Should I enroll in college as a freshman or transfer as a junior?

[Kalebh03]

I will be graduating from early college (high school dual enrolled with community college) in 2022. I'm a senior, but we add a fifth year at our school, so I'll be a "supersenior." I will graduate with my high school diploma as well as an Associate's in Science and possibly an Associate's in Arts. I was told today by UNC Greensboro admissions counselor that she recommends coming in as a Freshman, and we'll still graduate earlier because of our several years of college experience, and this also gives us a lot more scholarship opportunities as freshmen, but is this as smart as applying as a transfer and coming in as a junior in college?

Also, I'm not saying I want to apply to UNC Greensboro, this was a just from a meeting today from my Advisory class.

Extra Info:

I'm interested in majoring in physics.
If I stay in-state, I think I want to apply to either UNC Chapel Hill or NC State (but I don't know if I'll get into those schools), and I have a lot of ideas for out-of-state schools, but I would be even less likely to get into those. Plus they would be more expensive, and I do not have any ideas for backup schools.
I'm a member of National Honor Society, Sigma Alpha Pi (National Society of Leader and Success), I have the opportunity to join Phi Theta Kappa, I was nominated for North Carolina's Governor's School, and I have been an active member of my school's robotics, quiz bowl, math counts, and chess teams.
I do not know my gpa, and I do not know if the college courses I have taken over the last 4 years apply to my high school gpa.
29 ACT w/ writing
No SAT

P.S.
Sorry if any wording seems off, I have not been paying a lot of attention while typing this out.

If There is any other information that anyone thinks I should know about college, scholarships, transferring, physics majors, undergraduate and graduate schools, that would be great to know.

Thankyou.

 

[Vanadium 50]

I was told today by UNC Greensboro admissions counselor that she recommends coming in as a Freshman

Why do you disbelieve her?

 

[Kalebh03]

Why do you disbelieve her?

It's not that I do not believe her. It's just that I have been told since the start of my freshman year in high school that I would be able to transfer as a junior to a university, which would be the best option, but I want to confirm that the idea of enrolling as a freshman would be as good, if not better than transferring.

 

[Dr. Courtney]

Freshmen are eligible for what is known as "recruiting" scholarships that are usually much more $$$ than scholarships available to transfer students.

It won't necessarily impact how long it takes to graduate, which is based on meeting all the credit requirements. But if you land one of the better scholarships, it might allow you to work through the physics dept requirements more slowly which both gives you a lighter workload each semester leaving more time to keep your grades up and pursue research opportunities.

I don't see a down side to enrolling as a freshman.

 

[Vanadium 50]

In addition it can be substantially harder to gain admission as a transfer.

 

[Kalebh03]

Freshmen are eligible for what is known as "recruiting" scholarships that are usually much more $$$ than scholarships available to transfer students.

It won't necessarily impact how long it takes to graduate, which is based on meeting all the credit requirements. But if you land one of the better scholarships, it might allow you to work through the physics dept requirements more slowly which both gives you a lighter workload each semester leaving more time to keep your grades up and pursue research opportunities.

I don't see a down side to enrolling as a freshman.

Okay. Thank you for the feedback. You have completely changed my view of college admissions now, which isn't a bad thing :)

 

[vela]

It's just that I have been told since the start of my freshman year in high school that I would be able to transfer as a junior to a university, which would be the best option, but I want to confirm that the idea of enrolling as a freshman would be as good, if not better than transferring.

Just out of curiosity, who told you it was the best option and what were their reasons?

 

[Kalebh03]

College professors, high school teachers, and during course scheduling, we are asked if we plan on get our Associate's and going into the workforce or if we plan on transferring. I have always said transferring, and my advisor helped me schedule out my courses to fit with a physics undergraduate transfer plan.

 

[vela]

College professors, high school teachers, and during course scheduling, we are asked if we plan on get our Associate's and going into the workforce or if we plan on transferring. I have always said transferring, and my advisor helped me schedule out my courses to fit with a physics undergraduate transfer plan.

It sounds like they were asking if you planned to go to a four-year college or not. In your previous post, the wording suggests that you were told if you planned to go to a four-year college, it was best to transfer as opposed to applying as a freshman. I'm wondering who told you that specifically.

 

[Kalebh03]

It sounds like they were asking if you planned to go to a four-year college or not. In your previous post, the wording suggests that you were told if you planned to go to a four-year college, it was best to transfer as opposed to applying as a freshman. I'm wondering who told you that specifically.

No. They always mentioned transferring in as a junior and how we would be able to get our bachelors two years after we transferred from our current school.

 

[gwnorth]

If Greensboro is giving you the option of coming in as a freshman but still giving you credit for your previous courses then I see no downside. I would double check though to see if there would be any restrictions on what courses you could take or when you could declare your major.

For other schools you would need to check their policies individually. At some schools you may not have a choice as, if you accept transfer credit for your Associates degree courses and enrol in upper level courses in a declared major, you may not have the option to come in as a freshman.

A good resource for information regarding the ins and outs of applying is College Confidential.

 

[Joshy]

Something that happened to me when I transferred... while most of my transferrable classes transferred as credit onto my transcript... it had no weight on my GPA. This was a burden because only the remaining more challenging coursework affected my GPA. I finished with a 2.946 and so a few of those A's in my earlier coursework would have been really helpful because 3.0 is a common bare minimum threshold (even though it's not a good GPA it at least does not always disqualify you from so many programs and opportunities).

I do feel like the university I went to the classes were pretty large and professors seemed less committed to teaching more committed to their research (sometimes even the TAs were lecturing instead). It was not practical at all for them to be flexible in the slightest bits around students like my community college professors were (still not very practical, but at least more achievable compared to a class of 200-400 students). Gosh some of my classes were so full in the university, that people were sitting on the floors and stairs in large lecture halls. A lot of my classes in the university were curved and so we were all a lot more competitive and didn't support each other very much as we did in the community college.