I will be getting out of the army in December, and I plan to apply for Fall 2019 to about a dozen top tier engineering schools including MIT, Columbia, Berkeley and the like, along with a few safety schools of course. One of my concerns is whether I will be allowed to apply as a first year student or required to apply as a transfer. I currently have 32 credit hours of college under my belt which puts me squarely in the "transfer category at most schools I have researched, however most of these courses have been vocational or for self enrichment purposes. Here is a list of the courses I have taken thus far:
This list is in chronological order. These classes where taken at various community colleges over the last 6-7 years, and the most recent was about a year ago. I also plan to take a Calculus class and probably either Physics 1 or Chem 1 to help strengthen my application.
I understand that each college will have its own requirements and each admissions panel may take its own view on my application, but in general do you think that highly selective engineering schools would consider my 1st year application as such? I have called a few admissions offices and the universal reply has pretty much been “Submit your application and see what happens”. I don’t want to apply as a transfer because very few if any of these classes will be accepted at the schools I want to attend, transfer applications are more competitive, I want four years of student aid, and there are other benefits to being a freshman at most schools that transfer students usually don’t get.
The colleges expect you to be honest in your application. You have to sign (online) on the applications stating that what you have presented is truthful, correct and honest.
If you have course credit and you don’t submit that information to the colleges, they will find out and rescind your application. Then, they have the option of submitting your information to the national clearinghouse and that information goes to any college that requests information on you.
If you are a true freshman, it means that you have not taken any coursework after high school. Since you have a record at the CC’s, you would probably be considered a transfer student.
You don’t get to choose how the colleges classify you and you’ve already used state funding through the CC’s, so “submit your application and see what happens”.
After more research (emails seem to get more thoughtful replies than phone calls) it seems that most schools consider you to be a “freshman” until you have completed a certain number of credits after graduating high school. This number usually ranges from 12-22, but many schools don’t publish this number on their websites. Many schools (about half of the ones I have talked to) also consider you a freshman if you have never enrolled in a degree seeking program, no matter how many credits you have accrued. I don’t know where your idea of a “true” freshman came from, but fortunately most schools use a more liberal definition.
More importantly, of the schools that officially consider me a transfer student, about half have given me the go ahead to apply as a freshman. The rest have given me the same “apply [as a freshman] and find out” advice as I have received over the phone repeatedly. I have not received a strong “No” from any of the 15 schools I plan on applying too. Based on these reactions, I would posit that most schools are somewhat flexible about freshman/transfer status. If you are a strong applicant, and starting as a freshman is in your best interest, I think most schools are willing to consider you as one.
This is good news for nontraditional students, especially in the military where servicemembers are pressured into enrolling in college for the purpose of earning promotion points and making the chain of command look good (my commander at Ft Drum had a bullet point on one of his performance evaluations touting “100% of enlisted soldiers under my command are currently enrolled in college”, when it should have said “coerced all enlisted swine into taking college classes they will fail because they already work 80hrs/week”. It’s also good news for people with vocational certificates from accredited schools. It would suck to have to transfer into MIT because you earned to many credits when you got your HVAC certificate at the local CC.
TLDR:
You can be considered a freshman, even if you have some college, and schools do make exceptions to official policy in this regard.
@Svdharma Thank you so much for asking this question! I am in a similar situation, having received a vocational degree in Baking and Pastry Arts. Like you, most of my credits won’t transfer. I would much rather apply as a freshman than a transfer anyway, as I understand the competition for transfers is much higher. I am planning on applying to a few Ivy Leagues, and have contacted admissions regarding this issue. However, I haven’t heard back yet. I’m glad to hear that you have had luck in your freshman/ transfer dilemma. It gives me hope for myself. Best of luck to you!!
Best of luck to you!!