I was a transfer back in the 80's, and I didn't get guaranteed housing even though all freshmen did. (Definite disadvantage!) Not all colleges accept transfers. (For example, I've heard that Princeton doesn't do transfers, period.) Your classes may not transfer even if they look almost identical. For example, dd took a philosophy freshman seminar last year at a "Public Ivy" that has very strong academics by pretty much any standard. This class did not transfer to her conservatory (!?!?!?!?!) because of the writing emphasis of the seminar. She has to take another philosophy class at her conservatory. Your classes may not transfer even if they ARE identical because one college's class is much more rigorous. My calculus 2 class didn't transfer -- I was going from a highly-ranked LAC to a top engineering school, and the engineering school rightly thought that my LAC calc 2 class would not prepare me for what was ahead. Your classes may not transfer if they cover slightly different material. A class that covers music history from 1800 - 1900 may not transfer if the similar class at the new school covers from 1750 - 1900. Your classes may be meaningless at the new school. For example, dd took a conducting class at her first college. As a instrument performance major at the conservatory she does not need and actually cannot take a conducting class so it didn't transfer, even as an elective. I transferred. My daughter transferred. For the right student it's definitely worthwhile, but it has DEFINITE disadvantages. If a student can possibly enter as a freshman, he/she should!

Unfortunately late news is often bad news in the grad school process. Some schools in some majors send out the first round of acceptances, wait to see what happens with that round, and then send out another round...repeat as necessary until mid-April. Which is HORRIBLE for the student because he/she gets to watch on gradstudentcafe as various rounds of acceptances go out and their mailbox remains empty.

When she transferred, dd supplied everything she did when she applied as a freshman in the application. At this school there was no difference between applying as a freshman and applying as a transfer except that she checked the "transfer" box. Then there was the school that she applied to as a transfer that let all the transfers know near the end of April! Talk about obnoxious! And she had extra essays to write about why she wanted to transfer, etc. So the process is 100% school-dependent.

Dd entered the college she did her freshman year at with 52 credits and she entered as a freshman even though all the credits "counted". Obviously YMMV. Then she transferred. Nothing in the process was different because she was a transfer -- she received merit aid like a freshman and she received credit for most (though not all) of her 70+ credits. She will graduate in three years. So I'm honestly not sure what difference her being a transfer made in either the admissions process or in how she has been treated during her first semester.

An organ performance major, dd is interviewing for year-around part-time church positions near her college. She already has an apartment lined up starting in May for next year. She hopes to land a position that will allow her to spend part of the week in her apartment and part of the week at home (4 hours away) where she hopes to find a part-time position using her musical skills. We'll see. It says something about college room and board rates that renting a NICE off-campus apartment for 12 months is cheaper than living in an old run-down on-campus apartment for 9 months!

At my colleges, recitations were taught by either the prof or a TA. Quizzes were given in them, but mostly they were a question-and-answer session, a chance to put strands together instead of merely taking notes.

Colleges differ WIDELY on how they treat transfer students. Some colleges will treat the transfer student much the same as any other student in terms of FA. Some colleges basically require the transfer students to pay everything. Call any college you are interested in and ask the FA people if transfer students are eligible for the same fin aid packages as "regular" students. (The silly thing, of course, is that transfer students turn into "regular" students as soon as they are enrolled!) But do tread carefully. Some colleges really do expect transfer students to do the full pay routine. And some colleges will consider transfer students for all the standard merit packages. It really depends on the school!

Dd is swing dancing her break away. I'm enjoying lots of visit time! :thumbup: Ds is leaving for his new job in CA in ten days, so we are doing lots of "lasts", including a birthday celebration six weeks early since we'll be 3000 miles apart on his birthday! :ohmy: We are seizing each and every day together. My house will (for the first time) be an empty nest on March 19.

Dd attends a OOS college in NC. Much to our surprise, tuition actually only costs about $6K more than the in-state school she went to last year. That fact says that either in-state tuition in VA is expensive or OOS tuition in NC is very cheap. We are very thankful, regardless of which statement is more accurate. So sometimes OOS doesn't require breaking the bank.

Do remember that not all OOS colleges/unis are created equal financially. Some states charge much lower rates (even for OOS) than others.

Just be aware that a class taken at one college may not count for credit at the new college -- especially if the new college is "higher" in terms of academics. Example -- back in the dark ages I took Calc 1 and Calc 2 and Honors Chemistry at a highly-ranked LAC and then transferred to a top engineering school. I had to retake Calc 2 and both semesters of chemistry. Example -- Dd2 took a philosophy class at one college, but she still had to take a philosophy class as a gen ed at her new college. For whatever reason the one taken at the first college didn't count, even though it was a significantly tougher college academically. Except if you specifically get guarantees from department heads, do NOT plan on many of the classes, especially those in your major, transferring. YMMMV.

Dd2 just paid the down payment for an apartment rental starting in May. The rent seems really low, and the place is eager to rent to my dd and her apartment-mate. Maybe too eager.... But the place has excellent online reviews and certainly looks good. Maybe the area is overbuilt. Maybe the economy is faltering. Maybe.... With parenting, the praying and wondering never stop, do they?

I lived on campus all four years and loved it. My youngest is in hte process of apartment-hunting so she can live off campus next year. Why? 1) She needs to live in the area over the summer, and finding a place to live for three months is a problem. Living off campus solves that! 2) She has dietary requirements for medical issues that require her to do some cooking so she NEEDS a kitchen. 3) She is looking forward to entering the more adult world of living off-campus. 4) Her college is SMALL and has relatively little going on on campus, but living off-campus will help her have easier access to her career-related part-time job.

I'd wait until after admission UNLESS dc is applying to a specific program -- like a nursing program -- that has special requirements. If all she needs to do is change majors, not apply to a new program, I see no reason why the school would care. And the final transcript will have the W on it. That's enough notification. The new school will most likely not care, but giving that info NOW may cause the school to look at the rest of the academic info more carefully. Giving it in May with the final transcript it will just be another ho-hum transcript.

My dd is living in an apartment-style dorm and she has no minimum meal plan. Last fall we signed her up for 14 meals per week so she would have an opportunity to hang out in the cafeteria and meet people. (She is a transfer student and we wanted to help her make connections.) She says the food is dreadful, and she spent most of the fall threatening to completely drop the meal plan in the spring, but when push came to shove she decided to continue on the 14 meals per week for socialization reasons -- she loves eating with people in the dining hall! Unfortunately the school doesn't have a meal plan with less than 14 meals on it. Next year she will hopefully be living off-campus, so we are going to encourage her just to pay the per-meal price for lunches and the occasional dinner. The social aspect of meals should not be overlooked! (Dd has some dietary/medical issues, so she frequently just has a "nasty" salad at the dining hall and then supplements with healthy protein at her apartment.)

Fpr top schools, optional does mean required.... But if you are hoping that a top school will spend upwards of $250,000 on your kid's education and your kid wants to attend that kind of school, a little hoop-jumping is part of the deal. Maybe my kids are weird, but they all found the SAT-2's highly satisfying -- studying for those tests allowed them to really assimilate their knowledge of one subject area. They actually enjoyed the process! And do always remember that optional doesn't ALWAYS mean required. My dd2 was accepted as a Monroe Scholar at William & Mary despite only having 3 years of a foreign language and 3 years of science and only one year of a lab science. She had all kinds of other strengths, but she was accepted despite not having met several of their "strongly recommended" criteria. I didn't know about tuition-free schools when my older two were applying or I would have researched them more, but Webb is an amazing college with a 100% employment rate right out of college!

Do remember tuition-free colleges. http://time.com/money/2977702/22-colleges-free-tuition-moneys-best-colleges/ My son went to Webb, and it is as good a deal as it sounds -- a great tuition-free engineering education! Also remember that some top colleges are known for lots of merit aid -- like Washington & Lee.

One thing to ask is when the school lets transfer students know about the admissions decision. Last year when dd was applying to transfer she found the some schools let transfer students know at exactly the same time, some let them know a week or two later, and some horrible very bad schools let them know in MAY!!!! knowing when to expect that letter is huge!

We married young -- at 22. We were high school sweethearts, so we were not waiting any longer! Then grad school, and then kids. Our oldest was born a week after I submitted my master's thesis! Living in a high cost of living area, we were lucky to be able to make it on one income. There was no way we could save a dime towards college. When our oldest was about 14 a financial planner told us we needed to save $600 per CHILD per MONTH towards college. We laughed! Instead of saving towards college, we spent our money on the kids -- not on toys and Disney trips but on experiences and lessons. We also paid for high-quality classes. At first we thought we couldn't afford classes but then someone on this board (Juanita -- anyone remember her?) said that strong classes helped her kids get merit scholarships. We figured that at a minimum if we gave our kids an excellent education they would have an excellent education, regardless of what happened for college, so we poured money into top online classes. That was an investment we have never regretted. My four kids combined received offers of merit aid totaling more than our local high school's merit aid total (with several hundred students!) and significantly more than the total merit aid earned by our local private school that has a graduating class of about 40! Dd1 went to a top-20 LAC with a frightening sticker price, but she had a full-tuition scholarship plus money from the National Merit folks plus some money from my husband's company. Ds1 went to the same top-20 LAC, but received a full-ride scholarship that covered not only tuition but room and board and books and a bit of extra cash on top. Ds actually earned money by attending college! Ds2 went to a free-tuition school, so we just paid his room and board. Dd2 goes to a OOS state school. She earns enough to cover room and board so we just have to pay the OOS tuition. Not bad.

I am SO incredibly thankful for merit aid! :hurray:

And if you apply to a school with rolling admission and hear about admissions in the fall, you still may not hear about financial aid and merit aid until February or March!

I love the IDEA of having a limit on the number of schools that a student can apply to, but..... 1) Merit aid is mostly an unknown. A few school do publish expected aid amounts based on stats, but many rely on more intangible qualities when selecting merit aid recipients. For the students who can only attend a school with a significant amount of merit aid, limiting the number of schools applied to could be disastrous. 2) Counting on admission to any school where the admissions rate is below 30% (and certainly 20%) is arrogant and quite likely to result in a student with few options. (I know that if there were a limit, acceptance rates would go up, but by how much? Even today many students only apply to one or a small handful, so I don't know how much restricting the number of colleges applied to would up the percent accepted. Was it Yale which accepted 40% of its freshman class ED -- which means they only applied to that one school?) 3) It is harder to get a handle on where your student stacks up than one would expect. I've now had two students accepted to a prestigious scholars program despite not having some of the classes they recommend all freshman applicants have -- and despite being explicitly told by the admissions office that my child would not be accepted unless she did X, which she did not do. Admissions and merit aid is not just a numbers game. Judging whether your child is a shoe-in or a long-shot candidate is not just a matter of looking up the average range of scores.

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-poisonous-reach-of-the-college-admissions-process?mbid=social_twitter I thought this article was a brilliant reply that catches many of our concerns -- For the last thirty years the machinery of college admissions has solved the administrative problem created by America’s surfeit of smart and eager high-school students by inventing new, pedagogically empty ways for them to compete with one another, laying out new grounds on which they might fight one another. This solution is now its own expanding web of problems, to which the system it came from is currently hatching an ambitious new set of solutions.

The idea of colleges only looking at six AP scores sounds wonderful..... Until you start thinking about how those six AP scores are selected. 1) Will the College Board actually limit the number of AP tests a students can take? (Of course not!) 2) Will the student only be able to submit six scores? Or will colleges still be impressed by Johnny's twelve AP's, even if they technically only "look" at six? 3) If Johnny can only submit six scores, does he get to select his six top scores? If so, there will still be pressure to take as many AP classes/exams as it takes until somehow Johnny ends up with six 5's. 4) If Johnny can only submit six scores, will he have to submit his six most recent scores? What about that math genius who took AP Calculus his freshman year? His score can't be submitted? And what about that kid who genuinely thrives on challenge and loves academics and would love to take more than six AP's? Not every student who takes more than six AP's does it purely to please admissions counselors; some students want to take those kind of challenging classes! Ultimately there are only so many spots at tippy-top colleges. No amount of playing with the admissions system will change the fact that only a few percent of students who apply will be accepted.

Starting in 9th grade, we told our kids that the fall-back position was the community college and part-time work. None of them wanted that, so they worked pretty hard to make sure that option wouldn't happen! I would not force an unenthusiastic kid to go to college, but before making that decision I would sit down and talk about what he wants to do. What options are out there, and what ones interest him. Does he not want to head off to college because he is scared or because he doesn't see the point. (Two VERY different reasons for not wanting to go!) The chances are that he'll find working at a random part-time job rather boring so that will renew his interest in improving his lot, but if that doesn't do it you can arrange things so living on minimum wage isn't an option -- charge him room and board, have him pay for all car expenses and clothing, etc. All of a sudden those wages will disappear at a pretty fast rate! And please remember that there are worse things than dropping out of college! Ds1 is in a field where work experience counts far more than a degree. Partway through his freshman year he informed dh and me that he would be dropping out after his freshman year to go work. We tried to talk him out of it, but when that didn't work we finally said fine but don't expect any financial assistance of any kind. He sailed his boat (yes, HIS boat -- with a shelf full of engineering textbooks!) up to Maine where he had a job lined up. He set up his life there -- he lives on the boat in the summer, rents a place during the winter, and has a highly successful career doing what he was going to school to do! He is now engaged, and he and his fiancee plan to spend their honeymoon cruising the world. (The current time limit on the honeymoon is 18 months, but we'll see!) So dropping out of college isn't the end of the world! I would just make sure that the kid doesn't have any loans to deal with.