Apply for a Transfer, or take a Gap Year and Reapply? Advice Please

MYOS1634
Thu, 23 Apr 2015 19:29:36 +0000

USC is peculiar because of the California CC situation. In the same situation is Cornell, with the contract colleges, in particular for NYS residents, and other flagships for their residents. UMN has generous scholarships for transfers too. But in all cases, transfers get less financial aid than freshmen.
“need blind” does not mean “meet need”. It means they admit you without checking for financial status… but you’re on your own to figure out how to pay, if they offered enough good, but they didn’t, it’s not their problem.
need blind 100% meet need colleges for transfers don’t exist to the best of my knowledge. This proposition only exists for freshmen.
At public universities that don’t meet need even for their in-state residents, there’s no difference in need-based aid, but there aren’t merit scholarships at the level that exist for freshmen (ie., a few universities offer 15K vs. full ride, 5K vs. full tuition, etc.)
See for sure whether you’d be considered a resident of Florida - you’d need to move there for purposes other than education and your custodial parent would need to live there, pay taxes there, have a FL drivers’s license, etc. Check into it. Then you may be able to transfer into UF after a year at UCL, but I don’t think it’d be the greatest idea for you - an advantage of a US residential campus is the fact you live in the dorms (honors dorms if you got into honors), live with others, get involved on campus, belong to a particular community and a particular culture, become proud of that community and identity. It’s experiential learning at its best and it can be transformative, or at a minimum it promotes a lot of growth in very little time compared to the European “commuter” option, regardless of the quality of the lectures you listen to. It’s especially important to freshmen and it’s something transfers miss on. If they have no choice, it’s fine, but it’s not optimal.
I wouldn’t keep more than 1/4 to 1/3 of your first list (or up to 5 schools).
Then I’d invest in a Fiske guide and I’d start reading, looking for colleges that sound “right” for your personality.
I wouldn’t go much below UF (so, roughly, 15-16 public university and everything, private or public, that’s above + national liberal arts colleges). You can look into “top” honors colleges that offer full rides, even if the university around them doesn’t make the ranking: Pitt Honors, Barrett at ASU.
http://www.honorscollege.pitt.edu/
http://barretthonors.asu.edu/
Get your fee waiver from your GC, too, since your financial situation justifies it.