<p>I know that Middlebury offers January admission for some deserving students not accepted in the RD pool and Emory offers the possibility of admission for the first two years to the somewhat less selective Oxford College, but are there any other schools that offer students who might be in a slightly second tier another option? I am especially interested in those like Middlebury's plan, as my son would not care if he had to wait a semester. One of my son's friends got into Middlebury this way. I think I have heard that W and M and JMU offer admission through a local community college, but being far away and OOS, that might be less than ideal. </p>
<p>UC Berkeley offers a similar option to incoming freshmen -Spring admission- and offers to put up a select Spring admits -on a first come first sere basis- in University sponsored housing while they complete a semester at the local community college. </p>
<p>Hamilton offers January admission to about 35 students a year selected from ED and RD applicant pools.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.hamilton.edu/admission/apply/jan-about”>http://www.hamilton.edu/admission/apply/jan-about</a></p>
<p>To be clear, Febs at Middlebury are not “second tier.” They are selected based on certain qualities that the college looks for. There is no significant difference in stats (high school GPAs, test scores, etc.) between Regs and Febs. Many actually request February admittance. And, for what it’s worth, they tend to perform better (in terms of GPA, leadership positions, etc.) than September matriculants. </p>
<p><a href=“Febs | Middlebury College”>Febs | Middlebury College;
<p>Schools offering spring admission at the school’s option include:</p>
<p>Berkeley
Maryland
USC (Trojans)</p>
<p>However, many less selective schools allow applicants to apply for entry in a spring semester.</p>
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</p>
<p>Actually, Berkeley spring admits can choose for the fall between a special extension program at Berkeley (offers a limited selection of frosh-level courses at approximately in-state tuition; eligible for campus housing; fills up quickly), attending community college in the fall, or not attending any college in the fall. Although spring admission is usually considered less desirable than fall admission that the student applied for, it can be a cost-saving opportunity for one semester (community college is usually much cheaper; the special extension program is cheaper than regular tuition for out-of-state students).</p>
<p>Maryland has a similar special extension program for its spring admits. USC does not. Both allow admitted spring frosh to take courses at other colleges in the fall for transfer credit.</p>
<p>UGA also takes spring admits.</p>
<p>I know that Cornell has a program where they accept a group of students as sophomores (these students must go somewhere else for freshman year and need to keep a certain GPA up). Skidmore offers a limited number of students a “London Experience” where they agree to take their first semester abroad. My D also has a friend who was offered admission to Wash U in January.</p>
<p>I don’t know that most of the programs are voluntary, I think you just have to luck out to get this offer than denied, it is for students they’d rather not let go. Cornell does take more transfers than similar calibur colleges.</p>
<p>article on Cornell Guaranteed Transfer
<a href=“http://cornellsun.com/blog/2013/09/30/guest-room-inside-cornells-guarantee-transfer-system/”>http://cornellsun.com/blog/2013/09/30/guest-room-inside-cornells-guarantee-transfer-system/</a></p>
<p>Cornell’s program is different in that the student has to attend another college for a whole year and make a high enough GPA to transfer. It also seems odd to do it that way, since it does not gain the load balancing benefit to the school that spring admission gives (ordinarily, the fall semester has higher enrollment due to early or late graduations, or other departures after the fall semester), which is presumably the motivation for schools to have spring admission.</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus:</p>
<p>Reading that article, does Cornell have freshman dorms (or guranteed dorms for freshmen only) or something, and this way, they can squeeze in more students than their dorms allow? Maybe it’s because they guarantee NY state a certain number of spots as the NYS land grant (but don’t have/don’t want to make enough space for the public school students who bring in less money). It does seem weird. I know other colleges have cast aspersions on how Cornell does things.</p>
<p>UT Austin offers CAP to many non top 7% applicants. Many students start at places like UTSA before going onto UT Austin. </p>
<p>The main service academies offer prep schools for some high school aged students. </p>
<p>Thanks so much! Sorry to the poster that was offended that I called the Middlebury Feb admits second tier. I am sure there are some students who choose the Feb option those kids probably have great reasons for taking off Fall semester (ie half a gap year) and are very mature and focused. And even the kids who do not ask for Feb admit but are assigned to this probably make good use of this time and are a special group as they are willing to postpone gratification, so I am not surprised that the Febs do great in the long run. The kid I know who was offered Feb admit desperately wanted to start Fall term and when Middlebury told her it was Feb or nothing, she then chose another college. In late May, however, she was told that a sept spot opened up (ie it was as if she was on the fall admit wait list) and she was given Fall admission. She was a very good student from a great HS, with nothing concerning in her application and very mature, but it was seems that Middlebury considered her a slightly less desirable applicant and was initially willing to lose her to another school when they offered her only Feb admission. My kid would be thrilled to wait til February if it meant going to a slightly better college for him than he would otherwise get into, so that is why I posted. </p>