My daughter was offered a guaranteed admission as a sophomore at Cornell, her first choice. A condition was that she spend her freshman year at a four year, American accredited college. Cornell was far superior to her alternatives. I feared that if she started at a much lesser school, she would become attached and want to stay all four years.
I also feared that she would miss out on a junior year abroad. My solution was to enroll her in The American University of Paris for her freshman year. It was a leap of faith sending an 18 year old to Paris. There were few dorm spaces. Although AUP offered housing, it was not necessarily communal.
This solution worked out, but it should be employed only for emotionally sturdy, well organized kids.
I think that The American University of Rome may have more communal student housing.
Guaranteed admission as a sophomore has become an increasingly common admissions ploy. In fact, a significant proportion of the graduating classes at many universities are now composed of sophomore admits. This is particularly so for kids who graduate from elite private and public schools which have tough grading standards, for athletes, etc. Blame the US News and World Report in part for this. Colleges like to report high GPA’s for the incoming freshman class even if those GPA’s are inflated by junk high schools.