<p>Say I am already going into my first year of university and I wanted to transfer out. Could I simply apply as a first year student to another university instead of as a transfer? Obviously I would lose all my credits that I would be taking, but assuming I am going for free this year, and hence, that wouldn't really matter much, would what I be doing be legal? Would my chances be lower because I would not be applying straight out of high school? I have pretty good grades and SAT scores...I would have been accepted if I had applied last year, but as a recent immigrant I really botched up my applications through ignorance and now I sorta regret it.</p>
<p>Help</p>
<p>First, anytime you apply to a college (as a transfer or fr), you are required to send in transcripts from all previous college work. The way that colleges check previous college records is by using:</p>
<p>[National</a> Student Clearinghouse: Degree verification & enrollment verification](<a href=“http://www.studentclearinghouse.org/]National”>http://www.studentclearinghouse.org/)</p>
<p>Second, different schools have different definitions of who is a transfer applicant. For some schools, if you’ve taken 1 post-HS college course, you are considered a transfer applicant. For others, if you’ve taken less than a full year of college work, you are still a fr applicant. </p>
<p>Many schools have lower acceptance rates for transfers than fr applicants. You can find fr and transfer acceptance rates on the CB site or in Common Data sets.</p>
<p>I suggest that you either decide to attend college this year and plan to apply as a transfer, or take a gap year and apply as a fr.</p>