Transferring To In state or Meet full need

Transfer Students
1

Hello CC,

I am a high school senior who will be attending Indiana University Bloomington, and will be studying at the Kelley School of Business. Although IU gave me a generous 11k per year scholarship, I am out of state, and My family is not sure if they can afford to pay the cost. Because of this, I am thinking of transferring sophomore year to an in state school or a school that will meet full need.

  • How much do High School Stats matter? I had decent high school stats ( 34 ACT(35 Superscored), Class Rank 29/721), but an okay unweighted GPA (3.68 UW, 4.4W)
  • Is it that much harder to get into a school by transferring than applying in high school? I was thinking of good schools that are in state or meet full need, like Northwestern, Georgetown MSB, USC Marshall, Cornell CAS, Vandy, etc.
  • Is it worth a applying to a college that i was rejected from in high school? I was rejected from USC Marshall in High school, along with a whole bunch of schools. -Does it matter where you transfer from? As I previously stated, I'm going to attend IU, which is not very high ranked, but I am attending Kelley Business, which is a top 10 undergrad Business school.
  • If i go to an OOS School for one year and transfer to UVA, which would be in state, would I still qualify for in state tuition?
2

If your family cannot afford Kelley, ask Kelley about defering for a year so that you have time to reconsider your options. A gap year is almost cetainly a better choice than starting at Kelley and having to transfer out later.

Transfer admissions is harder than freshman admissions, and financial aid is generally worse. If you weren’t admitted at any meets-full-needs places this time around, you aren’t at all likely to be just one year from now. Your high school grades will still be the biggest factor because you will only have one semester of college grades.

I know this isn’t what you want to hear. Getting into Kelley is a big deal, and it will be hard to give up. However the first year courses there aren’t likely to be all that much different from first year business courses anywhere else. You would be paying extra for the classes, but you would be leaving before you could really benefit from the Kelley experience.

Your grades and test scores are good. Did you apply to UVA this time around? Did you get in? If so, go there instead of Kelley.