This is my son's story. Applied before his mission even though his grades and ACT weren't close to the level needed. Came home from his mission and did a semester at BYUI. Did well in school, but decided to come home to local JC in California and play basketball. He continued to do well in school, and had a great year playing ball. He also has a twitter with 30k followers. I think that the combination of grades, AA degree, college athlete plus twitter and a number of other activities made for a pretty strong application this time and he got in. I think it's a great route, and let's face it. The reason colleges accept JC transfers is that a significant number of the 4.0 30+ ACT kids flame out in their freshman year.