<p>I currently attend a 4-year university. My parents are having financial issues and so we can no longer afford to pay my tuition. Now, I am wondering how this will look to UW adcoms if I attend a WA state community college for a quarter or two and then transfer? Will explaining my circumstances be enough? It's a bit odd to "transfer" down from a university to a community college.</p>
<p>It's not that odd. There are a lot of kids who attend 4 year uni's and then decide that it's not for them and return to their Junior or Community colleges. The UW loves their community college students, but I don't know how it would look if you only stayed there a quarter or two, as most of their transfer students tend to transfer over with 90+ credits, with a couple of exceptions. If you have a really strong first semester/quarter at the college that you are at now, and have a really strong high school record, I would give the application a try. </p>
<p>In theory, the whole point of a community college is to get rid of all your GE requirements so that when you enter the uni of your choice, you know what major you will be applying for. UW discourages freshman and sophomores from transferring from a community college until they have enough credits to become a junior, mostly because they don't need more students who will just take a whole bunch of lower division classes, blindly trying to figure out what they want to do. They want most of their transfer students to have a pretty solid idea of the major they will probably, albeit not absolutely, apply for. If you apply now, and assuming you are a freshman/sophomore, I would make it a point to explain why you think the UW would be a great school for you, and what made the school you were at not the school that you are staying at. I'm not so sure that you want to emphasize so much that the only reason you want to attend the U is because you can't afford the other uni that you are at. I enrolled at an out of state four year college and backtracked, decided the school wasn't for me, and came home to attend a community college for a quarter and will be attending the UW for spring quarter as a freshman, so it is doable. </p>
<p>All this is just my opinion, of course. Don't take my word as the official or only word.</p>
<p>I'm thinking about doing the same thing. You do have a better shot trying to transfer from a CC than you do from a four year school.</p>
<p>You say a quarter or two, but assuming you're finishing up your first year than three quarters would be all you needed for the standard two years of CC before transferring.</p>
<p>I called their admissions office and they didn't make it sound like transferring from a university to CC was bad. </p>
<p>They said I could apply for the Winter quarter (deadline is September 15th) and only spend that one Fall quarter at a CC and I would be counted as a community college student (and therefore have a shot at that 70% CC transfer acceptance rate instead of the 29% four-year transferring from a four year). And even then, they said it doesn't matter if you're rejected once... it isn't considered if you apply again in the future. So why not try applying for a transfer right away and spending a quarter at a CC? And if it doesn't work then try again for the next fall quarter--after you'll have your two years.</p>
<p>I'm trying to make this decision. It's a hard one to make...</p>