Hi! I’m an international student applying to US universities as transfer. I was in med school but in my country we go to med school straight after high school so in the US system is kinda equivalent to a major. Anyway, I was really unhappy there and I want to start fresh and study something completely different but I don’t know if this is even possible? Like if I wanted to major in computer science would I be considered a freshman since none of the classes I had were math/computer related?
Generally speaking what you want to do sounds like it should be possible – IF you can afford it and can get accepted. There are of course a lot of details to think about.
Two big issues: What sort of grades do you have both in high school and in university up to now? This will be a big factor in terms of where you can get accepted. Another issue: What can you afford? Can you afford to be full pay for four years at a US university?
Thanks for your reply! My high school grades are pretty good but my college grades are not amazing so I know my chances of getting in are limited. But assuming I get accepted and can afford the 4 years of college, I was wondering if I could be a transfer but start as freshman.
You have to honest and truthful and apply as a transfer.
If you try to apply as a freshman, and you get caught, you will be dismissed by any university that has accepted you. Plus, there is a clearinghouse that the universities use; they red flag you. They input your information such that no other US university will admit you.
It’s really unfair of you to restart your college education alongside young entering freshman, who haven’t had any post graduate experience.
Yeah I know that, I was asking what year would I be on assuming I choose a completely different major and none of my credits transfer
I don’t think it’s possible to “start fresh”.
Doesn’t matter.
You started a university program.
Freshman status means never attended post high school.
Change of major nor credits means you still attended another post HS institution.
So what happens if as a transfer I didn’t take any of the required classes for the new major I want? Wouldn’t I have to do the 4 years?
Yeah, but that doesn’ matter. You are a college educated man, and no way in seven heaven you can be considered as a freshmen again.
Exactly^
There are people with second bachelors degrees who never took credits in their major, before their second bachelors.
But you go ahead and try to con the admissions administrators. The payback is very brutal.
As I said I am applying as transfer, I just didn’t know if it was possible to change to a completely different major… I don’t know how I’m conning the admissions administrators but ok??
Yes you can change your major completely as a transfer student. Just make certain that your target institutions will admit you as an undecided student (and let you select your major agter enrolling), or that you apply directly to the new major.
Yes if you do change your major and you have never taken classes required for that major you will be in at least some freshman-level classes in that major.
Yes it might end up taking you four years to finish all of the degree requirements. However that will depend on how many of your credits earned so far are accepted for transfer credit, and as what. Some places are more generous about accepting transfer credits than others. Often you will get an estimate of transfered credit when you receive an offer of admission.
Thank you so much for your detailed answer!
I think that some some extent the original poster @sslalala and some of the comments are slightly misunderstanding each other. I thought I would post some background to clarify for @sslalala’s benefit.
Generally in order to graduate from a university in North America with a Bachelor’s degree there is a list of requirements. Some requirements will be specific to the major. As an example a CS major will need to take some number of computer science classes and some specific computer science and math classes, and might need to take some other classes such as perhaps some electrical engineering classes. Also, there will be some requirements specific to the university. For example my youngest just took an English class which is required for all students in her university. Many years ago when I was at university where I went every student had to take a full year of physics, calculus (unless you AP’d out of it) and a lab class. There will also be some total number of credits required.
When you transfer, there is a good chance that they will give you some credit for some of the university classes that you have already taken. If you have taken no or little math or computer science then the credits that you receive won’t help you fulfill these requirements and you will need to take the required classes. There will be some dependencies (classes that you can’t take until after completing a different class), which means that it will take some number of years for you to complete the required sequence of courses. It is possible that this might require a full four years, or it is possible that you might get by with only three years of courses. It is likely that some of the classes that you have already taken might help you with some of the requirements (for example, you might have already taken a lab class, which might help if you go to a university which requires all students to do so).
However, a significant change of major is allowed at universities in North America. I have heard of several and knew one student who had a large change in their major during their senior year of university. Usually this postpones graduation significantly. Also, often financial aid ends after four years and any additional years can be expensive.
When applying to universities, there are some scholarships which are only available for students coming in from high schools and starting as a freshman. Since you already have some university classes completed, these will not be available to you. Also, since you already have some university classes completed, you need to tell universities what you have taken and send in your university transcript for them to consider. Admission will consider both your high school grades and university grades when deciding whether to admit you.
Sometimes a student will have good grades as a high school student, terrible grades in university, and wish that they could apply to a different school and start over without considering their university grades. This is not allowed. Also, sometimes a student will want to forget about their university career because they still owe money to their university and want to start over somewhere less expensive. In these cases the student has to pay what they owe and can’t just “forget” that they ever attended university. Thus when you say “be considered a freshman” I think that some people are trying to understand what you mean by this.
Thus applying to schools in the US you need to tell them about the university that you have attended and classes that you already took. In some ways the universities in the US will not think of you as starting as a freshman. However, you can start with a brand new major, and you can then start to take the classes that are required for your new major. At some point you will graduate with your new major (assuming that all goes well).
There are thousands of universities in the US. You are pretty much certain to get in somewhere unless your grades up to now are absolutely horrid. I get the impression that your grades are probably decent, and that getting admitted somewhere is not likely to be a major problem. Also, getting to start with a new major should not be a significant problem. In North America people change their majors quite often (most students change majors at some point after starting university).
The biggest problem that you will face is probably going to be paying for all of this. If you can afford to spend US $300,000 over four years then that is not likely to be a problem either. If however you don’t have $300,000 in the bank waiting to fund your education, then you will need to also consider the cost of your education. There are some ways to get a good education in North America for somewhat less than this. Folks here on CC can help you find less expensive options. If you cannot afford a total of US $100,000 for four years, then funding a university education in North America might be quite challenging, and might only be possible for a small number of very strong international students.
Picking a university among the thousands available might also require some thought. Again people here on CC can help by suggesting some places. However, with their being thousands to choose from, it is sort of futile to suggest anything without knowing a lot more about what your want to study, what your grades are up to now, how much you can afford, and what you might want in a university.
Thanks for clearing everything up @DadTwoGirls. Just a little background on my situation, I’ve been dealing with this transfer process for a while now so I have a list of colleges I’m applying to and I already sent all the documents I needed to send including my college transcripts so I’m definitely not trying to erase any of my academic history. At this point, I’m just filling the common application and I was afraid that choosing a new major without having the required classes would mean instant rejection from schools. I have no idea if the major I choose on the common app while applying is definitive or if I only need to declare it once accepted but I’m having a hard time trying to choose a major and just wanted to know what my options were. I now realize that it is possible to have a significant major change which is a relief.
There should be no problem because of your intended change in direction of your studies. You can easily make a compelling case for why you are applying for CS after having studied medicine. One point of misunderstanding is that some of the posters are understanding your question about “change of major” as a question about if a transfer student, once admitted can change their major at the new institution, for example, you arrive in the US university and decide that CS is not for you and you want to change to Biology. In fact, what you are doing is not a change of major but simply applying as a transfer student to a specific major, i.e. CS.