“Transfer students do not get financial aid” or similar statements seem to be commonly given on these forums as generally applicable, but are they really universally true?
Seems like state universities which have well-developed transfer pathways would give the same financial aid as they do to frosh, since the transfer pathways are often intended for students with lesser financial resources. Also, some private universities make the same “meet need” promises to transfer students as they do for frosh (for example: https://college.harvard.edu/admissions/application-process/transferring-harvard-college ).
There are sometimes unusual special cases, such as Columbia promising to “meet need” for frosh and regular transfer students, but not for 3+2 program transfer students.
Now, if the statement were changed to “merit scholarships are less common for transfer students”, that would be closer to generally applicable. But statements about need-based aid for transfer students may be hard to generalize.
Exactly. Each institution’s policy is distinct. The potential applicant needs to investigate this carefully especially when the transfer applicant needs more than just standard federal aid.
Actually, I haven’t seen that said as a broad generalization – more along the lines of references to specific schools, or references to merit aid. Transfer students are of course entitled to federally based aid (loans, work-study, Pell grants for low income) — and need based aid depends on the policy of the school. For example, my daughter’s alma mater provides full need-based aid to fall transfers, but not to students transferring in for spring semester. I’m sure that’s a budget thing; I know that students who apply are clearly informed of that policy.
The big difference is that merit money is a lot harder to get as an incoming transfer – and that is where more generalized statements are made. I’ve seen it come up where students are wondering whether they can save money by first attending a community college or local commuter school for two years, then transferring to their preferred college.
I think most colleges that provide need-based aid also will provide it to at least some transfer students, but typically with some restrictions or limitations. This would include schools that provide the aid but don’t guarantee to meet full need.
Agree, my third transferred and received a bigger merit discount than he received at previous uni. I think it is disingenuous to make a blanket statement. It might be true for a small lac that is focused on the 18 to 21 ages and “counts” on 4 years financially but public unis have students come and go and I believe they will package fairly if they want the student. Often the “holes” are juniors and seniors from kids that washout after freshman or sophomore year.
I think that outside of the CC world, people don’t differentiate between need based aid and merit aid. Financial aid includes both. When people speak of transfer aid, I think they do mean merit aid. Need based aid at our state publics are entitlements. Families already know if they qualify for those grants. It’s the merit aid offered by the schools that they aren’t sure about.
Are there a lot of colleges that offer great merit aid to transfers? I don’t mean the highly selective schools that meet need. I mean colleges that students have reasonable acceptance rates. Why would they be willing to pay for transfers? I thought the purpose of merit aid was to buy freshman stats to help their ratings.
However, the financial aid FAQ (first link in reply #3) has that quote in the section specifically about need-based aid.
Not all colleges have motivations limited to ranking climbing when offering merit scholarships. State schools may have other motivations, perhaps to offer incentives for students to choose the transfer pathway and do well there. However, it is true that there are fewer merit scholarships for transfers than frosh (this is not controversial).
Interestingly, most (but not all) UCs offer Regents’ scholarships to transfers, even though they are probably mostly competing against each other and CSUs for transfer matriculants (they may also compete somewhat against USC, which does offer transfer merit scholarships, but substantially less than those for frosh).
austinmshauri wrote:
Are there a lot of colleges that offer great merit aid to transfers? I don’t mean the highly selective schools that meet need. I mean colleges that students have reasonable acceptance rates. Why would they be willing to pay for transfers? I thought the purpose of merit aid was to buy freshman stats to help their ratings.
I haven’t checked recently but our state flagship had transfer merit scholarships. I would suspect most if not all would go to community college transfers-- but there were also upper-division scholarships that would become open.
I think there are many schools that have transfer merit aid. Both of the schools my kids attend do, but the transfer merit is not as good as the freshman merit programs. For example, at D2’s school, the top freshman merit was $25k while the top transfer merit was $12k. Other scholarships like department may be available, but the main merit was much more generous for freshmen.