<p>If I transferred to a top private school (say, JHU, USC, Cornell, etc), will the schools offer me a generous financial aid (mostly in grants) that they would have if I were admitted as a freshman? My EFC would be close to if not zero. Would my need for significant aid hurt my chances drastically?</p>
<p>The school I attend now doesn't have the luxury of offering much financial aid.</p>
<p>So did you discuss your new needs with cuurent school?</p>
<p>For you to transfer to Cornell by Spring term, your college GPA need to be near perfect, and you have something they want.</p>
<p>Whether or not you get generous FA depends on all of the following factors:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>How much FA you qualify for; run NPCs for each school.</p></li>
<li><p>What your family can afford, ie. your definition of generous.</p></li>
<li><p>The FA policy for transfers for the school; even ‘top’ schools vary in their FA policies, you can’t make generalizations.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>You find these things out by reading the college websites and discussing finances with your family.</p>
<p>USC offers the same FA to transfer students as Freshman. But the COA there is far higher to start with than for most [instate] public schools. So you need to run your Financial numbers through their FA calculator.</p>