<p>I’m taking a gap year and I was wondering are you classified as a transfer student if you take abosulutely ANY college classes during the gap yea? I was thinking about taking a couple dance or acting classes at a local cc, but I wouldn’t want it to qualify me as a transfer. Would it?</p>
<p>And you can transfer into Emerson as a BA, but not a BFA. (I have a couple BA transfer friends there.)</p>
<p>In general, the answer to your question is yes, as soon as you sign up for any college classes you become a transfer student. However, there are exceptions to every rule and I’m sure there are some schools out there who would allow you to apply as a freshman. The only way to be sure is to contact the schools directly and ask.</p>
<p>bhmomma makes a good point. A lot of the merit scholarship money is only offered to incoming Freshman from the high school stats. Some schools consider you as an incoming Freshman until you have a certain number of credits. Check that out in advance so you don’t have problems later. Also, the health insurance issue. If you are covered as a student dependent you might lose coverage unless you are enrolled in something somewhere. I would really advise making sure that isn’t a problem.</p>
<p>This is slightly off topic - but reading this thread is making me a little nervous. When a high school student takes Duel Enrollment courses during high school - colleges still consider these students Freshmen don’t they?</p>
<p>Ladies and Gents. If there are programs out there that “won’t take transfers” I’m not aware of them. The issue is not whether or not the program will take transfers, but the expectations of the transfer student. It takes four years to graduate from a BFA program. That is a function of the credit structure more than it is raw credits. For instance, most schools want you to take 8 semesters of Voice, acting and dance. For both pragmatic reasons (which I won’t go into) and artistic issues (more important in the long run) they want all of those classes to be taken with their faculty. The program is just built that way, each class leads to the next and so on. </p>
<p>Schools will take transfer students, but insist they stay four years. That is the norm in BFA programs. </p>
<p>If a student has AP courses, or dual enrollment, that’s great. If your son or daughter ends up in a program that insists on a liberal arts core, the classes will allow some limited flexibility in the credit structure. But it will still take four years to graduate. </p>
<p>I will say that in the world of auditioning it is hard to ignore the idea of “I was at school A but it didn’t work out.” The first question one thinks of is “well, why not? Are you the issue or is it the school?” And yes, it is perfectly true that not every program is for every student. But beware of the answer to why you are transferring. </p>
<p>I can say from experience, if the answer is “because the faculty didn’t like me” or “I wasn’t cast” schools will think twice about accepting the transfer. This is a dual investment and losing a BFA student makes things difficult as the class progresses. Attitude plays a very important role inside the studio, and schools are wary of attitude issues. </p>
<p>Hope that clears things up a touch.</p>
<p>Larkmom, my D had 20+ credits of dual-credit courses from high school and was still considered a freshman as far as admission was concerned. The ‘head start’ on the core curriculum allowed her to take more electives in MT and maybe fewer hours/credits each semester (she always took at least 16, though), but still had to go four years.</p>
<p>Class rank is determined by number of credits. Total number of credits needed to graduate according to the University divided by the number of years it will take to graduate. I’d say the most likely version of this requires 120 credits, so if you have been in college for one semester, but have 31 credits, you are a sophomore. </p>
<p>Conversely, you can be in college for four years and accumulate 20 credits and still be a freshman. </p>
<p>Doesn’t matter, you will still need to complete all BFA requirements which are more than likely going to take four years. </p>
<p>If a student accumulates 32 credits in one year at the first school, plus another 6 credits of A.P. courses it will take no more than six more semesters of school to reach the magic number of 120 credits. Yet there is one more year to complete the major. And that is hard to explain to a parent who is paying for college out of their retirement fund, or taking out massive loans. Which is why it is necessary to caution all transfer potentials. </p>
<p>Not trying to be negative but ideals change over three years and I hate to have someone move into something that they don’t understand fully.</p>
<p>if you take a gap year after high school you are still considered a freshman applicant when you audition right?</p>
<p>Yes. That is correct.</p>
<p>62442:
Regarding taking classes during a gap year:
If the community college will allow you to enroll as a non-degree seeking student (or special student) then those classes will not be applied to a later degree and will not make you a transfer student.</p>
<p>Michele</p>
<p>There is no actual definition of “transfer student”. I am curious, can anyone show proof of any program who will not accept a “transfer student?” </p>
<p>What would it matter if you have credits from a community college or anywhere else? If you want to take classes, by all means, take some classes. As I said before, just be prepared to explain why you are transferring and that you know it will take four years to graduate. Beyond that, not one school will care that you have taken a year and taken a few classes. In fact, many will like it. It isn’t any harder to enter a program with credits than it is after a year working at the local McDonalds and taking dance at the nearest studio.</p>
<p>Thank you All4FSU and onstage!</p>
<p>I just want to state that you can graduate from Syracuse’s BFA program in 3 years as a transfer.</p>