Short background,
Current senior accepted to a number of colleges. College X is the number one choice but due to our concerns that she is not mature enough to live in a typical dorm, our plan is to enroll in College Y which has a lot of support, that we would pay for.
College X is a selective school which gave student good merit, some grants…I think about 37K total.
So we are all geared up for College Y (not super thrilled but its the best choice for now). My spouse decides to email College X and give them the low down on our plan that we love the school but student will be enrolling at College Y, taking classes…but would it be possible for our student to attend in the future.
College X says, yet it is. Child can deposit now, fill out the deferral form and then start in fall of 2023 as a freshman and she would be allowed to transfer in up to 20 credits. She would get to keep all her merit and then reapply for any need based aid. This email we received was from the college president (spouse went straight to the top apparently)
So I’m trying to figure out how this would work, if we want to go this route.
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Enroll and deposit and College X, immediately file for the year deferral.
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Enroll and deposit and College Y.
Would the final high school transcript be sent to Y? I assume so since that would be where she would be attending in fall of 2022.
We were very upfront about the plans for the 2022-23 year so that is not an issue, and it seems College X is completely fine with child enrolling elsewhere for a year. I would assume College Y doesn’t care since we are showing up in August and student may love it and stay.
Thoughts please?
So X would not disqualify the student from frosh entry and would allow the student to retain admission there after enrolling in Y (or any college) after leaving high school?
Be sure to check everything with the appropriate administrative entities in X, since the college president may not know every detail of the the college’s policies.
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Interestingly I had read this on the school website a month or so ago and assumed I must have misread something but the univ president echoed exactly what I thought was the policy. I think I need to speak with someone in admissions and send him/her the email exchange just to get some confirmation.
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But isn’t 20 credits a bit over 1 semester of classes? So you’d be paying for 2 semesters of college and only about to transfer about 60% of them?
yes, that would be the downside, but we are really treating the first year as an expensive gap year and we aren’t too worried about credit transfer. The 20 credits would also include AP credits so we would lose some there also. Our main goal of the year would be to gain some maturity and executive functioning skills. The deposit is $300 so somewhat less than some other schools.
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Make sure that you understand the aid (both merit and financial) length at the second school. Will he be eligible for 4 years or will they shorten it because he did something before attending. You just don’t want any surprises.
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It is a four-year merit. They were very clear that he would be treated as a freshman and merit would be for 4 years. FA would need to be reapplied for just like you would if he went there in fall of 2022. They are a meets needs school so it was a pretty good offer - really surprisingly good offer. The other option they gave would be to transfer in but she was clear that transfer is very competitive, no merit but you could transfer in more hours. To me spending $300 to keep a spot with guaranteed merit would be a no-brainer but I would need to get a lot of assurances about the details.
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If Y is expensive and not that appealing, could a low cost community college be substituted in place of Y for the purpose of this plan (i.e. is a community college suitable for your student’s purposes and acceptable to X)?
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I do think the program is really super at Y. Child got about 33K in merit and the COA would be around 52K - but that includes 20K for the on-campus support. My biggest want is for the child to be in a college setting that gives a lot of support. Being at home at cc which (although it does have benefits), wouldn’t help with maturity, doing things on their own, socialization…
If you do this, I’d take the college credit rather than the AP credit. Use the AP for placement at a higher level if that is available.
If X allows all AP scores and college courses to count for subject credit and placement, but only allows 20 credits to the number needed for graduation, then the student may not have to choose or have a choice.
But check X’s exact policy on the matter.
This sounds like a great opportunity for your child and a gracious solution from the “destination” college. This generation is struggling and if you believe having a year to prepare and adjust will help them thrive - trust that instinct.
Many in the past have said they can not enroll in another college during a gap year. It is nice to see that evolving.
Policies at colleges do vary… however, there are enough colleges where enrolling in college after leaving high school disqualifies the student from applying or entering as frosh, so the typical gap year scenario where the student does not yet know which college they will attend after the gap year means being cautious about inadvertently disqualifying themselves from frosh entry at potential colleges.
In this case, unlike typical gap year scenarios mentioned on these forums, college X is the known destination, so college X’s specific policies can be found and followed for this case.
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Interestingly I received an email back from admissions. They were on board with the plan. However, they said typically enrolling elsewhere is not allowed but given the circumstances and the specific opportunity for the gap year, they are very supportive of the 2022-23 plan.
What this does go to show is it never hurts to ask.
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Good for you! It sounds like the ultimate school is seeing the interim school as the equivalent of a PG year. I suspect it helped that you were clear about why you were considering this and that you agreed to the cap on transfer credits.
Wishing you success!