Transfer VS Gap Year

Student Lounge International Students
1

Hello everyone,

My name is Milan, I’m 18 and I come from Serbia. I am currently in my 4th and final year of high school. The last 10 months of my life were really a mess, my uncle and grandmother passed away, my father needed to change jobs and we needed to move. Because of that, I was mentally unprepared to start my college application process. It was hard enough to keep focusing on the school, but I could not simply study for the SAT and TOEFL, or concentrate on writing college essays at the time.

However, that did not mean that I would give up. Eventually, I have taken the SAT and scored 1410 (660 Reading, 750 Math) and 105 on TOEFL iBT. I even plan to retake my SAT in order to increase my Reading score, hopefully to reach the 700 threshold. Anyway, the reason due to which I write this post is to ask - what is the best chance for me to enroll in a US college, now that I missed my right time? Can I apply next year as a freshman, or is my status now changed? Am I considered as a gap year student, even though I did not plan for this to happen? Would it better if I enrolled in a college here in Serbia, and tried to transfer after the first year? Also, I suppose it is important to mention, my goal is to try to enroll in some of the top schools, maybe not Ivy, but certainly schools ranked in the top 100. I would also need decent financial aid, which I think might be the biggest problem in this situation. To sum it up, what is the best thing I could do at this point?

Thanks, everyone :slight_smile:

2

Definitely, take a gap year if you want the US. You will be counted as a freshman if you take a gap year, and it is easier to get admission as a freshman than as a transfer student.

3

Thanks :slight_smile: In that case, would my status as an applicant be in any way different to the people applying in their senior years of high school?

4

Preserve your freshman status. If you are serious about going to college in the US, I would strongly recommend against enrolling at a university elsewhere. There’s three big obstacles for international transfer students:

  • Financial aid for international transfer students is virtually non-existent. There's A LOT more financial aid available for international freshman applicants.
  • Many US universities will demand from transfer students that they complete lower-level general education requirements prior to transfer. Alas, that's not possible at most foreign universities. Universities elsewhere in the world don't have general education requirements and don't let their students take random courses in subjects unrelated to their major.
  • Many selective private universities will only accept a handful of transfer students. Selective public universities usually prioritize transfer applications from in-state public community colleges.

The application process is essentially the same. The criteria by which your application will be judged may be slightly different.

Colleges will be interested in what you are doing in your gap year. American universities care a lot about extra-curricular engagement, not just grades and test scores. Do something productive with your time! You could work a job, volunteer, train full-time for a sport, create and market your own video game… Studying for the SATs does not count as a meaningful activity.

Colleges will see your final high school grades and school-leaving exams, which wouldn’t be true if you were applying part-way through your senior year.

To prepare for the admissions process, I would recommend that you organize letters of recommendation before the end of the school year. You may also wish to work with your school to complete the school report form as soon as your final grades become available. Those sort of things tend to be easier while you are still a student and fresh in people’s mind.

5

Why do you want to go to an American college?

6

@PurpleTitan has an important question. You should be aware that if you graduate from a US university in most cases you will be required to return home right after graduation. Unlike some other countries, the US does not give work permits to students who graduate from universities here.

Another important question: How much can you afford to spend for university? You said “I would also need decent financial aid”. However, there is a big difference between being able to pay $30,000 per year and needing aid to cover the rest compared to being able to pay $2,000 per year and needing aid to cover the rest.

In addition to pretty good test scores, do you also have grades? Do you know how your grades compare to other students from your school or other students in your country?

7

@b@r!um Thank you very much for your quick and thorough answer, it was really helpful.

@PurpleTitan @DadTwoGirls You’re right, that question is really important and I could go on about it for days. However, I will try to sum up my main reasons. I come from a small country (Serbia, as I mentioned) which has been experiencing a lot of problems lately (economic, financial etc.). Among other things, those problems reflected in our educational system, too. Because of that, I am just not happy with my options for further education here, so I started, as many other people my age, looking for the opportunities abroad. So after some research, I concluded that the US is the best option for me.

Why? Well, first of all, the quality of the education is significantly higher (as far as I know, but I have talked to some of my professors who know a bit more about it, and they agree); both life and studying conditions are far better than those in Serbia. In our colleges here, nobody even cares who you are, or how you are doing in college. Professors do not bother to remember you, much less help you with anything, and you, most likely, will not even meet anyone else from the faculty staff during your time in college. (There are exceptions of course - there are still professors who care about individual students, and motivate and lead them towards the graduation). That is just how the system works - professors hold lectures, you study, and then when the time comes you pass or you fail.

To colleges in the USA, especially to those higher ranked, things such as one’s personal background, interests, and way of thinking, one’s extra-curricular and leadership activities DO MATTER. That is the kind of a place where I want to be. Additionally, I have been playing tennis for 10 years and would like to continue playing it on a college tennis team. That is just not possible here in Serbia because our colleges do not offer sports.

@DadTwoGirls To answer your other questions - Unfortunately, my family would be able to pay only about 10,000$ per year of my studying and living in the US. I would be able to apply only for merit- and need-based financial aid, because the schools that I am interested in are all DIII schools, and as such, they do not offer athletic scholarships. And I probably would not even be able to get an athletic scholarship, because my ranking is not that good for DI.

I have an excellent academic record in my school - GPA 5.00 on a scale of 5. Taking into account my grades only, I am in the top 5% of my class. However, because of my other academic results (mainly good results in competitions in various subjects), I have been nominated for the student of the generation (which will be selected upon graduation) and ranked in the top 100 students in the country by the Ministry of Education.

I feel so sorry that I was unable to apply for colleges this year, but things are what they are. Now I hope to find out what the best option for me, in this situation, is, which is why I posted here. Any advice is welcome! :slight_smile:

Cheers

8

I would strongly recommend you to take a gap year and do smth like AISEC( it will not cost a lot(most programs cover meal and accommodation, and you can go to nearby countries and not spend even money on airplane) and you will be able to travel/volunteer/work at the same time. To apply for some project( they are 6 weeks and more depending on which country you want to go/ project), you just need to register on the website, and then you will be appointed a manager from Serbia who will help you to find a project of your interest. This will give a good reason why you took a gap year and just generally AISEC is a great experience. So, you will have a productive activity for your gap year(you can select a project related to your major) and see the world around.