Your family went through the college application process. Your child made a list of schools. They wrote the essays. They got the recommendations. They filled out the FAFSA. They got in. Pretty soon, it was move-in day of their first year.

But something happened. Maybe your financial situation changed for the worse. Maybe your child discovered that a small college that felt cozy as an applicant feels claustrophobic as a student. Maybe they changed what they want to study and another place would be better. Maybe their East Coast sensibilities clashed with their West Coast institution’s vibes.

Crucially, they’ve assessed that the problem(s) is(are) not one-time and fixable. If they picked a school in Denver to study hospitality management but now want to major in marine biology, for instance, a transfer is probably in the cards.

That’s right. They – and you – are going to go through the application process a second time. It’ll be largely similar to the previous experience but with enough important differences that it rates a separate column. To help you get through it, I enlisted Samuel Day, an admissions officer at CollegeAdvisor, a U.S. News company.

Your child needs to get organized. Your child needs to consult individual college websites because there’s not a one-size-fits-all path. As with the first go-round, schools have different deadlines and different rules.

“The base advice wouldn’t change for transfers,” Samuel said. “You need to approach the process with intention, you need to research the process, and you need to keep in mind that it’s a long process.”