Transfer Students

              When students begin high school, the path they will take through senior year is somewhat predictable. There are graduation requirements and schools have protocols that are designed to meet those requirements. In addition, schools understand the varying goals students and their families have so there is room built into those protocols to meet those goals which are often college acceptance. However, sometimes families need to change schools in the middle of high school and that can mean switching from one school’s graduation requirements to another’s.

           This can throw even a great student a little off course for graduation and towards meeting their goal, but rest assured all is not lost. To begin, this is a fairly common occurrence and any guidance counselor or registrar worth their salt is going to be able put a student back on track. However, that doesn’t always come without some speed bumps. This often means taking something out of sequence. At my school, for example, freshman typically take biology and it’s a graduation requirement in my state. If a junior or senior transfer in without it, I’m going to enroll them in biology. That will mean that the junior or senior will participate in a class otherwise full of freshman. That can be a little awkward but it’s one of those speedbumps a transfer student must endure.

           I find that these types of things are often quite alarming to students and families. The path they were on is suddenly flipped upside down. “What do you mean I have to take biology with a bunch of freshmen? I was supposed to take AP Physics this year at my old school. Now I’ll never get into college!”

The new school might not even offer the classes a student was “supposed” to take. The job first and foremost is to make sure the student can graduate high school then those post-high school goals can come into play. Sometimes a new school doesn’t even offer a whole program a student was involved in. I enrolled a student this summer who came from an International Baccalaureate (IB) program and was devastated to learn we did not offer IB. Families need to understand that school transfers are survivable. Life happens, people need to move, and it throws off the schedule. Colleges understand this. Frankly, it happens all the time and colleges are very used to seeing it.

In that regard, the key is to communicate with the colleges about the transfer. You might be able to do this within an admissions essay or a letter of support from your school. If all else fails, pick up the phone and call the college. Remember, real human beings make admission decisions. Just call and say, “Hey, I just wanted to let you know there is a good reason my transcript looks like I changed direction halfway through high school.” They’ll understand and will make a note in your file.

When I talked to my student who could not continue in her IB program I explained it to her like this. In some ballparks a home run is 400 feet, in other ballparks, it’s 350 feet. Don’t worry about your home runs being discounted in a shorter ballpark. Just hit home runs in the park you’re in, and you’re going to be just fine.

The New FAFSA

In September of 2015, President Obama announced some significant changes to the FAFSA that will go into effect in the fall of 2016. If you’re new to the college admissions process, FAFSA is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid through which all financial aid is funneled. The change here relates to the timing of when the FAFSA needs to be filed.

In the past, the FAFSA was filed using a family’s financial information from the calendar year prior to a student’s high school graduation. So a student who graduated in 2016 would have used their family’s 2015 tax return to complete the FAFSA. This created a time crunch for many people. Colleges liked to see the FAFSA filed as early as possible, sometimes as early February, in order to process the information and turn it around into the financial aid packages they awarded their students. This meant that between January 1st when the prior year had ended and those early priority financial aid deadlines, families had just a few short weeks to collect all the required information required to complete their tax return and get it done.

The new FAFSA rules allow a family to use what they are calling the “prior prior” year’s financial information. Besides this confusing moniker, this is great news for families with high school seniors. It means that a 2017 graduate will be able to use their 2015 tax return to complete the FAFSA. No more sweating out it in January waiting to get all those little forms in the mail and from work so you can rush through your tax return in order to get the FAFSA filed.

The FAFSA now opens October 1st and you can use the information you should have finished up by last April.

I am still seeing a short window by the colleges to get the FAFSA filed. I’ve heard several colleges communicate that they would like the FAFSA filed by October 31, leaving just a month to get it all done. If there is a downside to this new rule, it’s that FAFSA now coincides with students working to complete their college admissions applications. I used to tell families that we would spend the fall of senior year filling out applications and getting students into college and we’d spend the spring working on the FAFSA and figuring out how to pay for college. I need to adjust my tune going forward.

There’s no doubt that the pros outweigh cons with this new rule though. An earlier FAFSA filing will translate into the colleges sending out financial aid packages to their accepted students earlier. That financial aid package can be a very important tool for a student to use as they select which college to attend. This will allow more time for them to deliberate over that decision. Of course, if a family’s finances have changed significantly between the prior prior year and the beginning of college due to circumstances like the loss of a job, a family can always pick up the phone and contact a school’s financial aid office to explain those special cases.