So, help me make a checklist for transferring?

[Jenny in Florida]

My son is determined to go ahead with transferring back to a local school. Unless something major breaks in the next week or so, he'll be attending the community college for a year, jumping through the hoops necessary to finish off an AA and also earn a technical certificate. The community college has a "guaranteed transfer" option that promises admission to the local state university with an associate's, and we hope he'll be able to sign up for that program.  During that year, he'll also be opening communications with the university to which he hopes to transfer to complete his BFA and get some guidance about what he can do in that time to maximize the chances he'll be accepted into his preferred degree program.

• He has submitted his application to change his status at the community college to degree seeking.
• He has requested transcripts from the college he's been attending and re-submitted his high school transcripts to the community college.
• He has met briefly with someone at the community college to verify his application is in progress and make sure there are no unexpected requirements. (For example, he has been assured he won't need to re-do the online orientation or the "new student experience," since he's returning to the school.)
• He has corrected/updated his FAFSA for the upcoming year to add the community college.
• He has submitted the form to transfer his state-sponsored scholarship to the community college.

Other things he/we can think of that he needs to take care of:

• Contact the college he's been attending to request a leave of absence.
• Touch base with his advisors there and other faculty members with whom he has good relationships to let them know he's taking a year to explore some other options and to thank them for their help and support during his time there.
• Follow up with the community college to make sure they receive his transcript and finish processing his application.
• Once he's officially admitted, make an appointment to meet with an advisor at the community college to figure out which of his credits from the other college will transfer and how best to deploy those towards finishing the degree and certificate.
• Find out whether he'll be eligible for the guaranteed transfer program and, if so, get signed up for that.
• Do all of the usual beginning-of-the-semester stuff (register for class, buy books, get a new parking sticker, etc.).

As soon as he has a chance to catch his breath, he'll attend an info session at the university for potential transfer students. (They are offered a couple of times a month.) He'll also get in contact with the department into which he hopes to transfer and try to start a conversation about what he can do to make himself attractive to them.

 

Not specifically school related, but since he likely will not be continuing as a dance major at the community college, he also plans to contact the director of a local dance school/company at which he's taken some classes during summers, hoping to audition to join their pre-pro program for the fall.

 

So, what is he missing?

 

 

[Gwen in VA]

That sounds like an amazingly complete list! Good job -- and best wishes to him.

[elegantlion]

:lurk5: listening in as ds wants to start the transfer process for Fall 2017 soon. 

[J-rap]

It's a lot more complete than our transfer list was!  It looks good!

 

The one thing I'd remind him to do (and I'm sure it'd come up anyway) is to double check later that all of his classes from last year's school that should transfer did transfer.  My dd had an Introduction to Communication Theory class from her last school that didn't transfer because at her new school, the class is called Introduction to Communication Studies.  Seems so silly that they didn't immediately transfer the class, but they didn't.  So, she still needs to follow through (the school won't do this) by getting a syllabus from the course professor from her old school and giving it to her new school so that they can compare and hopefully transfer it then.

[Pegasus]

• Contact the college he's been attending to request a leave of absence

 

Wow, yes, looks like a very complete list.  Just one small clarification, he needs to withdraw from his current college in order to transfer to the community college, not take a leave of absence. There is a distinction between the two.