Anonymous wrote:DC has a couple of acceptances. Whichever she chooses, she's certain that she'll try to transfer after freshman year. I hate to see her going into freshman year already planning to transfer out. Any advice from others who's kids have been in this position? I don't know how to help her.

DS has a friend who didn't get into her first choice and, thus, went into freshman year planning to transfer. My friend's DS is having a horrible experience in a college he thought he would love and plans to transfer. Transferring is an option for a whole host of reasons. It sounds like your DC is trying to position herself to graduate from a better college than she is being offered admission to right now. Good for her! And who knows, she may love where she ends up. You should be proud that your DC is so level-headed.

Anonymous wrote:DC has a couple of acceptances. Whichever she chooses, she's certain that she'll try to transfer after freshman year. I hate to see her going into freshman year already planning to transfer out. Any advice from others who's kids have been in this position? I don't know how to help her.

Instead of doing that, why doesn’t she just apply to some schools with rolling admissions or very late deadlines, or look here for other schools that say they’re still taking applications?

https://www.nacacnet.org/news--publications/Research/openings/

Example: Boston University, Adelphi and Goucher are all still hungry for applications.

The University of Arizona, the University of Iowa and the University of Kansas are great, fun schools with application deadlines in May:

https://blog.prepscholar.com/colleges-with-late-application-deadlines-complete-list

Seton Hall and Saint Peter’s University (a Jesuit college with easy access to New York) have application deadlines in August.

Unless Op gives more information ~ I'll assume DD is saying this to save face. Even with her parents.

Does your student plan to transfer to one of the schools that she was rejected from this year? If so, does she have a plan to make her application more enticing to the admin staff? I would also insist that the entire re-application process is her responsibility.

It depends where she is hoping to transfer...

Many "tippy top" schools do not take many transfers, and depending on the school, the transfers they DO admit may be focused on community college, first generation, and veteran students (example: https://www.princeton.edu/news/2022/02/22/princeton-will-enroll-more-transfer-students-starting-fall or https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/beyond-transfer/how-amherst-college-became-champion-community-college-transfer-students).

I think there's a myth that transfer admissions are "easier" than first-year at the highest ranked schools. That's not necessarily the case.

Consider this transfer data from this past year:

Stanford -- 2216 applied, 86 admitted
Yale -- 1311 applied, 22 admitted
Harvard -- 1376 applied, 17 admitted
Brown -- 2293 applied, 81 admitted
Duke -- 1274 applied, 69 admitted
Dartmouth -- 435 applied, 43 admitted
Amherst -- 470 applied, 33 admitted
Williams -- 500 applied, 15 admitted
Swarthmore -- 430 applied, 7 admitted

Each of these schools enrolled smaller cohorts than they admitted (I'm assuming there's ovelap among their admits)

I'm willing to bet that your child is likely not going to fall into the groups that are being prioritized by these schools for transfers (though I don't know your child, so could be wrong).

Of course there are exceptions where some take more...but these aren't huge admit rates...

Columbia (doesn't share data, but anecdotally)
Northwestern -- 3434 applied, 375 admitted (11% admit rate)
Cornell -- 5908 applied, 929 admitted (16% admit rate - and includes their "guaranteed transfer" students in the counts)
Vanderbilt -- 2450 applied, 430 admitted (17% admit rate)

If your child has a reasonable list of places they hope to transfer, that might be an option....but I would not go into the first year with that plan (assuming not taking the CC path).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Being a transfer student (once you transfer) is really hard, and few students who transferred will tell you that to your face because there’s no going back once you transfer. What are you going to do, drop out junior year? No, so you say you’re happy even if you hate the new school.

I don’t understand this. The people I know who transferred were enormously happy with their decisions. They all transferred sophomore year. And to respond to a PP, the schools they transferred to include T10, T20, and T50 schools.

So they said. Which is PPs point

Yes they said. Some are very active in alumni groups. One was a classmate of mine and yes I could tell they very happy at our college. One was my spouse who has told our kids not to spazz about college decisions because transferring is always an option, using their own experience as a model. Spouse adored their alma mater.

What makes you and PP experts in transfers? I think I know my friends and spouse better than you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Being a transfer student (once you transfer) is really hard, and few students who transferred will tell you that to your face because there’s no going back once you transfer. What are you going to do, drop out junior year? No, so you say you’re happy even if you hate the new school.

I don’t understand this. The people I know who transferred were enormously happy with their decisions. They all transferred sophomore year. And to respond to a PP, the schools they transferred to include T10, T20, and T50 schools.

So they said. Which is PPs point

Anonymous wrote:Being a transfer student (once you transfer) is really hard, and few students who transferred will tell you that to your face because there’s no going back once you transfer. What are you going to do, drop out junior year? No, so you say you’re happy even if you hate the new school.

I don’t understand this. The people I know who transferred were enormously happy with their decisions. They all transferred sophomore year. And to respond to a PP, the schools they transferred to include T10, T20, and T50 schools.

Anonymous wrote:Georgetown and Columbia take a lot of transfers.

Just coming here to write that. Know at least five kids who transferred to Columbia after freshman year. Could be they have higher than usual attrition due to kids who realize they don't like city living.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is that realistic? Lots of places don’t accept transfers before junior year.

I feel like we have had this conversation before, most colleges actually do accept transfers after freshman year. In fact every single kid I know who has transferred, did it after freshman year. Not sure where you're getting this information?

Maybe you’ve had this conversation with someone here before, but it wasn’t me.

Depends on what kinds of universities you are looking at. Knew 2 kids recently who discovered that transfer after one year was a non-starter wrt most of the schools they were interested in. Transfer would have imposed downward mobility. Looks like OP’s kid may hope to trade up (in the sense of getting into a place she didn’t get into the first time around), so whether that’s realistic then/under her circumstances is worth verifying.

Transfer after 2 years is the option more typically offered and one where upward mobility is envisioned (e.g. from community college to flagship state U, or move to a school with more coursework/facilities in a specialized field where student has maxed out options at current college).

Basically, lots of selective schools don’t want to encourage do-overs for kids who are dissatisfied with their original options (but not dissatisfied enough to reject them and do something that enhances their profile in a gap year).

BAD IDEA. WHY NOT AT LEAST GIVE HER FIRST SCHOOL A CHANCE? IF YOU CAN'T BE WITH THE ONE YOU LOVE LOVE THE ONE YOUR WITH!

Parents should not be encouraging their kids to transfer before even stepping foot on campus, it’s hugely disruptive to kids. Sounds like op is encouraging prestige hunting.

DS swore up and down, left and right that she would transfer at her first opportunity. Ended up falling in love with her college and transferring hasn’t crossed her mind since.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is that realistic? Lots of places don’t accept transfers before junior year.

I feel like we have had this conversation before, most colleges actually do accept transfers after freshman year. In fact every single kid I know who has transferred, did it after freshman year. Not sure where you're getting this information?

+1 I know quite a few kids who transferred to, gasp, a Top 25 school after freshman year. It is a thing.

The OP's daughter has a sound plan. She applied to a school as a safety and it turns out that was a good choice to have in place as a backup. Now she will use her safety school to help her get to her goal school. Sounds like the OP's daughter is a very smart girl.

Not every path to success is a straight line. The OP's daughter has figured that out. Go, girl, go!

The problem with enthusiastically cheering this on is that most students will not be admitted as a transfer student. Then she's spent a year deliberately not making any connections or looking for reasons to like her school because she believes the transfer is going to happen. If she's one of the many who isn't able to make the transfer, she's likely to be an emotional mess. Better to encourage her to look for reasons to like her first school and see where things are in the spring.

Agreed. Plus, the more involved she is at her first school, the stronger transfer applicant she'll be if she decides to try that route. Win-win.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is that realistic? Lots of places don’t accept transfers before junior year.

I feel like we have had this conversation before, most colleges actually do accept transfers after freshman year. In fact every single kid I know who has transferred, did it after freshman year. Not sure where you're getting this information?

+1 I know quite a few kids who transferred to, gasp, a Top 25 school after freshman year. It is a thing.

The OP's daughter has a sound plan. She applied to a school as a safety and it turns out that was a good choice to have in place as a backup. Now she will use her safety school to help her get to her goal school. Sounds like the OP's daughter is a very smart girl.

Not every path to success is a straight line. The OP's daughter has figured that out. Go, girl, go!

The problem with enthusiastically cheering this on is that most students will not be admitted as a transfer student. Then she's spent a year deliberately not making any connections or looking for reasons to like her school because she believes the transfer is going to happen. If she's one of the many who isn't able to make the transfer, she's likely to be an emotional mess. Better to encourage her to look for reasons to like her first school and see where things are in the spring.