Transfer Tricks: Scholarships for Changing Schools

Transfer students often assume scholarships are only for incoming freshmen. Wrong. Many awards are open to any enrolled undergrad—and some are aimed at transfers. The trick is knowing where to look and updating your applications when you switch schools.

Update your FAFSA with your new school so you don't lose federal or state aid. Then add national scholarships. Awarded helps you discover and enter so you can stack funding during the transition. The Awarded app lets you track what you've entered so you don't drop the ball mid-transfer.

Transferring schools is stressful—new campus, new requirements, new deadlines. It's easy to let scholarship applications slide. But transfers who keep applying often qualify for transfer-specific aid at their new school, state aid in one or both states, and national awards that don't care that you switched schools. The tricks are simple: update your FAFSA with your new school as soon as you know where you're going, check your new school's financial aid page for transfer scholarships, and keep entering national awards via Awarded so your funding pipeline doesn't pause during the transition. Stacking aid through the switch is how you avoid the transfer penalty.

Transfer-Specific Aid

Some schools and states offer scholarships for transfer students. Check your new school's financial aid office and your state higher ed site. Apply before the transfer so aid is in place when you arrive.

Many four-year schools have scholarships or grants specifically for community college or other transfer students. Deadlines are often in the spring for fall enrollment, so apply as soon as you know you're transferring. Your new school's financial aid office can list transfer-specific opportunities. Some states also have transfer or articulation grants. Ask both your current and incoming aid offices what you need to submit and by when. Securing transfer-specific aid before you move means less financial stress when you get to the new campus.

National Awards Don't Care That You Transferred

Most national scholarships are open to any enrolled student. Use Awarded to find and enter them before and after you move. No-essay and quick-apply options are especially easy to stack during a busy transition.

National scholarships rarely ask whether you're a transfer. They care that you're an enrolled undergrad. That means you can keep applying before, during, and after your move. No-essay and quick-apply awards take minutes—ideal when you're juggling transfer logistics. Use Awarded to find and enter 2–3 per week so you don't pause your funding pipeline. Transfer tricks are about not losing momentum: keep stacking national awards so the switch doesn't cost you money. Many transfers who maintain a simple weekly habit through the transition end up with stronger aid packages at their new school than they had at their old one.

Keep Applying Through the Transition

Don't pause applications during the transfer. Use awarded.app to keep entering. Transfer tricks are about stacking aid so the switch doesn't cost you money.

Set a recurring reminder to open Awarded and enter 1–2 national scholarships every week, even during the busiest transfer weeks. You don't need to do a lot—just enough to keep the habit alive. Update your FAFSA, apply for transfer-specific aid at your new school, and keep your national application habit. Transfer tricks work when you treat scholarships as a through-line, not something you pause when life gets chaotic. Your future self at the new school will thank you when the aid is already in place.