<p>tokenadult, I completely agree. Just a couple of notes:</p>
<p>I recall some difficulties with UChicago mentioned on this board some time ago; the problem was that the student was (AFAIK) in the WA state’s “Running Start” program, and was getting his AS degree while being a high school student. Apparently, the “being in a degree program” status was presenting a problem, and UChicago considered the student, well… kind of matriculated. So, they told the kid he will be considered as a transfer student.</p>
<p>Now, some public universities do allow such students to enter as freshmen; but nevertheless, they do not give those students an option NOT to transfer all the college courses taken in high school. Thus, the student quickly HAS to be declared a sophomore or junior; and he HAS to declare his major right away - ready or not. But it looks like private universities usually allow students to forego their credits freely (or just don’t allow to transfer them at all); we all remember the girl who went to Smith with about 60 college credits accumulated before matriculating, and she didn’t use any of them..</p>