Glad to see you are getting lots of input here! Our DD16 is a senior in high school and we are in the midst of college acceptance/rejection right now. Glancing at the thread so far, I'd like to add the following informational nuggets based on our experience thus far:
1) Most unis have application deadlines prior to December/January for the following fall (Deadline December 2014 for August 2015 start) and acceptances come out anywhere from December to April.
2) Many unis look only/mostly at grades earned in years 9-11 (though they may rescind offers if there is a senior slump)
3) Highly selective unis generally do not actually take many transfer students. There are exceptions as noted in other posts, where state schools will allow transfers from their community colleges, but this appears to be school and state specific.
4) Harvard has spectacular financial aid (10% of parents total income is total expected contribution for families making less than $150,000)(yes, really) Other "ivies" have generous aid as well making them more affordable than many state schools for foreign or out of state students.
5) Many high schools have enrollment options in local universities and this enrollment can be manipulated such that your child does not apply as a transfer student to the next uni
6) Academic levels are not all there is to success at university.
7) Every child is, IMO, different. Therefore the amount of help they need, or will accept, is different.
8) Selecting and applying to many unis (more than 10) seems to help the DC learn how to research and select the uni.
If your DC wants to persue a STEM field, they may want to go to graduate school. Graduate school admissions has become extremely competitive in the last few years and going to a "name" undergraduate institution, having extensive research experience as an undergraduate, top notch grades, and stellar (in field) letters of recommendation, are all key parts of the application. Medical, dental, veterinary, and other professional degrees remain highly competitive with their own expectations of applicants for classes taken, grades, experiences, research, and letters of recommendation. Prior to freshman year, careful planning should take place to ensure that all the requirements for several target graduate programs will be met by junior year.
Unlike K-12, where we had a least bad approach, for university and beyond we are trying to instill in our DC a "best options" approach. Each choice should enhance the potential success of the long term goal that DD has for her life's work and personal happiness while giving her additional options if things change. As an example, she has, with our help, chosen not to apply to universities that severely restrict the students admitted to her most likely major. (At some schools, you can be admitted to the school, but not to X major. They may admit 600 potential X major students, but only allow 100 to actually declare the major.) She has still applied to highly selective schools, just ones with larger numbers allowed to continue on in her major.
