Transfer Acceptance Timing

Transfer Students
1

<p>I'm a novice when it comes to the transfer process, so I would like some help here. Transferring looks like it might be a balancing act when it comes to timing. They seem to have different dates for when you tell them that you’re accepting their offer.</p>

<p>My son is attending a 2-year accredited college for kids with learning disabilities – he is a freshman. He really is using it as a PG year – to learn strategies to be able to manage on his own in a college environment. He did well enough in high school to get into many engineering schools, despite his learning disability, but my wife and I and he felt that he needed this year to be prepared for an engineering program. Rather than stay at his current college for 2 years, he needs to transfer now, because his school doesn’t really offer much in the way of math and science courses.</p>

<p>He recently applied to seven colleges with engineering departments. One, which is quite good, accepted him last week (no paperwork yet, but an emailed acceptance). He will be getting an $8,000 academic scholarship, and he’ll be notified later of his financial aid offer. Another college that he and I met with said that he would get in, and they would have a scholarship offer and financial aid offer in his hands before the end of this month.</p>

<p>However, another school said they wanted to see his second semester grades, because he had no math or science in his first semester; after I spoke to them, they said they could make a decision based upon his midterm grades.</p>

<p>He didn’t apply right away to our state university because their web site said he would have to notify them within 20 days of his notification of acceptance whether or not he was going to go there; their transfer application deadline is April 15.</p>

<p>I’m accustomed to the traditional, high school senior system where everyone has a May 1 reply date. It appears that transfer applications don’t seem to work that way, however.</p>

<p>Can anyone tell me how much time is normally given after a transfer acceptance, and if colleges will usually extend deadlines if you’re waiting for someone else to respond?</p>

<p>By the way, none of these schools are in the hyper-elite category, such as an MIT. All have acceptance rates in the 60% to 80% range.</p>

2

<p>You’re correct, transfer admissions are different, the timing of decisions and response deadlines are not as uniform as they are with fr admissions. As a result, there are 3 things that you may need to do:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Request that some schools give you a decision early since you must respond to the offers of other schools.</p></li>
<li><p>Request an extended response period from some schools due to the release of decisions by other schools later.</p></li>
<li><p>Put deposits down for multiple schools. </p></li>
</ol>

<p>Believe me, I have rarely, if ever, seen the need for this with fr admissions, but I think it can be a necessity for transfers. If schools refuse to be flexible in the above two points and don’t give you the opportunity to have all of the acceptances and money aspects to consider at the same time, then I think it is reasonable for you to send in a deposit to hold a space until you can examine all of the schools. Of course, some deposits are non-refundable, so you may lose your money if he choses to attend elsewhere.</p>

3

<p>Trying to remember the usual response time given, it’s been a few years but I think it was a few weeks, a month max.</p>

4

<p>Thanks. What you’ve just told me is what I was worried about. Clumsy process.</p>

5

<p>Just to update: He’s been accepted by three schools now, and each has given him until May 1 to reply. That may be because he will essentially be starting as a freshman, with some of the general education requirements out of the way, but I’m not sure if that is why.</p>

6

<p>For further follow up: My son has now been accepted to six schools, and has yet to hear from one. All six schools have given him until May 1 to respond.</p>