<p>It is true that merit scholarships are far more limited for transfer students.</p>
<p>There are several plausible reasons for this:</p>
<p>1) Colleges that use merit scholarships to increase their US N&WR ratings by attracting high-stats students get no "bang for their bucks" using merit money for transfer students, because only entering freshmen count.</p>
<p>2) Colleges that use merit scholarships as a marketing discount to attract students from affluent families that can pay most of the sticker price will generally find more such students among freshmen applicants than among transfer applicants, many of whom come from inexpensive two-year colleges. (Current reality is that the marketing demographics are less promising among such students.)</p>
<p>3) There is a "gentleman's agreement" among four-year colleges that they will not aggressively solicit transfer applications from other four-year colleges. So while a college is free to use mass-mailing letters to high school students and mention merit scholarships in those letters as a marketing come-on, NACAC policy says that colleges are not allowed to do this kind of unsolicited mass-mailing to prospective transfer students currently attending other four-year colleges. (They are allowed to do this kind of thing to students attending 2-year colleges, but again, the marketing demographics make this a less promising group for many colleges.)</p>
<p>4) Merit scholarships are a form of tuition discount. On average, the cost of providing freshman and sophomore classes is lower than the cost of providing junior and senior classes. (Why? Because introductory classes are often larger than advanced electives.) It makes more sense for a college to use their merit scholarships strategically to attract students who will spend all four years at the institution, because the average cost per year of providing an education is lower for such students. </p>
<p>Having said all this, I still think there's a lot to be said for the strategy of attending a two-year college for the first two years, and then transferring. </p>
<p>Many two-year colleges offer an excellent education bargain. The professors are dedicated to teaching and specialize in teaching introductory classes. They don't regard those intro classes as a burden to be cast off onto grad students. Teaching is their first priority and they have a strong incentive to care about the quality of their classes, because the college's viability depends on maintaining their "articulation agreements" with four-year institutions in their state.</p>
<p>Attending a two-year college and then transferring to a four-year college paying full-fare (no merit aid) may well be a better deal than ANY merit offer a first-year applicant will get at a four-year college. As noted in other threads, full-ride merit scholarships, even for first year applicants, are extremely rare. Most merit scholarships are well under 50% of the cost of attendance (COA.) </p>
<p>Attending a reasonably priced two year college and transferring to a full-fare college is a very good deal financially. </p>
<p>The situation for the OP's niece is an especially promising one, since she can attend courses at the cc for free thanks to her father's employment there. Presumably her father also has access to "grapevine" information about the best courses and professors available at the college.</p>
<p>Since she is a strong student and her high school offers no AP classes, it seems like she could consider getting a head start by taking some cc classes while still in high school. </p>
<p>Those classes would offer her more challenging work than available in her high school and would allow her to get a "free sample" of what's available at the cc. That way, she would be able to make a more informed decision about the options open to her.</p>
<p>Even if she decides to apply directly to a four-year college after high school, any cc courses she takes in high school will enhance her application. (Also, if those cc courses did not count toward credits needed for high school graduation, many colleges will give her transfer credit for those classes EVEN if she enters as a freshman! She would still have the option of spending all four years at the college, but she could use those transfer credits to give herself more flexibility in scheduling, possibly pick up a double major, ease the issues associated with a junior year abroad, etc.)</p>