<p>Hi
I am in a bit of a pickle.
I am supposed to go to Ohio University in about ten days.
However I don't want to go there, never have or will, and if I do go there, I will transfer to another school as soon as possible.
I had to choose between OSU, where I had no scholarsips, or OU, where I had a full ride. Neither option looked good, and I was in the process of applying to the College of Wooster, but my dad said I need to just sign OU's housing thing, because if I waited to see if I would get aid from Wooster, I might not get any aid, and I would miss OU's deadline.
He's extremely 'proactive', and I'm extremely 'hesitant'.
That deadline didn't really matter, and I may have gotten more aid from OSU after they got my FAFSA (I got a 0 efc), and Wooster may have given me aid.
I just feel like this whole thing was rushed and now I'm going to a school I don't want to go to.</p>
<p>Anyway, I'm going to do one of the following:</p>
<p>go to OU and get perfect grades and then transfer to another school.
go to OU and apply as a freshman at another school
not go to OU and take a year off, and apply to other schools next year.</p>
<p>I don't know how these actions would affect my chances of getting aid at other schools.</p>
<p>If apply as a transfer student, will I have a harder time getting scholarships/aid?
If I do go to OU, can I still apply as a freshmen at another school next year?
If I take a year off, will that hurt my chances of being accepted and getting aid somewhere next year?</p>
<p>In high school I had a 3.0 gpa and a 35 act, and a 0 EFC. Would I be able to go to OU, get a better gpa, and apply as a freshman to another school?</p>
<p>Generally speaking, it is easier to get good financial aid as a Freshman than as a transfer. So, if you truly hate OU, you would need to come up with a plan for how you are going to spend the 09-10 school year (volunteer work? paid job? one or two classes at the local community college?), convince your parents of the merits of your case, and cancel (or defer) your enrollment at OU this fall.</p>
<p>If you spend a year at OU, you would be a transfer applicant anywhere else. For pointers on how many credits make you a transfer student (sometimes as few as 12), read the sticky thread “Transfer 101” at the Transfer Forum. You can reach that forum by clicking on “Discussion Home” in the upper left of this screen, and then scrolling down.</p>
<p>Your ACT is very good, your GPA is decent but not outstanding. If you go to work this coming fall instead of to school, you might make enough money so that you no longer have an EFC of 0. A full ride is nothing, I repeat NOTHING, to sneer at. To be honest, I’m with your dad on this. Go to OU for at least a year. Take advantage of that full ride.</p>
<p>There is a nice thread in the Parents Forum started by a student who did just that, and graduated in May 09 after four years at his/her no-name public U. You may want to hunt it down for inspiration. Graduating from college with no debt is a truly wonderful thing.</p>
<p>I agree with happymom that need based FA for transfers is either the same or more difficult to get than for fr admissions, it all depends on the individual school. For merit based scholarships, while there are some for transfers, the vast majority are for entering fr.</p>
<p>Would transferring affect my chances of getting aid from a school that says it offers full need? What about taking a year off? That would probably hurt my chances of even getting in, right?</p>
<p>I just don’t want to even waste my time at OU at all. I think I would be better off not going at all, but if taking a year off could hurt my chances of getting into another school next year, then I won’t risk it.</p>
<p>I made a list of a few schools that I’m thinking about that aren’t completely impossible to get in that have good rankings and say they offer full need.</p>
<p>College,-----------------Rank,---------Acceptance Rate
University of Miami-------50 NAT-------38
Denison,-----------------53 LAC-------38
University of Rochester—35 NAT-------42
Brandeis-----------------31 NAT-------32
University of Chicago-----8 NAT--------28
Haverford----------------10 LAC-------27
Wesleyan----------------13 LAC-------27
Northwestern------------12 NAT-------26
Vassar-------------------11 LAC-------25</p>
<p>Do you think these schools are still too hard to get into? I will probably apply to transfer to at least Denison, but Rochester has a better ranking and also a higher acceptance rate. Would it be a waste of time applying at the better schools?</p>
<p>You’ve listed 9 schools you’re interested in, it won’t take much time to go to their websites and see:</p>
<ol>
<li> Their FA policies for transfers.</li>
<li> Who they consider a transfer (some schools consider you a transfer if you take 1 college class post HS, while others let you still apply as a fr if you haven’t completed a year of college).</li>
<li>Their acceptance rates for fr vs. transfer admissions (if not on the college website, the College Board has that information on their College Search function).</li>
</ol>
<p>ok thanks i’m going to do that
but how can i find out what their acceptance rate is for students who take a year off? I don’t want to take a year off but I thought OSU was perfect for me so I didn’t bother with other schools and I messed everything up.</p>
<p>I know a lot of schools have no problem with students taking a year off once they get accepted, but if I took a year off it would just look odd to any school I apply to for next year, right? Graduating high school in 2009… … applying as freshmen '10-'11. I mean, an intentional gap year looks better than an unintentional one. If I did take a year off my only option would be to move in with a guy I know, and get a job.</p>
<p>How do colleges know that you have taken college classes already?
I mean, what if I apply as a freshmen even if I do go to OU for a year?</p>
<p>Gap years: Lots of people don’t go to college right out of HS. The colleges and universities really, truly don’t care about this. However, if you are doing it to “improve” your application, you need to do something with this time that will make you a more interesting candidate than you were when you were still in HS. You also need to stay in touch with your HS teachers and counselors so that they remember you when you ask them for letters of recommendation.</p>
<p>College classes at a previous place: When you apply for admission to any accredited college or university in the US you are required to submit official transcripts from every single college and university that you have attended (or in the case of a transfer student are currently attending). What that place makes of your courses is up to them. You just have to send the transcript(s). </p>
<p>“If I did take a year off my only option would be to move in with a guy I know, and get a job.”</p>
<p>Do you really want to do this? If so, do it and don’t look back. Apply to college when you are ready, be it in one year or twenty. If you don’t want to do it, and it is your only option to attending OU, then go to OU. Focus on earning good grades and finding a place to transfer to.</p>
<p>"but how can i find out what their acceptance rate is for students who take a year off? I don’t want to take a year off "</p>
<p>That acceptance rate doesn’t matter. Their overall rate does. If you do something productive during your gap year – volunteer or work fulltime, for instance, your chances of acceptance probably would be higher than if you applied right after h.s. Colleges like students who’ve taken a productive gap year because such students tend to be more independent and mature.</p>
<p>If you take college courses, though during your gap year, don’t take more than 12 hours or you’d have to apply as a transfer.</p>
<p>I haven’t checked the schools on the OPs list, but who is considered a transfer really does vary greatly by school. For instance, GWU has this very restrictive definition:</p>
<p>“GW considers anyone who has graduated from high school and completed at least one college course since high school graduation to be a transfer student.”</p>
<p>Ah! I’ve been looking up information for these schools and the acceptance rate for transfers, and the aid they give them, goes way down. My parents aren’t even considering taking a year off as a possibility. This is frustrating.</p>
<p>My dad just keeps saying that I couldn’t get into these schools, and if I do, I won’t be able to afford it. I think he’s wrong. What are my chances at these schools? I think I have good chances with a 3.0 unweighted gpa, 35 act, ECs (marching band jazz band, 8 years of foreign language, mock trial went to state three out of three years, academic challenge)</p>
<p>College,-------------------Rank,---------Acceptance Rate
University of Miami-------50 NAT-------38
Denison,-------------------53 LAC-------38
University of Rochester—35 NAT-------42
Brandeis-------------------31 NAT-------32
University of Chicago-----8 NAT--------28
Haverford-----------------10 LAC-------27
Wesleyan-----------------13 LAC-------27
Northwestern-------------12 NAT-------26
Vassar--------------------11 LAC-------25</p>
<ol>
<li>Listen to your dad.</li>
<li>I’m closing this thread as your original questions have been answered and now you want to make this into a Chances thread. Start a new thread on the Chances forum.</li>
</ol>