Process of applying as a transfer student from a foreign country

Transfer Students
1

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>I'm currently studying at a university outside USA.I'm a US national,but not a resident,since I haven't been living in USA for the past few years.
I have completed 2 semesters abroad,and my current overall GPA is 2.83
As for my high school,I've done O/A levels(not from UK),</p>

<p>I'm only targeting public universities.
people are advising me,that i start off at a community college ,to complete the basic courses,and apply to universities after i've become a state resident,otherwise the cost of tuition will be expensive.</p>

<p>is this a good idea?
In addition,how will i transfer the courses that I have currently done in my current university;if the course -code is different for a particular course will it still be transferable??</p>

<p>I'm looking forward ,for any replies ,
thanks alot in advance.</p>

<p>PS: I tried searching information from various universities,but couldn't find what i was looking for.</p>

2

<p>anybody ??</p>

3

<p>Since you have not been living in the US for a while, it is not likely that you can claim in-state residence anywhere. This makes such a big difference in tuition and fees at the public universities, that it may be worth your while to move to the state where you want to study, find a job, and work there for the time required to establish residence in that state before you apply to college. Each state sets its own policies about this, so you will need to do some research. For example, in Maryland you would be in-state for tuition and fees at the community colleges after three months, but need to be working here for 12 months to qualify for in-state rates at the public universities.</p>

<p>Please remember that you need to be living and working in the state that you want to claim residence in for some time BEFORE you can start your program of study. It is almost impossible to establish residence for tuition purposes after you begin classes. One exception may be Texas, but in order to become a resident, you would need to buy land somewhere in that state.</p>

<p>One big advantage of starting at a community college, is that most of them have formal articulation agreements with the public universities in the same state. This means that if you complete a particular sequence of courses with a certain GPA, you are guaranteed admission into the third year of the program at the university. Your introductory classes will probably be much smaller than at the university, and the tuition will be much cheaper.</p>

<p>As a US national, you are eligible to file the FAFSA and can receive federally determined financial aid. However, you will need to convert your parents’ financial information into dollars to complete the forms. You can ask for help with this at the Financial Aid Forum.</p>

<p>Each college and university in the US determines for itself which credits will transfer. It is entirely possible (but unlikely) that you might not receive any transfer credit for your previous coursework. You need to have your coursework evaluated by a specialized company. [World</a> Education Services - International Education Intelligence](<a href=“http://www.wes.org/]World”>http://www.wes.org/) is accepted by many colleges and universities, but others are as well. If you check the websites of the universities that you are interested in, you should be able to find a list of the companies whose work they accept.</p>

<p>Some colleges and universities aren’t particularly expensive. You can use the [College</a> MatchMaker - Type of School](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board) or another similar search engine to search for them by cost. Unfortunately the search engines don’t include housing expenses, but this can give you an estimate. </p>

<p>You also should read through the information at [EducationUSA</a> | Study Abroad, Student Visa, University Fairs, College Applications and Study in the U.S. / America](<a href=“http://www.educationusa.state.gov/]EducationUSA”>http://www.educationusa.state.gov/) and make an appointment with the counselors at the advising center closest to you. If they haven’t worked with a student like you lately, they have colleagues at other centers who have, and they can help you find the information that you need.</p>

<p>Wishing you all the best!</p>

4

<p>

</p>

<p>Happymomof1, rabia44 mentioned that she has a 2.83 gpa. If you’re graded on a gpa scale instead of a percentile system, do you still have to have your course work evaluated by a specialized company? Because wouldn’t the university you’re applying to be able evaluate your previous coursework itself on the basis of similarity of courses available there to the ones she has studied? Since then the courses would already have assigned credits.</p>

<p>Also, if, hypothetically speaking, none of your previous coursework transfers, can you still graduate on time by taking a summer semester and possibly a course overload?</p>

5

<p>It is normal to require that foreign transcripts be evaluated by WES or another organization because no college or university in the US has staff with sufficient expertize to evaluate the content of coursework offered at every possible foreign institution of higher education. For coursework within the US, colleges and universities do have access to a transfer credit database that can help them decide if Math 101 at College A is or isn’t equal to Math 101 at University B. </p>

<p>If none of your previous coursework transfers you would need the equivalent of four academic years to complete your degree. Summer classes and heavy courseloads would let you finish in less calendar time, but you might not want to try it. Usually the credits do transfer as something and will eliminate some electives even if they don’t count toward your major.</p>

6

<p>Hi,
I’m a bit confused. Currently im also in the situation as rabia44 . </p>

<p>However,I contacted a few universities such as UT Austin and Texas A&m. They told me that transcript evaluations by specialized companies(eg WES…etc) is not acceptable . They say that the university has a whole department in charge of evaluating foriegn credentials,and they prefer doing evaluations themselves.</p>

7

<p>Some universities do their own evaluations. Some don’t. You need to ask each university what their policy is so that you know what you need to do.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>