If a student does a complete withdrawal from the current institution, works for a year, and re-starts again in fall 2018 with no college credits, is the student a transfer or freshman applicant? Any advice would be helpful!
That is a question to ask the places the student wants to apply to. I expect most would consider the student a new freshman applicant, but some places might have other policies.
My friend did that this year and had to apply as a freshman using the first year application