[Kate*]

The first thing I will address is the safety issue, if you live somewhere with snow/winter weather and you're driving that far, it might be better to wait just because of that or go somewhere with housing options. As far as registration priority and the ins and outs of class offerings, the advisor is your best option there. It depends what classes you need, a lot of times there are prereqs offered in the fall for classes offered in the spring, so starting in January would mean having to wait to take some classes, but it depends entirely on the school, the set up, and course requirements.

In terms of registration priority, the schools I've gone to base that on how many credit hours you have (transfer or non-transfer) rather than transfer status. So a transfer student transferring x number of hours would get registration priority over an incoming freshman with 0 hours. They also use the number of hours you've earned (transfer or not) to determine your class standing, but the number of hours is usually more important. Again, advisor would be your best option here.

My college does offer a campus housing application for new students who start in the spring semester, but I've never used it, so I don't know how it works. They probably only charge you for 1 semester where normally the contract runs the full year and you would get a room from someone who dropped out or graduated. I would look at the Residence Services web page for the school and/or shoot someone an email and ask to be sure. If you're looking for off-campus arrangement it might be trickier. Also, some schools have age limits or campus residency requirements so watch out for those.

So, would it be easier to start in a fall semester, probably, but it really depends and how much stress is finishing early going to cause (financial or otherwise?). Use the appointment with the advisor to discuss the specifics of what courses will transfer, the ins and outs of registration and course offerings, and then weigh the pros and cons for the rest of it and see what you come up with. Good luck!