<p>I am going to attend USC which is a very expensive school for us in the middle class. They are notorious for having bad middle class aid, but extraordinary aid for the lower class. That being said, I had to fight to get money out of them this year, making it possible for me to attend my dream school. Come next year, I will have to do this all over again, but I won't have other aid offers to compare theirs to (which were all significantly better than USC's).</p>
<p>Now, would it be a good idea to throw in a few transfer applications in February to other schools, in case USC doesn't work with me and comes out to just be too much? If I was accepted elsewhere, and received good aid from USC, I could always stay, right? And if USC gave me a significantly worse package, and I was accepted at a more generous school or a financial safety, I could always leave and go there, right?</p>
<p>and I was accepted at a more generous school or a financial safety, I could always leave and go there, right?</p>
<p>The chances that you’d get a better aid pkg as a transfer student are low. Most schools give lousy aid to transfers. Your best aid will likely be from USC.</p>
<p>you wont be a transfer student at USC next year. You will be able to get “first dibs” for FA for continuing students , which is designated earlier than FA for new Freshman or incoming transfer students . Just be sure to get your FAFSA done in early Jan.
Trying to transfer twice will not look good on your application. If USC hasn’t given you enough to go there, then I advise you stay where you are and choose other colleges to apply to next year. USC has the reputation of being very generous, comparatively speaking, to transfer students- good luck finding more $$ elsewhere.</p>
<p>Most of the time, all things being equal, colleges will give a similar package to returning students, but a bit heavier on the loans for the student contributuion (reflected in the increased Stafford limits) and a bit more expected from the student in terms of earning some of his/her way. </p>
<p>Transfers, at most schools are not treated as generously in financial aid as freshmen, even in many schools that guarantee to meet full need for freshmen. You can, of course, increase your options with transfer applications, but if you really want a financial safety, it should probably be a school local to home where you can commute.</p>
<p>This is strangely reassuring for me. My son is a student at USC, where he has received good financial aid. He was also accepted as a transfer elsewhere for the coming year. We got the financial aid letter today (from the transfer school) and I was shocked by how bad it was, having assumed it would be as good as USC’s, and wondering what in the world they saw in our financial aid materials that made them think we could afford this.
Not only have I been stressing about this, but it also caused me to worry that USC’s package would be terrible/unaffordable this year too. Now I am at least hopeful that we will continue to get good aid from USC, and I hope I can offer the OP hope that they will also.</p>
<p>We got the financial aid letter today (from the transfer school) and I was shocked by how bad it was, having assumed it would be as good as USC’s, and wondering what in the world they saw in our financial aid materials that made them think we could afford this.</p>
<p>The bad pkg had nothing to do with what they saw in your FA app. It has to do with the fact that as a transfer student, your child doesn’t “help” the school, so they’re not motivated to spend money on him. Incoming frosh are what helps the school and its ranking. Tranfer students bring nothing to the table. It’s a good thing that you didn’t cut ties with USC. That’s a mistake that some others do, and then they get the bad pkg and they’re screwed.</p>
<p>“The bad pkg had nothing to do with what they saw in your FA app. It has to do with the fact that as a transfer student, your child doesn’t “help” the school, so they’re not motivated to spend money on him.”
Yes, that’s something I wasn’t aware of prior to coming here in a panic last night and doing a search. I’m glad that means our package from USC will probably be OK, but sad for my son because he can’t afford to go where he was accepted. If I’d researched in advance, we would have been better prepared for this reality, but my son said he still would have tried. It never occurred to me that transfers would be treated differently in terms of financial aid.</p>
<p>“That being said, I had to fight to get money out of them”</p>
<p>Just a side note, this is the wrong way to handle any communications between the finaid department and yourself. Assuming you aren’t just using colorful language, you should treat them with the utmost respect and as if they are a good friend. My family’s experience with tons of financial aid departments have only returned the best results when we were extremely polite and, at the most, persistent. There is no reason to “fight” or treat them as an “enemy”.</p>
<p>To say that transfer students “bring nothing to the table” is a bit harsh and not quite true. But the fact of the matter is that the main job for admissions and financial aid is to put forth their best freshman class each year, and they will be assessed on how well they do that job. So they will put forth their best efforts and give all resources they can to that effort.</p>
<p>The way it works for transfer, is that those admissions and aid packages come AFTER the freshman are processed and AFTER current upperclassmen are given their packages, and most schools do give comparable aid packages each year to their upperclassman, usually tweaked to put more onus on the student each year in terms of earning and/or borrowing more. Transfers get what’s left, is the bottom line. </p>
<p>If a school is in need of transfers,or a specific department wants them, that is a niche where funds could be available. But that sort of info is hard to find. Even schools that guarantee to meet full need will exclude transfers in their definition. </p>
<p>For the OP, if your financial aid does not guarantee renewal each year, yes, you will likely have a 'Pull" with the FA office. Costs go up each year, and as I mentioned above, upperclassmen are expected to contribute more to their college expenses.</p>
<p>One thing to remember if this is need based aid…your eligibility for it will be determined annually…based on your family finances that round. </p>
<p>Someone will correct me if I’m wrong…but I thought USC met full need for accepted students. If you didn’t get much need based aid from them, then their computations indicated your family has the ability to pay more than you expected. You say you got accepted at schools with more generous aid offers? If finances were a significant consideration, why didnt you choose one of those more generous schools? Was this merit or need based funding?</p>
<p>Schools that guarantee to meet 100% of need usually define their own need, and one can comparatively get a huge spread among awards from such schools. Heck, even schools that belong to that group that say they use the same methodolgy for aid will come out with differences. So I’m not surprised if USC 's were different from some other schools aid packages. Do they include loans and self help in their packages?</p>
<p>Without knowing which school this is, it’s impossible to say whether the poor FA package was due to being a transfer student or because the school itself gives less generous FA than USC.</p>
<p>USC , like many colleges, use generous FA/ scholarships to attract and secure a Freshman class that raise its rankings. I dont believe the quality of transfer students is taken into account when a college’s rank, because most top colleges[ with the exception of Cornell and USC] accept very few transfer students. The graduation rate and stats of incoming Freshman are used to compare colleges.
So there is little incentive for top colleges to be as generous with incoming transfer students as they are with incoming Freshman or continuing students.</p>
The other school either does not meet need or calculates it differently. If the former, what you can afford is irrelevant. It is just the price to attend.</p>
<p>While they may have little incentive to do so, HYS give the same generous need based FA to transfers that they do to fr. So while they may not have to do so, they are in a position that they are able to support the relatively small numbers of transfers in the same way as all other students attending. I’m not familiar with some of the other highly selective colleges like MIT, Columbia, etc. </p>
<p>I do know that this does not hold for Brown, which is both need aware for transfer admissions and has limited FA for transfers.</p>
<p>Just wanted to update.
I called the financial aid office of the transfer school and was told, quickly and easily, the cause of the unaffordable financial aid package. (It had to do with dividend income shown on our tax return.) We were then able to very successfully appeal the financial aid and now have a generous package from the transfer school. I’m glad I did not assume that the bad package was just due to the fact that my son is a transfer student. I have definitely learned that it is beneficial to call and talk to the financial aid office!
We then received USC’s financial aid award and discovered that it is also much worse than in previous years, but after talking to their financial aid office, I believe that it is because of the same factors and could also be appealed successfully.</p>