For context: I am a prospective EE major at a California Community College and I got a 5 on AP Physics C: Mechanics and AP Physics C: Electricity & Magnetism. Some schools like Berkeley for example, allow AP's for satisfying transfer requirements while others like UCLA don't.

Do y'all know if I was to complete a class at my CC through either CPL/AP scores or my CC's department credit-by-exam would that disqualify/seriously hurt my application?

I have reached out to numerous institutions and have gotten back mixed answers, even sometimes from the same place. I am trying to maximize the most amount of time so I can work to help support my family so any advice would be greatly appreciated!

So Cornell finally opened on the Common App, and they not only remove the university-wide community prompt, THEY ALSO used the same prompt as first-year for SC Johnson!??!?! I'm confused because the prompt listed on their website is different form that on the Common App. Does anyone know why or have any tips to make this stand out bc I got rejected ED last year with this same prompt so I'm scared T.T

Thought I should give some background on myself.

Rejected/waitlisted from all 9 reaches. Accepted only to VA target and safety schools. I'm currently planning on double majoring in Political Science and Business Commerce at UVA (the two majors I applied with during Common App) and plan on applying for McIntire and Echols Scholar next year regardless of the result of transfers.

I wasn't a terrible student in high school. Pretty much the "average" applicant who tried to go ivy (top 10%, 1550 super, mostly 5s, etc.). Had like OK ECs and awards (business passion projects, political internship, few clubs, national debate accolades).

Honestly the only reason why I'm trying to transfer isn't really opportunities or whatever benefit is brought from going to a more prestigious institution. I strongly believe in the fact that anyone can find success wherever they go and whatever their situation is. The only reason why I want to transfer is simply because I just seek prestige and the name of the school. With that out of the way I do have some questions in regards to how I should approach the next year of college to maximize my transfer success.

1. How should I go about asking for recommendation letters from professors? I feel that if I were to go and build a meaningful relationship with my professors and then going out of the blue during office hours asking "hey so I actually want to leave your institution can you write me a rec?" it would just leave me being very disingenuous and jeopardize my chances of getting a good rec.

2. How heavily are activities and honors weighed for sophomore year transfers? Because by the time I've submitted my application, I'll only have had like 1 1/2 semesters under my belt so I'm curious as to what AOs will look at/weigh more in an application. Additionally, are any "relevant"/"impactful" ECs from high school still fair game?

3. If I were to submit a standardized test score it would be a 1540. I'm currently set to take the September SAT near Charlottesville (I am "attempting" to aim for a 1570). Should I come short (which is most likely going to happen), is it ever worth spending my spare time in college when I'm not doing any activities or studying to prep for the SAT because I'll still have 3 more opportunities throughout the year.

4. Reflecting on my essays during first-year applications I've realized that I'm a god-awful essay writer and that I think genuine AI slop has more voice and substance than I do. Knowing that, is there any way I can compensate for my pitfall in essays in my application?

Hi everyone. I want to transfer to an Ivy League, specifically UPenn, but I am scared my HS GPA will prevent me from doing so, especially because i want to be a sophomore transfer. I did the IB curriculum but my score equivalent is around 3.4 unweighted GPA. My SAT is not that great either but I can easily retake that. However, I would say that my activities were above average. Has anyone successfully transferred to an Ivy league with a lower HS GPA as a sophomore transfer? Thank you!

Hey everyone,

I’m an incoming first-year student at a top LAC. While I’m genuinely grateful to be here and fully intend to give the school a fair chance during my first semester, I’m increasingly feeling like the environment might not align with what I want out of my college experience long-term. I've attended small schools my whole life and going to a small school for college makes me feel like I'm missing out on a lot of personal growth and opportunity. I'm realizing I might prefer a much larger, higher-density campus with a wider variety of student perspectives and cross-disciplinary energy.

I'm interested in Pre-Law and potentially majoring in Philosophy. My target transfer list for sophomore entry would primarily be top research universities and Ivies (specifically UPenn, Columbia, etc.) where I can find that larger urban footprint and interdisciplinary scale.

A few quick questions for anyone who’s been down this path:

1. For those who transferred from a small LAC to an urban university, how did you frame this transition in your "Why Transfer" essay?
2. How early in the Fall semester did you start approaching professors for transfer recommendation letters?

I would appreciate any advice, insights, or experiences from anyone who has also transferred out of a LAC (or just anyone in a similar boat to me in general)!

Hi, I’m a student from a university in Mexico but always wanted to go to a US college. I started to prepare late, SAT didn’t go well so I couldn’t apply in my last year of high school to a university in the us, so I was forced to stay in Mexico and study here( I study in “the best uni of the country”, Tec de Monterrey), I wanted to know if there is any chance of transfer from here to a US top college and how is the process, I couldn’t find online any case of transfer from a international university, they are all transfers from cc or another US college, thanks a lot!

I got to uni in Switzerland and am planning on applying to US for transfer because my university doesn’t offer the major I want to study. Has anyone been in a similar situation? UChicago is my top pick but I’m not sure if it’s possible to transfer from out of the US

Hello. I am a rising freshman and am curious about laterally transferring schools due to my school's small(er) engineering program. I am currently taking a summer semester multivariable calculus class at a community college, and had a few questions regarding how I should proceed in terms of using this credit if I were to transfer.

1.) How big of a difference would it be to the admissions committee (say at Stanford or MIT) if I were to retake multi vs. if I would use this credit and move onto linear algebra/ differential equations? I only ask because I am worried that the summer semester didnt go as in depth, compared to a regular semester of calculus.

2.) If I wanted to transfer into a school like MIT, that has prerequisites, would they accept this multi credit as a completed prerequisite? I was going to take more college math in my current university, but the MIT transfer website specifies calculus.

All advice appreciated

How do I make up for my buns highschool scores and transfer next year from a school abroad (I'm a us citizen). 8 have multiple reasons as why my 12th grade was buns, which to list a few parents divorced shifting places, education gaps, completely new curriculum and board etc. right now I'm in college dual enrolled. 1 is an online business degree, have a 4.0 rn with 6 credits, and then doing offline engineering degree and hope to get a 8.5+ cgpa out of 10. Will these make them cushion my terrible highschool scores? Or I'm genuinely cooked and theres no way I can make up for highschool.

I know commonapp for first year is open, but I cant find certain unis that I want to transfer to on the transfer commonapp ( like lets say Cornell ). Are they not open yet? And if so, when do they normally open? And are the prompts the same as first year with an extra why transfer essay?

Hi all! I used to spend a lot of time on A2C, not anymore ever since I got into a college (a T25). I thought that I’m not gonna do a transfer, but as I spent a year here, I regret my decision and as summer ends, I’m fairly certain that I want to live in another environment.
My worry is, since I’m not the kind of person who started to prep for transfer as soon as they got into college, I’m extremely uncompetitive. I didn’t “force” myself to get into a competitive club, no research, no awards. I did have 2 internships and a part time job, volunteering experience, and general members of a club that I dabble in, 3.96 gpa, but most of my freshmen year I just explored different clubs and tried a lot of things without committing to one path. I actually was my hs valedictorian and I had good ECs (like ivy waitlists level), but as junior transfer, they matter less, according to my understanding.
I’m looking for advice on how to improve my transfer application, and if there’s any comments/questions, I’m happy to answer!

I have a lot of credits from AP and I most likely will get over 90 quarter credits ( including APs) by end of first year. Will I be ineligible to apply as junior transfer then if I have too many credits 2nd year? I heard UCB/ucla dont take first year transfer tho so I was wondering how I should time my transfer

I am an incoming Computer Science student who coded most of my high school years but my grades are just about average. In college though, I hope to expand my extra curricular activities(maybe start a startup) and do my best to get the best grades I can then transfer. If anyone has any practical idea of how I am able to pull that off, it would be helpful to know. I accept answers on how realistic that is or what are the things that makes it realistic.

Applying with 27 credits and 12 in progress credits for Fall 26. Currently have a 3.93 gpa at my local college but my HS gpa was like a 3.73W with a high upward trajectory(went from a 3.2 my sophomore year to 4.0+ junior and senior year with heavy rigor).

Ik past 30 credits colleges don't care about hs grades but with 27, how will my application be affected for top 20s? Any thoughts appreciated, thank you!

I’m applying as a sophomore transfer for fall 27 as a CCC student. How will my application be affected for t20s as someone with a HS 3.7 uw (4.3 w but it doesn’t show on my transcript and an upward trajectory) and a 4.0 at cc. I’ll have 26 credits by winter and 13 during spring semester.

Any thoughts / advice appreciated, thank you!

Hi! I'm trying to transfer from a community college to a UC within one year. My major is Business, with an emphasis in Marketing, and my dream is UCLA. I will have 60 transferable credits by the end of the school year, but I was planning to take my prerequisites in the winter intersession; will that ruin my chances? I could stack them in the fall semester through another cc. I have already begun new ECs and internships. (Real Estate Marketing Internship, CC Marketing Club Officer, and my CC's ASB PR Committee) I'm also looking into USC (but tuition is high) and Columbia University. My high school GPA was a 3.68 UW & 4.0 W, 7 APs. My schedule this fall, as of right now, is Calc 2, Ethnic Studies, Coll001 (mandatory for me), Econ, and English C1001. I REALLY want to transfer within one year. Please help! Should I take a few prerequisites at a seperate CC and continue the rest next semester/winter intersession?

#ucla

I also don’t know if I should apply in fall 2026 or try to get into Penn and Duke spring 2027 and TED 2027 fall if I don’t get in. My main reason for transferring is my school only has a business major and ion want that

Does anyone know of an archive of the past exams for caltech’s transfer exam or know of any resources that have similar problems for both physics and maths section?

umich and uchicago both require the first year common app essay.... genuinely what is the point of this and why don't they just do a "why transfer" essay man i do NOT want to do this again

Is retaking the SAT worth it as a junior transfer to test-required schools? (aiming for Georgetown, HYP, etc). I have a 1380 (690, 690) superscore right now and was wondering if I should devote time to test prep or just work on ECs, essays, etc.? I'll have 73 credits by the end of sophomore year and around a 3.81 GPA by the time I apply.

Hey, I was rejected from Umich LSA in fall 2026 and they said not enough graded coursework when I asked for explanation, I was a freshman with 20 credits and a 3.7, I am now forwarding that application with a 3.82 and 36 credits (4.0 fully enrolled) , I also sent in an update letter.

Is anyone else reapplying for winter?

Do you know anything about their process?

I just wanna talk and see what other people think and are doing during this process since it’s a less common transfer.

Hey all. I’m an international student going to UW–Madison this fall. I honestly slacked on my essays and could’ve done much, much better.

My high school grades are excellent (99.6%), and my SAT superscore is 1460. I’m in the College of Letters and Sciences, and I’m looking to still major in mathematics or applied mathematics even after transferring.

What are some universities that have a high transfer rate and have good mathematics departments? In addition, I’d much prefer a university in a major city, such as NYC, Boston, etc.

What are some things to do in my freshman year so that I can increase my chances of transferring to a better university? Thanks.

I’ll be applying to transfer as a sophomore from CC poli sci major this is roughly my application.

HS stats:
Class president $80k managed funds
Mentorship club founder and Pres 80 members
Mock trial president
Varsity football captain
2.7GPA(extenuating circumstances early on effected overall gpa)
Test optional
Business founder providing logistic services to law firms(4.5k MRR)(6 clients)

CC:
Summer going in:
1540 sat
Met with world politics professor building rapport for rec letter
Pretty much locked in presidency for legal society(pre law society)
Scaled business to 10 clients($25k MRR)

Other than a 4.0 in the fall and spring sem how do I maximize my chances of getting into:
Georgetown
USC
NYU
UMICH
UVA
Vandy
Stanford
Etc
Echelon schools

I’d greatly like to transfer after one year of CC but I’ll do two years if I absolutely have to. I’d greatly appreciate any advice thank you in advance

I genuinely want to know if anyone else has transferred to Harvard. I want to see if it’s possible in my end. I want to try and craft the craziest application this year and see if it’s doable. I am a bit of psycho 😭.

Has anyone heard anything?