If I applied at a particular university for the first year (freshman) and get rejected then apply to that same university as a transfer applicant, does the first rejection hurt my transfer application? Do admission officers consult my first-year application files for any reason?
It might hurt, might not. you should try the other way, i.e apply as Transfer first and if rejected then you can apply as a freshman,This looks like a more legitimate scenario. If you have Transferable credits then you should solely apply as a transfer student. I have noticed transfer students have less requirements in most colleges than freshmen. For example transfer students with 30 or more credits are exempted from giving SAT exam.
I’m still a high school student and I feel a bit unprepared for the colleges I want to apply to. So I was thinking, should I apply now? If I get rejected… would that harm my admission chances for transfer application? I don’t think I can apply as a transfer applicant at the moment. I’m a first-year applicant. My SAT scores are fine. It’s just the essays and ECs that aren’t very good.
I’m not sure if I can remedy the essays. But ECs? I don’t think so.
As long as you have scores and GPA on the higher side you should not worry about weak essay or ECs as your application will still be balanced. You can go ahead and apply as a freshmen right now, as far as I understand your plan is that if you are rejected you will gather some transferable credits from another college and then apply as a transfer student again to your first choice college, Well yeah that should be alright.
Yes, that’s exactly what I want to do. But if that would harm my admission chances later to the college in which I was first rejected in, I would rethink applying as a first-year applicant.