How do I break into IB if I’m not going to a target school?

I go to UVA, so I can speak to UVA outcomes but not VT's. I'm going to be honest and say that if you're going to transfer to UVA after two years of CC, you're going to have a very hard time breaking into IB since much of the recruiting and networking occurs during your second year. This applies even if you were able to transfer into McIntire. So if you have the money to transfer after one year (I transferred to UVA myself but from a liberal arts college), then I would highly recommend it. Of course, you can still network while you're at CC, but you're not going to have the advantage of the UVA alumni network until you get in. I'm not sure if you were implying that UVA isn't a target school, but I would say that it is based on the number of people we place into IB every year. That said, it's definitely not a "super target" if that's what you meant. Hopefully, this helps, but I'm happy to answer additional questions.