\n<\/p>\n
Nearly a quarter of transfer applicants who used the Common App last academic year were financially independent.<\/p>\n
rudi_suardi\/E+\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
New data offers a nuanced profile of students paying their own way through college\u2014and the contextual barriers they face during the transfer process.<\/p>\n
Compared to their younger, financially dependent peers, financially independent transfer applicants were more likely to be first-generation college students, and have greater financial need and more complex academic backgrounds, according to a report published Thursday by the Common App, an online platform through which students can submit applications to more than 1,100 higher ed institutions.<\/p>\n
Using Common App data, researchers analyzed the behaviors and characteristics of three subgroups of students who meet one of the criteria that the Free Application for Federal Student Aid uses to deem an applicant financially independent: being 24 years of age or older, being a veteran or active-duty service member, or having a dependent. (Common App only began collecting data on applicants\u2019 parenting status during the 2024\u201325 academic year.)<\/p>\n
\u201cIndependent students may begin at community colleges close to home or have a need to stop out and then re-enroll in college, and transferring between institutions is essential for facilitating their educational attainment,\u201d the report reads. \u201cUnderstanding independent applicants\u2019 backgrounds, academic profiles, and application patterns will add important context and insights for policymakers and practitioners supporting these students.\u201d<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s especially important because transfer students make up a growing share of college students, according to both the report and other recent data.<\/p>\n
In 2025, the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center reported that the number of transfer students increased by 4.4\u00a0percent between 2023 and 2024. And according to Common App\u2019s new data, financially independent students are driving some of that overall increase. Between the 2021\u201322 and 2024\u201325 academic years, the number of transfer applicants who were either 23 or older (24 by the time they enrolled) or military-affiliated jumped 65\u00a0percentage points. And last academic year, financially independent applicants accounted for 22\u00a0percent of transfer applications submitted through Common App.<\/p>\n
But when financially independent students apply to transfer, their academic backgrounds, resource levels and application patterns often look different from those of their dependent peers, with \u201cparenting applicants as an extreme case in almost all analyses,\u201d Rodney Hughes, co-author of the Common App report, said at a media briefing Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n
For example, while independent students across all subgroups were more likely to identify as first-generation compared to other transfer applicants, parenting applicants were 2.1\u00a0times as likely to identify as first-generation and applicants 23 or older were 1.7\u00a0times as likely. Independent transfer applicants were also 1.5 to 1.7\u00a0times more likely than dependents to live in lower income ZIP codes and 1.4 to 1.7\u00a0times as likely to qualify for Common App fee waivers; parenting applicants have the highest incidence of both income indicators.<\/p>\n
\u201cSupports already in place for first-generation students in areas like course scheduling, academic advising, and career services may be just as relevant for incoming independent transfer students,\u201d the report reads. \u201cIncoming independent students may also have needs specific to their own contexts, such as needs for affordable child care and flexible course scheduling.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition, independent transfer applicants are typically more experienced students.<\/p>\n
According to the report, they are between 1.5 (military-affiliated) to 1.9 (age 23 or older) times as likely to have completed 60 or more prior credits compared to students outside of those categories. At the same time, independent students\u201437.3\u00a0percent of military-affiliated and 45.9\u00a0percent of parenting applicants\u2014are more likely to apply for transfer after not being enrolled the previous academic year, compared to only 3.6\u00a0percent of transfer applicants outside the three independent subgroups.<\/p>\n
And the majority of independent students are transferring from community colleges, according to the report.<\/p>\n
Compared to 34.9\u00a0percent of students outside of the independent subgroups, 52.9\u00a0percent of parenting applicants and 51.2\u00a0percent of applicants age 23 or older most recently attended an institution that grants associate degrees.<\/p>\n
As the number of independent transfer applicants continues to climb, universities should make sure they\u2019re well-equipped to help them adjust to a new environment, Hughes said.<\/p>\n
For example, \u201cThey may have now had a Promise Scholarship to cover much of their tuition and fees at the two-year institution, and maybe they go to a four-year institution that’s not [covered under] the Promise program. And now they\u2019re paying for college for the first time and taking out loans for the first time,\u201d he said. \u201cThey have some college experience, but that may be a new part of the experience. [The university needs to offer] intake counseling and student loan counseling for that transfer population.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nearly a quarter of transfer applicants who used the Common App last academic year were financially independent. rudi_suardi\/E+\/Getty Images New data offers a nuanced profile of students paying their own way through college\u2014and the contextual barriers they face during the transfer process. Compared to their younger, financially dependent peers, financially independent transfer applicants were more<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43572,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[1111,22763,2276,15968,22764,678,3364],"class_list":{"0":"post-43571","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-data","9":"tag-nuanced","10":"tag-offers","11":"tag-portrait","12":"tag-selfsupported","13":"tag-students","14":"tag-transfer"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}