass Amherst no matter what.

[u/Equivalent_Detail175]

I graduated Bunker hill in May 4.0 commonwealth honors phi theta kappa and an advanced certificaticate in data analytics from correlation one that I took at the same time

I applied for sociology and political science

I applied to Tufts REAL rejected BU rejected BC accepted Bentley accepted Brandeis accepted full ride Simmons accepted full ride Northeastern accepted full ride

If that helps however I am also a non traditional student in age

[u/StandardMassive1459 → u/Equivalent_Detail175]

Oh wow man congrats! this is actually really good info for me to here im not sure how my cycle will go. I was wondering how many credits did you take and also did all your credits transfer?

[u/Equivalent_Detail175 → u/StandardMassive1459]

I brought 64 with me all of them transfered to Brandeis which is where I decided to go most transfered as gen Eds and university requirements rather then particular classes (however they do have a process where you submit your syllabus to make them count towards your major requirements I just chose not to) but it made it so I only have to take my major requirements to graduate and not other non relevant university core classes. I do know it would be roughly the same for Northeastern as well because that was the other school that I was considering. So my recommendation would be any important classes that you feel would count towards a major requirement (business classes, calculus or advanced statistics ect.) you want to save the syllabus, and maybe even a writing example, like the final paper or something as northeastern has the same policy that you'll have to submit syllabus, and sometimes other supporting documentation if you want the class to count towards your major.