I’m about to start my freshman year of college, but my family is unexpectedly moving to California. I know that few schools accept spring transfers, let alone a freshman transfer, so would I be able to transfer to a community college my spring semester?
I feel it’s necessary to move with my family and would be fine completing a year or two at a California community college and later transferring to one of their universities.
How and when would i begin this process?
It should be pretty easy to do. Just contact your target schools in California and ask.
DO NOT start college in another state. withdraw your enrollment, WAIT until you get to Calif, establish residency with your parents, and then reapply as an instate freshman OR start college at a CC.
The reason is you may NOT get the Calif instate tuition rate because the colleges will consider you to be an OOS student [ despite where you would be living] because you started college in another state and then transferred here. Establishing residency in Calif for college kids can be VERY sticky.
many OOS students ask each year how they can establish instate residency and NOT pay the OOS cost for the UC universities or State colleges.
Understanding residency:
http://ucop.edu/residency/
http://registrar.berkeley.edu/establish.html
http://www.registrar.ucla.edu/residence/
https://secure.csumentor.edu/planning/high_school/residence_classification.asp
http://www.smc.edu/EnrollmentDevelopment/Admissions/Pages/Residency-Requirements.aspx