I’m currently a sophomore at Kent State University, majoring in sociology. I chose Kent because it was the school that gave me the most scholarships. Immediately after coming here, I disliked it, and I told myself I just needed to get adjusted, but after almost a year and a half of putting in genuine effort (joined clubs, have friends, like my major), I still feel this isn’t the place for me. I’m from central PA and right now my plan is to transfer to Temple for fall 2017, which would be a price increase from what I’m paying now, mostly because of the cost of living of Kent vs. Philly. If that’s what I end up doing, I’ll be fine with it. But I also want to explore if I have other options, and it’s been a little overwhelming sorting through all the information.
My stats:
College GPA 3.8 (hoping to bring up this semester)
72 credits completed by the time I transfer
Officer of a political club
High school (if it matters)
UW GPA 3.0
W GPA 3.4
1850 SAT
Basically, I’m wondering if there are any schools which are known for giving excellent financial aid to transfers? Preferably within driving distance of central PA, but not necessarily. I’m willing to go across the country if the difference in price justifies the travel costs.
(this is my first post on here, I apologize if it’s too wordy!)
99% of colleges offer merit scholarships to freshman only. Few offer great FA to transfer students, and those that do want to see your HS transcripts and standardized test scores as well as your College transcript.
bloom where you are planted.
menloparkmom, Where did you get that statistic? Considering that I’ve already been on a few college websites which state that merit scholarships are available to transfers, I doubt its accuracy. In any case, would you mind naming the few schools you’re referring to?
Few schools offer sizable scholarships to transfers. Usually schools that offer transfer scholarships only offer SMALL amounts of money. Usually the BIG scholarships are only for freshman.
Yes, you’re probably seeing links to transfer scholarships, but often the amounts are low…like maybe $2k per year…or $5k per year. Some pricey privates may offer $10k per year, but the remaining costs will be high.
The same school that will offer FREE tuition to an incoming freshman, may only offer $2k per year to a transfer.
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menloparkmom, Where did you get that statistic? Considering that I’ve already been on a few college websites which state that merit scholarships are available to transfers, I
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What are the amounts of those scholarships and how many are offered? And what stats are needed? Which schools are these?
I agree. My understanding is that transfer students do not enjoy the same scholarships as incoming freshman. This is what makes the whole community college or LSC equation complicated. If you really want to attend the expensive private school and decide to do the first two years at a LSC to safe money and then transfer, you may find that you start as a sophomore with little aid and those three years might cost more than if you had just started as a freshman. Unfortunately a transfer can be expensive.
You need to think carefully about your academic reasons for transferring. Given your major, what are you looking for? Just because University X has good transfer scholarships is not necessarily a good reason to choose it over Kent State or Temple.
It’s not news to me that transfer students get less scholarship money than freshman. What I’m looking for is names of schools which are known to give more aid to transfers, on average. Yes, I’m aware that there are not many. I’m not expecting a perfect school offering me a full ride to magically pop up an hour away from my house. I have a plan for transferring that, if no better options appear, I’m perfectly fine with.
However, before I commit to that plan, I want to make sure I’ve explored all my options. That’s all I’m here for, to see if there are schools which would potentially be affordable that I haven’t considered. If you don’t have an answer for me, that’s fine, but please save the lectures. I’m sure everyone here has good intentions but it’s really not helpful.
The Common Data Set, section H on financial aid, does not break out FA to transfers from FA to first time first year students. So I don’t know how you’d search systematically for the rare school with relatively good aid to transfers, other than by hit-or-miss Googling.