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There are no two ways around it; college is expensive. According to the College Board , the average annual cost of a four-year private university for the 2019-2020 school year is $36,880.

And that’s just the cost of tuition and fees. (Oof, it hurts.)

Comparatively, the average sticker price of a public, four-year, in-state college shakes out to about $10,440 per year. A public, two-year, in-district college, on the other hand, costs $3,730.

(It should be noted that the sticker price isn’t always what a student pays, due to financial aid.)

One clever way to help minimize the ever-growing expense of college is for students to spend two years in community college and then transfer to a university, where they finish up their four-year degree.

Depending on the schools, this move could save a student thousands of dollars—and they still end up with a diploma from their university of choice.

Transferring from community college to university requires research, diligence, and a good schedule-keeping system. But for many students, the extra work can most definitely be worth it.

Here, we go through some steps for how to transfer from a community college to a four-year university, including a discussion on how to finance your new, more expensive four-year college or university.

Transferring from Community College to University

Providing universal instructions on how to transfer to a four year college is tricky, because each school will have different requirements and deadlines for prospective transfer students.

That said, here are some basic guidelines that may help; supplement this information with your own research from both the community college and the universities to which you’re interested in transferring.

1. Consider Your Options

Typically, the earlier you begin to research options for transferring to a four year college, the better. Not only should you confirm in advance that your desired four-year university accepts transfer students, but it’s a big bonus if they’ve established a defined pathway between the two.

While it’s great to have a first-choice university, it may be smart to have backup options as well. Some states may have programs that offer guaranteed enrollment for transfer students that qualify, but most do not. Just as is the case with traditional admissions, a student may not get into their first choice of school.

Additionally, having multiple options can also protect you in the event that credits don’t qualify or something else in the transfer process goes haywire.

Also, it can be hard to predict how much aid you’ll receive from each school; for example, a more expensive school may offer a larger scholarship. You could contact each school’s financial aid office to get a sense of what they may offer.

2. Strategize Your Coursework

When figuring out how to transfer from a community college, taking the right credits is key. It can be hard to pick what you’ll major in when you have yet to learn about all of your options.

But doing so may make your transfer path more fluid. If you have a major direction in mind, see if your desired universities’ have specific requirements to get into that program, including requisite courses.

Whether or not you’ve decided on an area of study, you may be able to enroll in your prospective university’s general education requirements. For example, there are likely general education requirements in the humanities even if you’re planning to be an engineering major.

Often called an “articulation agreement,” universities will guarantee that certain credits taken at a community college will qualify at their institution. Examine the articulation agreements between the schools that you are considering so you know exactly what courses to sign up for.

3. Meet with Counselors

There are counselors at both community colleges and universities who can help make sure the transfer process runs as smooth as possible. Never be afraid to ask questions; this is what counselors are for! Take advantage of the advice and wisdom of a person who has seen the process through many times.

You may want to meet with your community college counselor as soon as you enroll. Explain to them your goals for transferring to a four year college and see what resources they can provide to you.

Make sure to ask not only about the logistical process of transferring, but about options for student aid, especially aid you don’t have to pay back, like scholarships.

If possible, see if you can visit the universities you’d like to attend and meet with a transfer counselor while there. Sometimes, it’s just easiest to talk with someone.

Even if you’re not able to meet with a counselor in-person before you transfer to a university, schools may provide the option to email with a counselor or speak on the phone. Give the admissions office a call and set up a time to chat.

4. Stay on Top of Deadlines

Transferring from community college to university requires diligence on deadlines, so you may want to get a planner or get comfortable with your online calendar. Set reminders for yourself to start working on applications and essays, and to collect important documents and letters or recommendation, well before their due dates.

It is common for students to apply to a university during their second year in community college. If this sounds like you, then the summer before your second year begins is likely a good time to get prepared by collecting applications, writing down dates, and making a plan for completing your applications in addition to your coursework.

5. Do Your Best in Class

In addition to preparing your transfer applications, it’s important to do well in your classes; almost all schools have a minimum required GPA for transfer students. Others may use an applicant’s GPA, along with other variables, to determine whether a student will receive an acceptance and student aid.

While you’re in community college, it may be worth considering whether you should complete an associate degree. An associate degree could be another weapon in your arsenal of accomplishments.

6. Apply to Schools

As mentioned above, many community college students apply to transfer to a university during their second year of coursework. Even if you’ve been enrolled for longer than two years, begin thinking about applications at the beginning of the school year before the year you’d like to transfer.

Every university or university system will have their own due dates for applications and all of the paperwork that is required throughout the process—letters of recommendation, transcripts, and so on.

If ever you have a question about a particular university’s deadlines, the information should be on their website. If you can’t find the information there, contact a counselor at the prospective university.

7. Prepare for College

After applying and turning in all of the requisite paperwork, the application process becomes a waiting game to see where you’re accepted. Typically, you should hear back by the spring before your desired transfer year. (These timeframes will be different if you’re transferring mid-school year.)

Did you know that transfer students are more likely to graduate from university than students who were admitted as freshmen? The National Center for Education Statistics did their first-ever study of transfer students in 2017 and found that 66% of transfer students go on to graduate from four-year public universities, compared to 59% of full-time students who started out at those same schools.

While transfer students have the statistics on their side, it doesn’t mean that university won’t be tough work. To help set yourself up for success, getting organized the summer before transferring over can be a big help.

Solidify living arrangements, if you haven’t already. Accumulate what you’ll need to live out on your own, especially if it’s your first time doing so. Don’t wait until the last minute, stressing yourself out before classes begin.

8. Know Your Financing Options

For most students, university is going to be more expensive than community college. Therefore, you are going to need a plan for how you are going to pay for it.

If you are taking out student loans for community college, it is unlikely that this aid will follow you to your new school. Most federal student aid won’t automatically transfer , but always check with the financial aid office at your new university and your aid provider to be sure your new university participates in federal student aid programs.

That said, student loans from community college do not simply “go away.” After completing credits at a community college, you could let your loan providers know that you will be transferring. That’s because as soon as you are no longer enrolled in that school, your loans could go into their grace period or repayment. You can learn more about what to do to avoid this from the U.S. Department of Education right here .

All transfer students should continue to fill out the Free Application for Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) . Luckily, transfer students may have already done this to receive federal aid for community college, and simply need to re-submit with their prospective universities’ information.

If nothing about your or your family’s financial situation has changed, your expected family contribution (EFC) will also likely stay the same. You may see an offer for federal aid that is very similar to the one you were offered for community college, though this won’t always be the case.

For admission at the beginning of the following school year, students can submit their as early as October 1st as October 1st. Most states and schools have deadlines for filing the FAFSA in the winter or early spring.

Don’t wait until the day before the deadline to turn yours in, though; there’s aid that’s doled out on a first-come, first-served basis. The FAFSA helps schools determine who qualifies for federal aid, like federal student loans and grants, but many states and schools also use the FAFSA to determine who qualifies for scholarship money.

According to the Federal Student Aid office, it’s hard to predict just how much aid a transfer student can expect to receive. “There are a variety of factors that will affect the amount and types of aid you’re eligible for at your new school.

“The cost of the school, the aid programs the school offers, and even the time of year you transfer—among other factors—may affect the amount of aid you receive.”

Don’t feel like you have to figure this all out on your own. Remaining in contact with your school’s financial aid office throughout the entire process is likely a smart step. They can help you navigate the somewhat difficult waters of financing two different college experiences.

If you find that you need more help financing your education outside of federal aid, you could also check out private student loans. While we believe you should always exhaust the federal aid options available to you first, SoFi offers no-fee low-rate private student loans that can help make paying for school a bit less stressful.

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SOSL18255

The list of fees that banks might charge you is pretty darn long and, on average, they can cost you more than $161 per year. Per year.

Some of the more typical bank fees include monthly maintenance fees, overdraft charges, returned item fees, ATM fees, and foreign transaction fees. Some of these charges, such as the overdraft and returned item fees, can hit people the hardest when they have the least amount of money available to pay them.

So, if you’ve ever been frustrated by having to pay bank fees, or have been surprised when a charge showed up on a bank statement, this post will share tips on how to avoid those fees in the first place.

And, when thinking about bank fees, here’s something else you could consider: Picture what you would do with an extra $161. Save it? Buy something special? Also, think about how long you’ve had a particular account. If it’s been 10 years, for example, imagine how you’d spend an extra $1,610! That’s money you could put back into your pocket.

At the end of this post, you’ll find a possible way to avoid paying bank fees altogether.

Monthly Maintenance Fees

If your bank or financial institution charges maintenance fees, you may be so used to watching that money disappear out of your account each month that you’ve simply stopped trying to figure out how to make it stop.

It isn’t unusual for banks to charge about $12 a month in maintenance fees, nearly $150 a year for this fee alone.

If you keep a large enough balance in this account, you can typically avoid paying a monthly maintenance fee at many banks. That’s great for those who have that kind of money, but this is the type of fee that often hits those who don’t have a lot of money in their accounts.

If keeping a larger balance in your account isn’t practical right now, then it can make sense to explore online-only financial institutions that are more likely to not charge this fee.

Online-only banking doesn’t mean banks that they offer mobile services, though—it’s banks that don’t have a physical location and are online only, who have less overhead and, therefore, the opportunity to pass on more savings to you, the customer.

Overdraft Fees

Banks often have an overdraft program, so if you withdraw more than what’s currently available in your account, the bank won’t “bounce” the check. Instead, it will be covered, but often with a fee attached.

So, let’s say that you deposited $200 in your checking account but $100 of it has a short-term hold on it. This means that even though you have $200, only $100 is currently available. This is a common practice among financial institutions. So, if you withdraw $150 during this time, you could be charged an overdraft fee, depending upon your bank’s policies.

These types of fees can average around $35 per instance. To avoid being charged, you could decline to sign up for overdraft service (which may lead to bounced checks or declined debit card transactions).

Or you could ask if your bank has a service where, if you overdraft on your checking account, then the amount would be covered from your savings account. Note, though, that this kind of transfer may also come with a fee.

What may be most important here is, you may want to be clear about what your bank or financial institution will do in a certain circumstance. Let’s say that you’ve signed up for automatic bill pay at your bank. What will your financial institution do if there aren’t enough funds?

Pay it anyway and charge you an overdraft fee? A little research with your own financial institution could reveal the answer, and if it’s not what you want to hear, you could see if another institution handles the situation in a way that works better for you.

Returned Item Fees

If you don’t opt in to have overdraft protection on an account, banks typically decline or bounce, the transaction if there aren’t enough funds to cover a transaction.

Besides the problems associated with a bounced check, there is typically a returned item fee, averaging around $35 for each occurrence. And, unfortunately, sometimes a returned item fee can take an account balance to the point where another check may bounce, causing the situation to become increasingly worse.

ATM Fees

ATM fees come with unique pain points that can be especially frustrating. That’s because you sometimes have to pay a bank or a random ATM just to get your own money! And sometimes you’ll pay ATM fees twice on the same transaction: once in a surcharge by the ATM being used and, second, by the bank that issued your card.

To make matters more frustrating, out-of-network surcharges from ATM owners keep increasing, becoming the highest to date in 2018. In fact, it’s 36% higher than it was almost a decade ago, with an average out-of-network ATM charge costing users around costing users around $4.68 , on average!

This situation isn’t especially likely to change, because the very nature of an out-of-network surcharge means that people getting socked with extra fees are non-customers.

If you’re trying to budget carefully, this can be painful. To reduce how much you could pay in ATM fees, pre-planning might help. You could research locations of in-network ATMs and only make withdrawals there.

If you know you’ll be shopping at a business or attending an event that operates as cash only, you could withdraw more than you might need, just in case, so you can avoid using an out-of-network ATM nearby.

When you go into a store, pharmacy, and so forth, you could also check to see if the ATMs located in them are part of your bank’s partnership network. Even if you don’t need cash right away, it might be a good idea to file away that information for when you do need it.

Here’s another idea: Many grocery stores and even some big box stores will let you get cash back when you make purchases there. This could be another way to circumvent ATM fees.

Foreign Transaction Fees

If you’ll be going abroad, then you will likely need to deal with foreign transaction fees. Credit card companies add these onto transactions processed by or passing through foreign banks.

A typical fee is 3% of the transaction amount. There is often a fee charged by the credit card network and another one by the card issuer. Some credit card companies charge fees in addition to network ones, while others don’t.

Credit card issuers typically don’t mention these fees up front (unless they’re advertising that they don’t charge them), so they can come as a surprise when the next statement arrives.

Just one foreign transaction fee might not seem like a big deal, but when you consider how many times you might use a credit card during a trip, it can really add up. And, often, you don’t earn any credit card rewards on these fees.

Returning to the painful subject of ATM fees, banks often charge an additional 1% to 3% for this type of fee on international transactions, meaning beyond what you’d normally pay on ATM withdrawals and debit card purchases.

To help mitigate these fees, you could check with your bank to see if they have affiliate banks in regions where you’re traveling and ask if you can withdraw from those ATMs without paying the additional international fees. You could also ask if your bank reimburses fees that you’ve paid.

As another way to reduce bank fees, you could exchange US dollars to foreign currency before you leave the country, perhaps eliminating the need for ATM withdrawals while traveling. Your bank might do this with no fees.

Online-Only Banking

With online-only banking, there are no physical branches, so overhead costs for the financial institution can be lower, giving them the ability to provide certain perks to customers, such as lower fees.

Sometimes, certain fees aren’t charged at all. Just like with traditional banks, policies differ from one online-only financial institution to another.

If this sounds appealing, you could consider investigating how online-only institutions might help you avoid fees. Many, for example, provide ATM services for free or refund ATM fees up to a certain amount each month.

Money and Millennials

A Kasasa study points out that an overwhelming percentage of millennials they surveyed—93% of them—say that fee-free banking is important to them. They note that no-fee banking matters to them when choosing a bank for everyday banking needs.

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You can sign up for and open an account in just 60 seconds, and the account is FDIC insured for up to $1.5 million with additional fraud insurance.

External Websites: The information and analysis provided through hyperlinks to third-party websites, while believed to be accurate, cannot be guaranteed by SoFi. Links are provided for informational purposes and should not be viewed as an endorsement.

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SoFi has partnered with Allpoint to provide consumers with ATM access at any of the 55,000+ ATMs within the Allpoint network. Consumers will not be charged a fee when using an in-network ATM, however, third party fees incurred when using out-of-network ATMs are not subject to reimbursement. SoFi’s ATM policies are subject to change at our discretion at any time.
SoFi members with direct deposit activity can earn 4.00% annual percentage yield (APY) on savings balances (including Vaults) and 0.50% APY on checking balances. Direct Deposit means a recurring deposit of regular income to an account holder’s SoFi Checking or Savings account, including payroll, pension, or government benefit payments (e.g., Social Security), made by the account holder’s employer, payroll or benefits provider or government agency (“Direct Deposit”) via the Automated Clearing House (“ACH”) Network during a 30-day Evaluation Period (as defined below). Deposits that are not from an employer or government agency, including but not limited to check deposits, peer-to-peer transfers (e.g., transfers from PayPal, Venmo, etc.), merchant transactions (e.g., transactions from PayPal, Stripe, Square, etc.), and bank ACH funds transfers and wire transfers from external accounts, or are non-recurring in nature (e.g., IRS tax refunds), do not constitute Direct Deposit activity. There is no minimum Direct Deposit amount required to qualify for the stated interest rate. SoFi members with direct deposit are eligible for other SoFi Plus benefits.

As an alternative to direct deposit, SoFi members with Qualifying Deposits can earn 4.00% APY on savings balances (including Vaults) and 0.50% APY on checking balances. Qualifying Deposits means one or more deposits that, in the aggregate, are equal to or greater than $5,000 to an account holder’s SoFi Checking and Savings account (“Qualifying Deposits”) during a 30-day Evaluation Period (as defined below). Qualifying Deposits only include those deposits from the following eligible sources: (i) ACH transfers, (ii) inbound wire transfers, (iii) peer-to-peer transfers (i.e., external transfers from PayPal, Venmo, etc. and internal peer-to-peer transfers from a SoFi account belonging to another account holder), (iv) check deposits, (v) instant funding to your SoFi Bank Debit Card, (vi) push payments to your SoFi Bank Debit Card, and (vii) cash deposits. Qualifying Deposits do not include: (i) transfers between an account holder’s Checking account, Savings account, and/or Vaults; (ii) interest payments; (iii) bonuses issued by SoFi Bank or its affiliates; or (iv) credits, reversals, and refunds from SoFi Bank, N.A. (“SoFi Bank”) or from a merchant. SoFi members with Qualifying Deposits are not eligible for other SoFi Plus benefits.

SoFi Bank shall, in its sole discretion, assess each account holder’s Direct Deposit activity and Qualifying Deposits throughout each 30-Day Evaluation Period to determine the applicability of rates and may request additional documentation for verification of eligibility. The 30-Day Evaluation Period refers to the “Start Date” and “End Date” set forth on the APY Details page of your account, which comprises a period of 30 calendar days (the “30-Day Evaluation Period”). You can access the APY Details page at any time by logging into your SoFi account on the SoFi mobile app or SoFi website and selecting either (i) Banking > Savings > Current APY or (ii) Banking > Checking > Current APY. Upon receiving a Direct Deposit or $5,000 in Qualifying Deposits to your account, you will begin earning 4.00% APY on savings balances (including Vaults) and 0.50% on checking balances on or before the following calendar day. You will continue to earn these APYs for (i) the remainder of the current 30-Day Evaluation Period and through the end of the subsequent 30-Day Evaluation Period and (ii) any following 30-day Evaluation Periods during which SoFi Bank determines you to have Direct Deposit activity or $5,000 in Qualifying Deposits without interruption.

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