<p>That is reassuring to hear, scualum. I hesitate to give her advice on something that I am not familiar with, but it sounds like multiple transfers have not had a negative impact on people you know. Thanks for sharing that.</p>
<p>Mulitple transfers could tack another year onto the traditional 4 year track. Not every class may be counted for credit on any of the transfers and the final college may require certain classes in a major to be taken at that university.</p>
<p>There is nothing wrong with taking some time off. One of the interns at my company took two years off after what he described as bad freshman year. He is going to be a senior and is self-directed, engaged, and intelligent and will clearly succeed at whatever he chooses to do. One great option for a mid-course correction is a study abroad program called “living routes” which awards credits through UMASS Amerst.</p>
<p>The girl might need a cooling down period to figure out what she wants to do next. My advice is for the parents to take deep breath and keep the communication lines open. Big issue is the financial situation. Fine that she wants to live away from home, but who pays for it? Parents should make sure the health insurance is up to snuff and offer to help with psychological and other counseling, including being involved with such counseling since it is rarely clear what the issues are. Support in that area can be crucial. </p>
<p>This happens quite often with college kids for a variety of reasons.</p>
<p>I have four four-year colleges on my undergrad transcript. I started at a small, private women’s college in spring semester, took a semester’s worth of credits in summer school at a large, private university, transferred to flagship state U, and then transferred again for the last two years to another large, public U. </p>
<p>In there, I had some semesters when I was taking one or two classes at night while I worked full-time, summer classes in the morning while I worked part-time at one place and full-time swing shift at another, regular semester loads with part-time work and evening, and so on. Oh, I withdraw from one school at one point because I got sick, and another semester, needed surgery, missed a lot of school as a result, and took some incompletes that semester, which I finished later.</p>
<p>Not everyone has a one-school, four-year college career! :)</p>
<p>And I just applied to grad school; I’m thankful they want only one transcript, that from the last college I attended!</p>