<p>Hello, I am currently a community college student in Nevada. I have a 3.7 GPA, 29 ACT (will retake if needed this fall, SAT as well), play club soccer, have a job, and do some community work. I am interested in business, politics and law. I have around 30 credits with AP credits included.
So basically I was wondering if schools give out generous financial aid to transfer students? I made a shortlist of schools I'm considering. I want to have realistic expectations.</p>
<p>University of Nevada - Reno
University of Nevada - Las Vegas
University of Washington - Seattle
University of Texas - Austin
University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
University of Virginia
Boston University
Vanderbilt University
University of Miami
USC</p>
<p>If you have any schools in mind that I would get accepted to and has generous financial aid please let me know. Are merit scholarships out of the question?</p>
<p>Once you get a certain number of hours (varies by school), transfer admission and merit aid are based primarily on college GPA, and ACT/SAT no longer considered.</p>
<p>Merit aid is harder to come by as transfer and need-based aid is also less generous at some schools. Chances of either being good at an OOS public are slim.</p>
<p>The only publics that treat OOS students (including transfers) like IS are UNC & UVA. Your CC advisor should be able to give you information about FA at your IS publics.</p>
<p>The Resources sticky thread at the top of the Transfer Students forum has a link to a thread with some merit aid for transfers, at least one school on your list is there. To find out if any of the other schools on your list give merit aid, go to their websites.</p>
<p>You should have a nice long sit-down meeting with the Transfer Advisor at your own CC. That person will be able to tell you where students with your profile have been admitted in recent years, and whether they received significant merit-based aid. Yes it is out there, and the experts are the people in the Transfer offices at the CCs.</p>
<p>^First be sure to read the college website for their transfer FA policy, as the NPCs are calibrated for fr admission, and many schools provide less need based FA to transfers.</p>
<p>Some net price calculators explicitly ask if the student is a transfer student; if the financial aid estimate would differ, they could use the answer to that question.</p>
<p>I know that Brown has limited FA for transfers vs. providing full need for fr admits, but their FA calculator doesn’t ask if the student is entering as a fr or transfer. It seems prudent to me that the applicant know the school’s transfer FA policy and whether or not it is reflected in the NPC.</p>
<p>You need to call each school and ask if transfers are given financial aid consideration equally with first year students. For public universities, that is not usually the case, as they give out what they have first for the upcoming entering class, then restock returnees packages and transfers get what’s left, most of the time. Those schools that do guarantee to meet full need often do not extend that guarantee to transfers and it’s important you know this as you might want to substitute such a school on your list for one that does. I believe, for example, (and you do have to still call and ask because these things change fast and also I could be wrong) that Brown does not have the guarantee but Cornell does. NPCs are not accurate for those schools that do not guarantee to meet full need and don’t, or those that have merit money. Be aware that as a transfer you could fall into that tiny gap, statistically between those getting full need and those getting merit money. It’s a tiny gap when there are not that many transfer student, but it 100% hits you.</p>
<p>Take off UTexas and UWash…you’re OOS and they’re publics. you won’t likely get anything but a 7500 student loan unless you also qualify for a 5600 Pell Grant. Either way, it won’t be close to being enough.</p>
<p>B states on it’s website that they have both need aware admissions and limited FA for transfer applicants. This has been discussed extensively on the Transfer Students forum:</p>
<p>Both UNLV and UNR have need and merit based awards for transfer students. Many of the awards are given on a first come, first served basis, so make sure to submit all applications by the priority deadline. FAFSA is required, and some awards have an additional application, so check requirements carefully. </p>
<p>Your CC transfer advising center will have a wealth of information about your in state options. Take advantage of that resource!</p>