<p>Hello, my name is Juan, I'm 17 years old and I'm from Brazil. I've already graduated from high school and I studied mechanical engineering, here in Brazil, for 1 semester. Now I'm going to apply for some universities in USA and I'd like to know if I should apply as a freshman or transfer student. I only took 1 semester, so I don't mind losing the credits I've earned and I'd love having the freshman experience again. What should I do? I'm taking TOEFL in October and SAT in November. Also thinking about taking SAT subject test too. Thanks :)</p>
<p>Different schools have different rules about what amount of college attendance after high school graduation disqualifies you from applying for frosh admissions (i.e. you would have to apply as a transfer if you were disqualified from applying for frosh admissions). Check each school for its rules.</p>
<p>Just because you are considered a transfer applicant, doesn’t mean that you can’t have “the freshman experience”. Moving to a new place, meeting new people, living in a residence hall, etc. all is stuff you can can arrange to do if you really want to. There is no magical difference between being a “freshman” and any other kind of “first year at university X” student.</p>
<p>Thank you for the information. That’s good to know that I can have the freshman experience. I’m just a little bit concerned about the fact that transfer application is much harder than freshman application, percentage of acceptance is much lower.</p>