One of my kids withdrew from college less than two weeks after classes started. She was diagnosed with a chronic medical condition several months prior and we were a little overly optimistic, as it turned out, that it would be fully stabilized before school started and that, in this early stage, she would be able to manage the unpredictability of her condition by herself, so far from home, while also managing the demands of an intense academic program. So she’s home now, focusing on all aspects of her health, working a part-time job, and thinking about whether or not it makes sense to return to her original school or apply to schools closer to home.
She will be checking in with a counselor at her former high school for advice, but I thought I would throw this out now: could this brief stint in college impact her status as a freshman applicant moving forward if she decides to apply to new schools (or to reconsider a school that she was previously accepted to and decided not to attend)? I would assume she would NOT be considered a transfer student (at least in most places) because she was only there for two weeks and there is literally nothing to transfer. But maybe I am wrong? And I am also assuming that the best path is to be as upfront as possible about the enrollment/withdrawal, instead of pretending that it never happened and that she instead took a planned gap year – right?