For my junior and senior year I am planning on attending an Early College program where I are doing credit. However, many of the schools that I wish to earn my degree from do not accept credit that is earned also as high school credit. The mass transfer program allows me to transfer the credit to state schools. Would it be a possibility for me to transfer to a UMass for less than a semester just so the credits “convert” and then I can transfer from there to a top private school?
Your plan probably won’t work. Most colleges require the majority of course credit to be earned from them in order to award a degree. This makes sense; Williams College doesn’t want to award you a degree if half your credit came from dual-credit courses, plus some credit from UMass.
It IS unfortunate that most private colleges do not honor dual-credit courses. My kids took a couple of dual-credit ‘Running Start’ courses from community colleges in Washington State, but those credits were not accepted by Hampshire College. Those courses were, however, acceptable to be used as prerequisites for other courses.
“Would it be a possibility for me to transfer to a UMass for less than a semester just so the credits “convert” and then I can transfer from there to a top private school?”
I am pretty sure that this would not work.
However, U.Mass is a very good university. One option might be to get your bachelor’s at U.Mass. Then depending upon your major and your preferences, you can either get a good job, or get a master’s. You certainly could apply to graduate programs at top ranked private universities with a bachelor’s from U.Mass.
What are you considering as possible majors?
It may vary from college to college, but I think in general this will not work. Colleges do not place work taken elsewhere on their own transcript as if it is work you took there.
UMass may accept these credits towards graduation, which is fine as long as you are a UMass student. But when you transfer somewhere else these credits won’t appear on your UMass transcript. Only UMass classes will show up. Instead you’ll need to order a transcript from the Early College program, at which point it will be obvious to the transfer schools they were earned while you were in HS.