This is not a rhetorical question exactly, but kind of.
I’m curious. Say your child chooses a school for Freshman year, but realizes that it wasn’t right for them. Maybe too big/too small, too close/too far from home – whatever the case may be.
They want to transfer sophomore year to a school they were accepted to the previous year as a potential first time freshman. Is it ever the case that the new school will extend that student the previous merit aid offer that they made to them as a potential freshman?
The student needs to contact the place that they want to change to, and ask. In some cases, it is not a matter of transferring, but a matter of “re-opening” a previous application.
Most merit money is got first time freshmen who start fall immediately after graduation. I would not count on getting the freshman merit award as a transfer sophomore student
Sometimes, but you can’t count on it. Sometimes there are transfer scholarships available, but they might be less.
At my daughter’s school, the freshman scholarship was $14k, $19k, or $25k based on gpa and scores. The transfer scholarship was $12k, so yes, there is a penalty for not going as a freshman.
I think the answer is…it depends. A good friend has a kid who has reached out to one of her other college choices because she regrets not having chosen the school. The adcom is working with her to get the merit aid she needs to be able to attend. So…you never know.
Back in 2006, my own kid had a second choice school. She was a huge scholarship recipient there. When she made her matriculation decision, she wrote the adcom she had been dealing with a very nice letter of regret. They responded by saying they would hold her admission spot and aid for a year…and if she changed her mind, they would welcome her as a student. This was an OOS public by the way. She didn’t change her mind…but boy was that a class act response!
My d applied as a transfer student to a few of the same colleges she applied to as an entering freshman. All of them honored the original merit scholarship. But agree it is not a guarantee so you’d need to reach out to the school.
my d transferred after 1.5 semesters to a state school that offered full tuition originally. When she transferred, they offered nothing. I didn’t believe their website about transfers at the time; now I do! She’s happier though.