<p>Does anyone know whether it is illegal to apply to University X for freshmen class (not as a transfer) after having completed the freshmen year in University Y? If it is illegal, what is the point of that law? Do students not have the freedom to abandon one college in the middle and start afresh at another?</p>
<p>There’s a national clearinghouse. As far as I know, all universities require a copy of transcripts from “all post-secondary institutions attended.” University X would learn about a student’s attendance at University Y, and would presumably dismiss the student for providing false information on the application.</p>
<p>It’s not illegal, as in nobody’s going to come arrest you - there’s no such governmental law. But effectively all colleges and universities are part of the national clearinghouse mentioned above.</p>
<p>Of course you have the freedom to abandon one college and apply to transfer elsewhere, but you don’t have the freedom to pretend you have no academic history.</p>
<p>^ I am not talking about pretending not to have any academic history (I am talking about mentioning in the application the fact that i spent a year in another college/university already). Why would the second university not accept it if a student already spent a year in the first?</p>
<p>Of course you can apply, if they accept transfers. But you have to apply as a transfer. Universities will not just ignore your previous academic history, for a million good reasons. Plagiarists and cheaters, for example, could get off scot-free if they could just move somewhere else without their transcripts being reviewed.</p>
<p>You will need to provide official copies of your transcripts from all of the post-secondary institutions that you have attended. Whether you are considered a Transfer or Freshman applicant will depend on the number of credits you have completed and the program you are applying to. After a full year of college coursework, it is most likely that you would classify as a Transfer Applicant. However, for a BFA program you might be a Freshman Applicant who has a bunch of college credits. And, if you are accepted, the college you transfer to gets to decide which credits transfer and as what. It is entirely possible (albeit rare) for a transfer applicant to be admitted but to be classified as a Freshman at the new college because none of the old credits can transfer to the new place.</p>
<p>No matter what, you have to send your old transcripts. But the Transfer Admissions officer has seen grades even worse than yours. Don’t worry about that!</p>
<p>You should visit the Transfer Forum and read through the thread titled “Transfer Admissions 101” to learn more about the process.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>I would think that it could also be a financial issue. If you are applying for aid, and were to qualify for the Stafford loan, that amount is based on your year of school. If you received money once as a freshman at your first school, the second school would see that and know that you have already received financial aid to attend elsewhere.</p>
<p>so the point here seems to be that i CAN NOT apply as freshmen again at a second university, doesn’t it?</p>
<p>That’s correct.</p>
<p>Does anyone know about the “Deferred Admission” plan that some universities offer and that allow students to delay their enrollment by a year? Is it sth. like ED in that you HAVE TO attend next year, no matter what? What if the financial aid is not satisfactory next year? In that case, will it be legal not to attend?</p>
<p>No college or university can oblige you to attend. If you have accepted an offer of admission and made a deposit, and you decide not to attend, just let them know. You will almost certainly lose your deposit but that is it. There are many reasons why students don’t end up enrolling in the fall, admissions officers call this phenomenon “summer melt”.</p>
<p>If you are admitted ED, provided the financial aid makes that institution affordable, you are expected to commit to it. But of course you still could ask to defer admission for a year, and/or you could decide in the middle of the summer that you just plain won’t go at all. However, you would not be able to enroll at any other college/university for that fall that respects your prior ED commitment. Truth be told, there are more institutions out there that don’t care about ED than there are that do, so you could enroll somewhere else, just possibly not at a place that was at the very top of your original list.</p>
<p>Almost all colleges and universities allow you to accept an offer of admission and then defer enrollment for a year. The expectation is that you will indeed enroll one year later, but again students do change their minds, receive inadequate financial aid packages after a year of deferment, or have other life events that intervene. Which means that some of these students end up at completely different institutions in the end. </p>
<p>Some colleges and universities will not defer enrollment, but will ask you to reapply in the next year. Of these, some will hold your first application until then, but others will require a completely new application and will charge you a new application fee.</p>