I have enough credits to be a junior by the time I transfer, but may not have enough of the right credits for the new major I want to be a part of. Can I choose to enter as a sophomore or will colleges decide where it is best to place me? Does anyone know how this works?
The university you enter will give you a transfer credit evaluation. That will determine how many credits you have and what your “standing” is. This does not guarantee that you will graduate in 2 years if you are officially a Junior by credits since you need to meet the degree requirements. However, why does it matter what your nominal standing is? All that matters is that you are admitted and that you have a certain number of credits and credits toward your degree.
Thanks, that was helpful. The reason I was wondering is because I want to make sure I have enough time to fully utilize the resources of the school. This includes internships, mentoring programs, and research. It seems like this would be impossible to do in two years since I am going take a full semester to just get use to the new school. It also matters to me in terms of other transfer students. If I actually need three years to graduate, I would want to know incoming sophomore transfers that I could spend the next three years with instead of juniors who would all have graduated. I doubt this last part will matter as much, but to me it makes sense.
As you will soon find out, when you are taking upper division courses, you will be in a class with students of various levels. It is not like High School where you are pretty much with your “grade”-mates. So it does not really matter, you will get to know the students in your classes and some will graduate before you and others will graduate at the same time or after than you. In fact, it is good to have a network that includes some who are already in the working world when you graduate. This is how my son got his first job, an employee of the company he applied to knew him from college and recommended that he be interviewed. That was all he needed to get a chance at the job one month after graduating.
Did your son transfer and if so how was the transition?
No, but he did a co-op and stayed an extra year for his Computer Engineering degree