Hello everyone, I have a rather peculiar question. I have just finished my sophomore year at my current college, and have successfully transferred into a better college. However, my new college is far from ideal either. There is a possibility that I would have to be lowered a class because a lot of my credits did not transfer. In other words, I would be lowered from class of 2022 to class of 2023, and would start again as a sophomore at my new college. If that were to happen, would that make me eligible to apply to transfer again?
Suppose that my old college is college A, the new one I’m going to this fall is college B, and my dream school is college C.
Would something like this work?
Freshman at A → Sophomore at A → Sophomore at B → Junior at C
Since I would be a sophomore again, would I be eligible to apply for transfer once more?
Yes you can transfer again, but please please make sure you understand exactly which credits will transfer to wherever you end up.
There is still time to transfer to some schools…so that you don’t have to lose so many credits at the school you intent on enrolling this Fall. Please work with your new school to see what credits they will take…it seems like there is still uncertainty about this. I would not recommend enrolling there if you lose an entire year.
Hey, thanks for the reply. This reason for this inquiry is that I WANT to lose an entire year at my new school so that I am eligible for transfer to my dream school again. My main concern is that by next year, I would’ve completed 3 years of college. Would this jeopardize my eligibility? I would still be a sophomore due to credits unable to transfer to my new college.
You have to look and see what the max credits are that a transfer applicant can have at your dream school…many schools won’t take a student who has completed 3 years (even if said school won’t accept all the credits).
If this info is not on the school’s website, contact their transfer admissions officer…no one here can answer your question.
Are you able to pay for more than 4 years of college?
How many times have you applied to your “dream” school? If you haven’t applied yet, what’s holding you back? A student who isn’t accepted out of high school and is rejected again after 2 years at one college is unlikely to be accepted after a 3rd year at a 2nd college.
It might help if you tell us the names of the schools. What makes the program at your dream school better than your other 2 colleges?
Had bad high school grades and ended up in a very bad college (pretty much on the same level as bad state schools). Transferred to a much better college, but I’m trying to get into one of the HYPS schools. I just finished my sophomore year, but I really want to try again. A bunch of my credits won’t transfer, so I might have to start one class lower at my new school, which would make me a sophomore once more. I am thinking if this makes me eligible to apply for transfer again? I know this is kind of a loophole, but wondering if that works.
Why did you have bad grades in high school? That will probably matter. If you want to transfer to an ivy you need to read their transfer pages. This is from Harvard’s. They don’t appear to have a loophole.
My old college is pretty bad (50+ in US News ranking), but the school I’m transferring to in the fall is extremely prestigious. I won’t tell you the name because you would certainly laugh at how obsessive I am. More than one person has told me that it serves no purpose to try to transfer from my new college into HYPS, because it is almost on the same level as them. Anyhow, I’ll dig deeper into this and see if I am eligible to apply again. If I were to start sophomore year over again at my new institution because credits can’t transfer, then I should theoretically be able to apply again.
I am indeed thinking that you are too obsessed about which school you are attending. There are a lot of very good universities. The top schools do not have a monopoly on anything that they are going to teach an undergraduate student.
Someone I know very well did their bachelor’s degree (in four years) at a university that is NOT in the US News “top 100” list (it is between 100 and 120 in some rankings). They did their graduate studies at an Ivy League university that has a great program in their major. The entire thing took 6 years and they ended up with two master’s degrees from an Ivy League school.
When I was a graduate student at a “top 3” university (HYPSM level), there were students there in the same program who had done their bachelor’s degrees at a very wide range of schools. Most probably had done their bachelor’s at a “top 100” university, but I am not sure that all had. There was one single university that I could find that had sent more than two students to this particular program at a top 3 university – it was not (and still is not) in the US News top 50.
I think that you should probably (many details have been left out so I cannot be sure) get your bachelor’s degree at the school that you are transferring to. Then depending upon your major you can consider working for a couple of years. Then you could reasonably be looking at graduate school at the school of your dreams.
idly wondering what you are going to obsess about once your HYPS “dream” is over (for better or worse). we had a dog once who was obsessed with chasing squirrels. one day he caught one and just stopped in his tracks, confused- b/c he had no idea what to do with it. I know a student who was obsessed with getting in to Oxford from about age 10 or so… spent all of secondary school with his eyes on the prize- and made it!! by second year found himself feeling lost because he had no idea what else he wanted out of life. #college is not the destination #justsayin
ps, “I am thinking if this makes me eligible to apply for transfer again? I know this is kind of a loophole, but wondering if that works…If I were to start sophomore year over again at my new institution because credits can’t transfer, then I should theoretically be able to apply again”.
Nope, b/c colleges don’t think in terms of frosh/soph/jr/sr, they think in terms of credit hours completed. Colleges B or C may or may not give you credit at their school for work done at A or B, but both B & C will acknowledge the existence of those credits.
Harvard’s transfer rules say that students who have had “more than 2 years total” of college are ineligible for transfer. Other privates have similar rules, so do check. Note that they say 2 years of classes, not students in their 2nd year, not sophomores. They’re going to see all your credits on your transcript. And since you’ve applied before they’ll have your previous app. What compelling new info. do you have to offer to get them to reverse their decision? I think you’re better off getting your bachelor’s and applying there for grad school.
Fellow student here. The one unfortunate part of the college process is basically needing to be at your best by sophomore/junior year of high school to have a shot, so I understand your desire to get that opportunity back. I know your question is about the possibility of transfer and not the odds, but I think this is a question you might benefit from raising with the admissions staff at whatever HYPS school you’re trying to get into. Ask about your eligibility and maybe even figure out what you can do to better your shot. Best of luck