It’s never too early to begin researching your college options. The internet, college guidebooks, and your community college’s transfer adviser are great sources of information.

In addition to academic, personal, and professional interests, you will need to consider if a school is transfer-friendly before adding it to your list. A few points to consider as you are doing your research and planning to transfer include:

 

• Does the school provide information about the amount of aid reserved for transfer students?
  • Some schools distribute scholarships to traditional first-year students before determining if there is any left over for transfer students.
• Are there specific programs geared towards transfer students?
• How does the school evaluate transfer credits?
• Does the school provide application fee waivers?

 

A great resource is College Fish, where you can research transfer-friendly colleges and scholarships available specifically for transfer students. Another resource is Edvisors.

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After you find schools that meet your basic requirements, divide these schools into three categories:

 

• Reach Schools: You fall at or below their academic profile in terms of grades and standardized testing (if required). Because of the benefits of attending selective institutions (i.e., those with acceptance rate of 30% or less), we strongly encourage our scholars to apply to 3-4 schools in this category.
• Target Schools: You fit their academic profile in terms of grades and standardized testing (if required) and the acceptance rate is around 30%-60%. We encourage our scholars to apply to 2-3 schools in this category.
• Likely Schools: You are at or above their academic profile in terms of grades and standardized testing (if required) and the acceptance rate is 60% or higher. We encourage our scholars to apply to 2-3 schools in this category.

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You may find it useful to use our worksheet to make sure you are finding the right information about the schools and then track your final choices.