The financial burden of transferring institutions can be a strong discouragement from transferring altogether, but there exist many free resources available to maximize your transfer potential. Let’s go through some of them:
Application Costs:
Upfront, these are the first real costs of transferring–the price for submitting your application, often through the Common App service. Although fee waivers exist on a per-school basis and through the Common App for those below an income threshold, not everyone qualifies. There is an alternative–the Coalition Application. Here, free application to many institutions (private and public) is available regardless of income. This acts much like the Common App as an organized field of individual applications, requiring the same information and writing samples (for selected schools). A link is attached here to make your free account:
https://www.coalitionforcollegeaccess.org/
Applying for Financial Aid:
There is no better time to apply for financial aid than as soon as possible. Each school has its own financial aid deadline, consisting of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and the College Scholarship Service (CSS profile). Many universities often have separate application and financial aid document deadlines that can determine how much support a student could receive from the institution.
True to its name, the FAFSA requires no processing fee. The CSS profile, however, demands a fee per school that receives your financial information. There are two means of circumventing this: directly working with the financial aid office in question to provide documents, or applying for a CSS profile fee waiver. The CSS profile fee waiver follows the same criteria as the Common App, being available to those below a certain income threshold. The cost of the CSS profile, should you not qualify for a fee waiver, is important to account for when applying, as its cost can very easily equal the cost of sending applications through the Common App.
Alongside being aware of institution-specific deadlines, look out for individual state program deadlines! Many states provide tuition assistance programs for residents, offering additional funding based on income thresholds. Some states derive their tuition assistance from FAFSA information (such as the NYS TAP program), while others require a separate application.
Transcripts
There are largely two transcripts that are important for transferring: high school transcripts and transcripts for college courses. Most applications require a copy of the high school transcript for a wider context of academic performance. While some schools may require purchasing a copy to send to schools, try asking school officials (guidance counselors and the registrar’s office) if they can send the transcript directly.
As for college transcripts, be sure to include all colleges for which you have taken classes, including summer classes. Some colleges will require additional individual transcript requests. In addition, many colleges use services similar to Parchment, which sends transcripts through a third-party service upon approval by your institution.
