I’m posting this because I want to offer better advice to my cousin. She did very well in her studies graduating in the top 3 in her class and is form an under represented state (Nevada). She’s taken the SAT once and her scores weren’t too bad but she wants to retake it to get in the range for the selective colleges she’s considering. One big problem is that she was signed up for a Gap year program in India which ended up falling apart in the spring leaving her with few options for college. Right now she is enrolled in the online bachelors at Oregon State and wants to transfer ASAP. My question is whether it is better for her to apply as a freshman or to spend this year studying and try to transfer; a lot of the schools she’s considering and where she is competitive say they don’t offer transfer credit for online classes. Also, can she apply as a freshman and try to get a few of her online credits later, even if it means 5 total years of undergrad?
The best financial aid is for freshmen applicants. If she needs a lot of aid, then she should come up with a different gap year activity. Even just working at the local fast-food place could be better than enrolling in a random college program for the fall.
Before she takes any classes anywhere, she needs to find out whether or not those classes would make her a transfer applicant at the colleges/universities that she really wants to attend. If they will make her a transfer student, she should not start those classes.
If she has started taking the classes, then she will almost certainly need to apply as a transfer. Each place will determine for itself whether or not any of the credits will be able to be used toward her degree. Yes, it is entirely possible for her to have to apply as a transfer, but still get no credits for her previous work.
So the promises of the selective colleges to meet 100% of demonstrated need do not apply for transfers? Thanks so much for the advice, I’ll show her what you said.