<p>Someone here made me think that if you go to a college (first time), and then go apply to a different college (in a different state) - that you can't qualify for any scholarships from that school (full-tuition scholarship). Is there any truth to that? I wouldn't be transferring (BTW) to another college; I would just quit going (finish my course) to that college and apply to another.</p>
<p>If you simply “quit” going to College #1 and then apply to College #2, you are a transfer applicant—“transfer” in the sense that you are clearly NOT a first-time freshman applicant and College #2 will want to see the transcript from College #1 and will likely transfer all applicable credit should you be admitted and chose to matriculate at College #2. [“Applicable credit” in the sense that College #2 decides whether the credit for a particular course at College #1 will indeed count towards College #2’s degree requirements; College #2 gets to chose what they accept as transfer credit and how it will apply to their degree requirements.]</p>
<p>If you mean “graduate” from College #1 with your first bachelor’s degree and then apply to College #2 for a second bachelor’s degree, you’ll still not be considered a first-time freshman applicant. College #2 will still want to see you transcript from College #1, but what they transfer will also depend on College #2’s rules concerning “second bachelor degrees.” You’d need to talk at length to someone from admissions at College #2 to see whether they have a process for granting second bachelor degrees.</p>
<p>In either case, you would NOT be a first-time freshman applicant, and hence, you would NOT be considered for any merit money that is earmarked for freshmen applicants. What your need-based FA package would look like would depend strongly on the individual college you plan on applying to: Some colleges do seem to be more generous to freshmen with the free (i.e. insititutional grant) money in neeed-based FA packages than they are with transfer applicants; others don’t make as big of a distinction. You’ll want to talk to somebody from the FA office at College #2 and read everything you can find about College #2’s FA policies and even then, still take it with a grain of salt.</p>
<p>A bit harsh “take it with a grain of salt”… policies are policies and you should be able to “count on” the policies but policies are not promises of financial or merit aid. Policies will tell you what you may be eligible or ineligible for but you will not know what this translates into in terms of aid without applying and seeing what aid you get. Transfer students in good academic standing get the same consideration for government and/or state based FA as first year students. However, you do need to see what the POLICIES are at college #2 regarding institutional financial aid, it may be significantly less for transfer students. </p>
<p>Merit aid tends to be very much front loaded–for entering freshman but there may be special departmental and school wide scholarships for outstanding soph, juniors and seniors but these will not be available when you first transfer. Thus, it is generally harder to get financial and merit based aid when you transfer. THere are exceptions. In our area, students graduating from our local 2 year junior college are eligible for a limited number of really generous merit and financial aid packages at regional state universities to the outstanding junior college graduates to complete the last 2 years and of course all the credits transfer.</p>
<p>as robinsuesanders said. If you start college you become a transfer applicant, regardless if you transfer straight, drop out etc</p>
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<p>Not always, it depends on the individual school and how they define a transfer applicant. At some schools you are a transfer if you’ve taken 1 post-HS college course. Some let you apply as a fr as long as you haven’t completed a full year of post-HS college. Others fall somewhere inbetween with credit or sem/qt limits. And you can never just quit, your college transcript will stay with you forever.</p>
<p>Institiutional FA also depends on the school policy, some treat transfers like fr admits, others are less generous with transfers. </p>
<p>And don’t forget, at many of the selective schools, transfer acceptance rates are much lower than for fr admissions. And some schools are need-blind for fr admissions but need-aware for transfers.</p>
<p>Merit aid is significantly less for transfers, both in the number of scholarships offered and the dollar amounts of the scholarships.</p>
<p>If by OOS, your source meant OOS publics, they are generally the worst place for either need based FA or merit scholarships.</p>
<p>There was absolutely NO truth in what your source told you, I’d advise you find another source, like a reliable book (I recommend Admission Matters) and college websites, if you go to them, they will tell you their FA policies and how much merit aid they give to transfers.</p>
<p>Re my “take everything with a grain of salt” remark concerning FA.</p>
<p>There are lots of threads and lots of posts here at CC complaining of schools that promise to meet full need for all students, but meet that need for at least some selected students by including large Parent PLUS loans in the FA package.</p>
<p>There are lots of threads and lots of posts here at CC complaining of Profile schools that promise to meet full need, but the school’s calculated EFC is far, far above the Federal FAFSA EFC which is often already unaffordable in the opinion of the student and/or his/her parents.</p>
<p>So that’s what I mean by take everything with a grain of salt: No student should automatically assume that a particular Profile college’s FA package will automatically define “need” as Federal FAFSA EFC, and no student should assume that a particular “meets full need” college’s need-based FA will include only “good” aid.</p>