Don't understand the 2nd guessing.

emeraldkity4
Tue, 22 Nov 2011 11:18:01 +0000

Students who are anticipating transferring before they have completed 1/2 yr at their freshman school don’t always seem to be thinking clearly. When you don’t have the facts you can’t make good decisions.



FINANCIAL AID: DON’T GET GYPPED
Twenty-three percent of colleges don’t provide merit aid for transfer students, according to a 2010 report by the National Association for College Admission Counseling. Those that do often give them less — especially if the transferring is in January, when coffers tend to be depleted. And colleges that pledge to meet 100 percent of demonstrated financial need for freshmen don’t always make the same assurances to transfer applicants. In fact, there’s a greater chance that needing aid as a transfer will influence whether a college admits you.

Becky Keith transferred to the University of Virginia from Georgetown University in 2008, but her new life didn’t fall into place instantly. Virginia officials told Ms. Keith, a biochemistry major aiming for med school, that she would have to take a first-year biology lab class even though she had already taken one. (At Georgetown, Intro to Bio includes labs; at Virginia, it’s two separate courses.)

A big appeal of transferring is getting to take classes not available at your current college. But transfer students can find themselves toiling at required courses instead because courses already taken don’t match up with the academic program at the campus they want to go to.

Very often, credits at one institution don’t apply toward a major or fulfill core requirements at another. Colleges won’t give the official word on what they will accept until they have an enrollment deposit in hand. Applicants can ask transfer admissions advisers for a sense of what additional work is needed to complete a particular major. If facing too many required courses, consider somewhere else.