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Your High School Counselor Held You Back? Maybe It’s Time to Transfer Colleges

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Don’t think your current college is a good fit? Maybe your high school counselor held you back. A study by Public Agenda, a nonprofit group, asked young adults to reflect on their experiences with their counselors in high school. The title of the study tells you a lot: Can I get a Little Advice Here? How an Overstretched High School Guidance System is Undermining Student’s College Aspirations. Just to highlight the main points, here are two of the study’s major findings:

Finding One: Most students, even those who successfully complete college, give their high school guidance counselors fair or poor ratings

Finding Two: Students who get perfunctory counseling are more likely to delay college and make more questionable higher education choices

As someone who graduated from a less-than-great high school of 2,000+ students, I am not at all surprised by the results. To put it more precisely, and harshly, my high school counselor was useless to me. Coming from a family with little education, I was completely lost when it came to the college application process. I just knew that higher education was the way for me to go, but I didn’t really know how to get there. Perhaps my counselor didn’t know, either. If she did, she was keeping a really big secret from me.

Fast forward from my high school years to my first couple months as an undergrad. I wondered what I had gotten myself into. Would I have been able to prevent this disaster had my high school counselor helped me? I can’t say for sure, but I think I would have been able to at least make a more informed decision. Somehow, I figured out that I could apply to transfer to another college or university and, gratefully, ended up transferring to Stanford, a university that I didn’t even consider in high school.

If you’re unhappy and getting nowhere at your current college, you can’t just sit around blaming your high school counselor, yourself, or anyone else. Learn from your experience. Look into how you can better your situation, possibly by transferring out. It’s up to you to achieve your goals in life.

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Transfer Student Numbers on the Rise at Vanderbilt University

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A really interesting article was published recently on InsideVandy.com, the website of Vanderbilt’s student newspaper. As you’ll note in our transfer admissions statistics, Vanderbilt accepts an unusually large percentage of transfer applicants (55.9%) versus freshmen applicants (25.3%).

Apparently, this has resulted in some students there believing “that Vanderbilt has lowered their standards for transfer students and is making it easier to get accepted compared to other top twenty universities.”

But the higher number of transfer students is actually the result of Vanderbilt completing a special residence for all freshmen called The Commons. Having all incoming freshmen live there has reduced the number of open freshman slots by about 40 to 60, slots that are now being filled by transfer students.

Besides the housing situation, the article suggests that there’s also a conscious effort on the part of the university to take in more transfer students. They quote Douglas Christiansen, the vice provost for enrollment and dean of admissions, who says:

“[Transfers are] superb students with experience elsewhere, but bring geographic, ethnic and social diversity [to Vanderbilt]. They are held to the same threshold.”

The article quotes several students who have some interesting things to say about their experiences transferring. Check it out. It’s a quick read.

(Photo: The Udall Legacy Bus Tour: Views from the Road)

How to Research Transfer Admission Criteria

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In our last blog entry, we provided some specific details about transfer requirements at different schools. How did we find all that info? Research! It’s not hard. With just a few minutes of online research you can find out what schools expect from you as a transfer applicant. Say you’re interested in transferring to the University of Pittsburgh. Do you have what it takes to be a competitive transfer candidate?

  • Go to http://www.pitt.edu
  • Click on “Admissions”
  • Click on “Undergraduate”
  • Click on “Transfer Admissions” (bottom left of page)
  • General information on transfer requirements is provided. For specifics on GPA requirements, click on “Transfer Credit/GPA Guidelines” (in the second paragraph)

Ta-da! Now you know what the school expects from you. Many schools have a similar site set-up. You can follow pretty much the same steps to learn about other schools.

Disclosure: Using these steps, what you find will usually be called “guidelines” and they are just that. Absolutes are rare when it comes to admission criteria. Each applicant is evaluated on an individual basis, so don’t panic if you’re 0.06 points away from the minimum GPA!

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College Transfer Admission Criteria: What’s a “Good” GPA?

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This question was inspired by an email we received from a reader.

So, what GPA do you need to get if you’re applying to transfer? The obvious answer is “get all As (and maybe even shoot for A pluses) so that the school you apply to will have no excuse to reject you.” Of course, it’s not that easy to get straight As (or it might be too late for you), so here’s another answer: it depends. Whether or not your GPA is good enough depends on which school and program you’re looking at. In this blog post, we go over the following:

  • Expected GPA from top schools
  • Minimum GPA requirements
  • GPA requirements under transfer agreements

Top-tier Schools Demand an Ambiguously “High” GPA

If you’re shooting for a top-tier school, expect extremely high standards in terms of grades and other qualifications. Let’s say you’re interested in Yale. Here’s what Yale’s “Who Makes a Good Transfer Student” web page says this:

Given the large number of extremely able candidates who wish to transfer to Yale and the very limited number of transfer spaces, no simple profile of grades, scores, and interests can assure a student admission to Yale.

Yes, the evaluation process is difficult and a little fuzzy, but a competitive academic record is still expected:

Successful transfer applicants present evidence of exceptionally strong college performance in demanding courses. The average GPA of admitted transfer students is usually 3.8 and above.

Minimum GPA Requirements

Some schools explicitly lay out their GPA requirements. Purdue University lists minimum GPA requirements for transfer applicants according to field of study. For example, you should have at least a 2.5 GPA if you’re going to apply to transfer into the Electrical and Computer Engineering Technology program. For the minimum GPA requirement for other academic programs, visit Purdue’s Transfer Student Admission Criteria page.

Other schools similarly outline the grades you need to be considered for transfer admission. Check if the school you’re interested in does this. Note that meeting the minimum GPA requirement does NOT guarantee transfer admission.

GPA Requirements under Transfer Agreements

Transfer agreements between two institutions tell you exactly what you need to do to get from School X to School Y. Foothill College put together an extremely clear explanation of how their transfer agreements with other school work: http://www.foothill.edu/transfer/taa.html.

This page lets students know the exact minimum GPA they need in order to transfer to a particular school (or to be considered for transfer admission) that has teamed up with Foothill College. If a Foothill College student wants to transfer to UC San Diego, for example, she should have at least a 3.0 GPA. If your current school has transfer agreements with other institutions, they’ll probably work in a similar way. You can ask an academic counselor (if possible, a transfer counselor), about transfer agreements.

However, you can probably find the info you need by searching online. Let’s be honest: counselors don’t know everything, so it’s to your advantage to do your own research as well as consult school counselors. Let’s say you currently attend Delaware County Community College (www.dccc.edu) and you want to find out about the transfer agreements your college has with other schools. Do an advance Google search by using the “search within a specific site (:site)” function. What’s the point? You want to do an online search of info on transfer agreements published somewhere in the Delaware County Community College web space. That way, the info you obtain is more likely official than if you found it on a random website. In the Google search box type this:

transfer agreement site:dccc.edu

The second search result item should take you exactly where you need to go: http://www.dccc.edu/career/taag.html. Let’s try another one. If you currently attend Santa Monica College (www.smc.edu), you can find transfer agreements by googling this:

transfer agreement site:smc.edu

Again, it just so happens that the second item in the list of search results steers you to the exact page you need.

There are websites that are trying to compile as many transfer agreement documents as possible. It’s a noble attempt, indeed, but the compilations are a work-in-progress. There are just so many colleges and transfer agreements out there, but at least you can try the Google “:site” search.

Final Remarks

Looking up all this information can be a grueling process, but all your efforts will pay off! With careful research (and lots of introspection), you should be able to find a school that’s a better fit for you.

(Photo: Robert S. Donovan)

The Transfer Application: Is My High School or College Record Given More Weight?

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Weight picture
Here are the highlights of an email we received:

I am currently a freshman at Rutgers University in New Brunswick (NJ). Needless to say, I am unhappy. I am a student with a great amount of potential. In high school, I was one of seven students in my graduating class to have taken six AP classes. I took summer session classes at University of Pennsylvania and at Brown University and even left Brown with 2 A’s and a great recommendation from one of my professors. I scored a 2200 on my SATs (1430 out of 1600). You get the picture. My GPA, however, wasn’t outstanding. Though I took difficult classes, I didn’t try my best and let personal affairs affect my ability to do well. Thus, I have a few C’s sprinkling my high school transcript and was rejected from almost all the schools I applied to (Brown, Vassar, Wesleyan, Bowdoin, Brandeis, etc.). I was ultimately accepted to the honors program at Rutgers…

There’s more to her story, but for now, let’s look at her current college experience:

My semester started off really well. I got a 100 on one of my midterms, got really good grades on my papers, but the loneliness and frustration from being here has begun to take a toll on me. I also work about 25 hours each weekend at the restaurant. I feel so burnt out, but not having a job isn’t an option for me as I have to be financially independent…

I am currently taking 13 credits and I believe I will finish the semester with 2 or 3 A’s, but I am unsure about what I will receive in my art history class. I know it probably won’t be an A, but I can shoot for a B if I really REALLY try. Which I am planning to do.

As for your grades, yes, aim for at least a B. A red flag might go up if you get anything lower. Of course, an A would be best. From our own experiences and what we’ve heard from other transfer students, it seems that your college record would be weighted more heavily than your high school record. That’s why, in a previous blog entry, we stressed the idea that you should work hard in college to overcome a weak high school GPA. According to our interviews with successful transfer students, applicants with solid college grades were able to transfer into the more competitive schools. Look at it this way: the college you’re applying to wants to know if you will succeed at that college. What might be a good predictor of how well you’ll do at the college you transfer to? Wouldn’t it make sense to look at your performance and activities at your current college? That is not to say that what you did in high school won’t count for anything. Your high school record is still important.

Along these lines, here’s info from Yale’s Transfer Student Program main page:

The Committee places primary emphasis on your college record, reasons for transfer, and recommendations from college faculty and administrators. Your secondary school record, extracurricular interests, and work experience are also given weight.

Here’s what Vassar’s FAQs page for transfer applicants says:

Q: How much is my high school record weighted in the evaluation process?
A: Since the competition is highly competitive, an applicant’s entire academic history is considered in the admission process, and we require high school records with the application. It is difficult for students who have had an unsuccessful high school career to be competitive applicants. However, as the distance from an applicant’s high school years grows, the weight assigned to that performance is lessened.

Many schools stress the fact that they look at the whole package when evaluating applications; it’s not just about one element of your application. Here’s info from Brown regarding their transfer admissions criteria:

… All credentials requested by the Board of Admission have a bearing on the eventual admission decision but no specific weight is accorded to any particular credential. Additionally, no cut-offs with respect to grade point average, rank in class, test scores, or the like are employed. The Board evaluates each application on its own merits, seeking students whose records demonstrate both academic excellence and personal growth.

Each applicant is unique and there are so many components that make up your “package”. According to the above info from Brown, you may get brownie points for demonstrating personal growth. If you have to work 25 hours a week to support yourself, something that very few students at four-year schools have to do, play up your personal growth from that experience in your application. Look at what else you have to offer and see where those fit into the application.

The bottom line:  Though it seems that your college record is more important than your high school record for many schools, other aspects of your transfer application are also considered.

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Should I Even Apply to Transfer to This College? Case Study: Brown University

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You’re a college freshman or sophomore and you know you want to transfer. Now what? For one thing, you’d better be digging up info on schools that you might want to transfer to. As a transfer applicant, you should “do your research” with the goal of finding the little quirks of the college transfer process. After all, not all schools are created equally, and not all schools will treat transfer students equally. Make a list of the pros and cons of each school you’re interested in. Make note of the transfer-specific details. As an example, let’s look at Brown University through the lens of a transfer applicant. You have your reasons to be interested in Brown, but should you apply?

THE PROS

1. “We want you to apply”

Brown seems to stop short of giving transfer applicants hugs. The Transfer Guide to Applying to Brown begins with a letter from the Dean of Admissions:

We are very pleased that you are considering Brown and hope that you will decide to apply…

For fall 2008, 117 of the 972 transfer applicants were accepted. That’s a 12% transfer acceptance rate. To put that info into perspective, check out Stanford, which practically warns prospective transfer students to think more than twice before even attempting to apply:

Transfer applicants should be aware that transfer admission is considerably more competitive than freshman admission. In recent years, the admit rate for transfer students has been between 1-2%. Between 20 and 40 transfer student spaces are typically available each year, depending on our freshman to sophomore retention rate (usually 98%) and the number of freshman applicants who typically accept our offer of admission…

In contrast, an article in the Brown Daily Herald points out Brown’s warm welcome to transfer applicants:

According to Associate Dean of the College Carol Cohen, who has worked with transfer students for over 15 years, they are “an intentional population here, not just a plugging in of empty spots” left by an overestimated matriculation of first-year applicants.

2. Options

Many schools accept transfers only for the fall term. However, Brown gives you the option to be considered for spring transfer admission. You might have some unfinished business to tend to before starting fresh as a transfer student at a new school. Whatever your reason, it’s nice to have choices.

3. Housing

It’s hard enough to start your life over at a new school, but imagine the additional pain if you were left to fend for yourself in the housing market as well. For many transfers, it’d just be easier to move into a dorm. Good news from the admissions office:

Brown transfer students must live in residence halls unless excused by the Director of Residential Life under policies established by the Dean of Student Life.

(This aspect might be considered a con if on-campus housing would cramp your style.)

4. Positive feedback from Brown transfer students

We have an in-depth interview with someone who transferred to Brown, but for now, here are the highlights of some positive transfer experiences as documented by the Brown Daily Herald:

Elizabeth, who transferred from Hobart and William Smith Colleges, enjoys the academic freedom and student diversity. After adjusting to Brown, she started to love it. As she says, “Transferring was the best decision I could have made.”

Drew, who transferred from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is also happy with his decision. He likes the academics and the size of the school. He likes that Brown students speak up in class and are interested in learning.

Juliana transferred from the University of Chicago. She admires the type of students who come to Brown because they have passions that extend beyond the classroom walls.

(To read the full articles from the Brown Daily Herald, go here and here.)

THE CONS

1. Financial aid

As with many schools, transfers at Brown get the dregs of university scholarship funds while freshman applicants get first dibs. At least you’d still be considered for state/federal grants and loans that you qualify for. Just submit your FAFSA. The financial aid policy with regards to transfer students has gone through various changes over the years, BUT (this is a huge but), the current policy as stated by the financial aid office is:

Transfer students are admitted to Brown under a need-aware Admission policy. Need aware means that financial need will be taken into account in making the admission decision.

What does that mean? When applying, checking off that you’d like to be considered for university scholarship aid means that your chances of getting accepted drops. Keep in mind Brown’s price tag:

Undergraduate tuition for the academic year 2008-09 is $36,928, and room, board, and required fees are $10,812. The total cost is $47,740.

Even if you were accepted, could you afford to go to Brown without university financial aid? If your answer is NO, it doesn’t sound like Brown is your best bet.

2. Negative feedback from students that transferred OUT of Brown

A great way to get honest opinions  about a college that you’re interested in is to hear from students that transferred out of that college. Here’s advice about researching colleges from a student who transferred from Trinity College to Barnard College:

Even when you’re looking at colleges the first time around or interested in transferring, talk to transfer students that transferred OUT of the school that you’re interested in. You’re going to hear about all the positive stuff from the school. You’re going to see the school, read the guidebooks, and talk to the tour guide who loves the school. They’re extreme lovers of the school. You’re going to get the positive side but you’re not going to get the negative side… But the only way you can make a real decision is if you know both sides… You shouldn’t be afraid of hearing the negative side.

With that said, let’s learn from people who transferred OUT of Brown:

Eugenie, who ended up transferring to Stanford, was disappointed by both the social scene and academics at Brown. The Department of Physics was particularly disappointing.

Sarena transferred to the University of Pennsylvania because Brown couldn’t meet her academic needs. Despite Brown’s relative academic freedom, she wasn’t allowed to create her own major with an ideal mix of psychology, communications, and marketing. At Penn, on the other hand, she’s satisfied with the pre-professional options in the academics.

One reason David transferred out of Brown was that he “felt that the University had too much of a liberal political bias.” He wanted a school with “a more open political atmosphere and a stronger sense of community”

(To read the full articles from the Brown Daily Herald featuring the above students, go here and here.)

So, should you apply to transfer to that college you’ve been thinking about?

Use this case study as an example. Delve deep and you’ll find your answer.

Spotlight: College of William & Mary, A Very Transfer Friendly College

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William & Mary

William & Mary caught our eyes because we interviewed three transfer students there, and they all had great things to say about the support offered to transfers at W&M. We also noticed that W&M has a relatively high transfer acceptance rate; for fall 2009 it was 43.7%, which is higher than their freshmen acceptance rate of 33.5%.

When asked why she chose William & Mary, Tanya, who transferred from John Tyler Community College, explained:

I went to a Prospective Transfer Day at William & Mary. It was just for transfers. It set us apart from the freshmen. It was as if the college was saying, “We know you’ve been through this before. We know you’ve been in college. Let’s give you what we have to offer. Let’s skip the fluff.”

She got to meet with current transfer students and other people at the college, including the Dean of Transfer Students at the time:

I met with Kim Van Deusen, a dean who works with transfer admissions. I sat down and had a long conversation with her. I talked about what I wanted to do and my situation. She gave me the tools I needed. We talked about the application essay.

When it finally came time to decide on which college to transfer to, it wasn’t a tough decision for Tanya. She thought about the experience she had with William & Mary throughout her transfer application process:

All of these experiences helped me to feel a connection when I came to William & Mary. This is a very personal college that cares about the individual. A lot of colleges brag about this, but at William & Mary, they didn’t have to say it because they showed it to me.

Another great thing about William & Mary is the Transfer Student Ambassadors, a group of former and current transfers who are there to help people like you. Mea, who transferred from Bard College at Simon’s Rock, told us about the Transfer Student Ambassadors (TSA) and other ways that William & Mary makes transfers feel right at home:

TSA held social functions at the beginning of the semester and throughout the semester. They held meetings about picking your schedule and how to study for finals. The transfer coordinator for admissions has been especially helpful with getting credits. I’ve also gotten emails throughout the year about transfer students working to invite new transfer students in and host prospective transfers. So there certainly is a support system for transfers.

Of course, no school deserves a 100% transfer friendliness rating. At William & Mary, for example, housing isn’t guaranteed for transfer students (see W&M’s FAQs page here), which isn’t unusual for colleges. Do your due diligence to see what each school offers and lacks. If possible, talk to current and former transfer students to get the real deal.

To give you more details that you won’t find on the William & Mary website, here’s the story of Chris P. (not to be confused with Chris, the co-author of The Transfer Book). For Chris, transferring to William & Mary was a second shot at his first choice school.

Chris attended a small private high school just outside of Cleveland, Ohio. The school had about 400 students in total, and a very comfortable, small community feel. Chris enjoyed his high school experience, but when it came time to choose a college to attend, he felt that he should get out of “the bubble” and try something larger. So he applied to a couple of big schools, Ohio University and Ohio State, with student populations of about 17,000 and 36,000 respectively. Oddly enough, however, Chris’ first choice—and the school that he had applied to early decision—wasn’t a larger school at all, and really had a completely different feel than his other choices. It was the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, student population 5,500.

“My brother went to William & Mary and every time he would come home he would talk about all the things he was involved in, and he would go on for like an hour, and I was amazed,” Chris said. “How can you do that much stuff?  How can you be that excited about it?”

“Maybe this is a pretty cool place to be, even if it’s on the smaller side,” he thought.

Unfortunately, Chris’s application to William & Mary wasn’t successful.  He ended up starting out at Ohio University, and when he got there, he discovered just how different his new surroundings were when some of his introductory courses had as many students as his entire high school. It didn’t help that he and his roommate didn’t get along, or that he didn’t like the way the administration ran things. It wasn’t long before Chris started to think about transferring.

“It was difficult to accept, because I did have a regular group of friends I was hanging out with,” Chris said. “And it wasn’t because I wasn’t fitting in… I had more friends than anyone I knew, so it wasn’t a social thing.  And it wasn’t an academic thing because I was doing fine, but it was a feeling thing… and I just felt I wasn’t being stimulated.”

Chris sought out advice from everyone he knew about whether or not he should transfer and where he should apply. He ended up applying to William & Mary and two other universities. Re-applying to William & Mary was made especially easy by the fact that the school offers students the option to re-open a previous application by filling out the Reopen Application Form available on their website.

Chris felt that he had a lot more to present to them as a transfer student than he did as a freshman applicant. First, he says that his SAT scores were “average,” and this often hurts otherwise strong applicants because colleges want to admit freshman classes that have high average SAT scores so that their statistics look good. Applying as a transfer, Chris’ SAT score would likely matter less. Second, as someone with some experience already as a college student, he was more able to demonstrate his enthusiasm for getting involved on campus through extracurricular activities, a trait that any school would love to have in one of its students. Of course, it didn’t hurt that he made the dean’s list the first quarter, and that he also submitted good mid-quarter grades, even though they weren’t asked for on the application. After a few months of waiting, Chris was accepted into all the schools he applied to.

Despite finally being admitted into his first choice, however, Chris still struggled with the decision to actually change schools all year, and ended up sending in his acceptance form to William and Mary on the last possible day.

“It’s weird because if you stay the whole year, by the end of the year you want to stay the next three years,” Chris said. “It got tougher and tougher as I went along in the process, because I got more and more tired of thinking about it and the decision. It leans you more toward staying at the school that you’re unhappy with.”

After sending in his acceptance form he finally went to William & Mary’s accepted students day, staying with his brother. There, he had “the most amazing day he’s ever had” during his college experience. “Just meeting with professors, seeing the different events you could go to— everyone just seemed so excited to meet you, and everyone was practically giving you hugs here,” Chris said. “I was just so thrilled because it was exactly what I needed.”

The summer before moving, however, he did a little research—looking at forums and in chat rooms—and discovered that his new school might be more academically challenging than he had anticipated.

“My first year of college was pretty tough for me. It was a big balancing act, my whole sophomore year here at William & Mary,” Chris said. “At times I thought, ‘Did I make the right decision?’ I love it here, I love the school, the people, the history [of the place], but the academics are much harder than I anticipated. But I was still determined to improve and work my way up… I’m doing a lot better, and I’m still involved in more things.”

Those “more things” include being involved with Campus Crusade for Christ, the University Center Activities Board Music Committee (UCAB), tutoring in the College Partnership for Kids program, and working at the library’s media center. Chris also studied abroad for one summer, an opportunity that not only let him travel while in school, but also catch up on some credits. On top of all that, he was also president of the Transfer Student Ambassadors group at William & Mary. In that role, he was working on having the school set aside a building as housing for new transfer students. He says he hopes that such a living situation will help new transfer students get a taste of what it’s like to be a freshman discovering a new school with their peers.

One great piece of advice that Chris has for transfer students is to remember when you were the most excited you’ve ever felt about going to your dream school, and injecting that enthusiasm into your application essay: “I pictured myself being involved, loving the school, and I thought, ‘If I can picture that, why can’t I make it happen?’

(Photo: Lyndi&Jason)

Colleges with Highest Transfer Acceptance Rates

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Just added numbers for the colleges with the highest transfer acceptance rates.

Check it out by clicking here, or by hovering over “Stats” tab at the top of the page.

As always, take the numbers with a grain of salt. The numbers change each year, but these should give you a sense of some of the particularly transfer friendly colleges out there.

Enjoy! And don’t be shy about getting in touch with us!

When to Dump Your College: Transfer Mid-Year or Stick It Out?

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sticky

A reader sent us an email, posing some very good questions about the college transfer journey. We got the thumbs up from her to share her situation with you just in case you’ve been wondering the same thing.

I am currently enrolled at Mercyhurst College, in Erie, PA. I am planning on transferring. Mercyhurst is on a trimester system. The first trimester would finish up at Thanksgiving time. I know I don’t like it here. I have been here since August 12th, and not once have I said to myself, “Wow, I am so glad I chose this school.” I am doing well scholastically speaking so far, but there is nothing, literally NOTHING to do socially speaking. I am from Buffalo, NY, and Erie is drastically different. I find myself very bored here, and I am not finding anything that sparks my interest.

Most (if not almost all) of the transfer students we’ve interviewed started thinking about leaving during their first semester at their first college. It’s not unusual to have these thoughts already. It took a month or two for me to realize that my first university wasn’t the best fit for me.

It’s also not uncommon to want to leave your current school because of the social setting. We forget that college is a place where you live and do your work. You’re signing away four years (that’s FOUR YEARS of your youth!) to your undergraduate career. You should be happy. That’s not to say you should transfer so that you can go to, say, the #1 party school and just hang out. Your reasoning has to be deeper than that.

It sounds like you’re doing well academically, but is there anything lacking in terms of academics at your current college?

When I was applying to schools I knew (or thought I knew) that I wanted to play soccer. Well, I am on the soccer team here and I know now that college sports are not for me. I dread going to soccer every day and I am not enjoying it at all. Also, I underestimated myself and thought I would need a smaller school to do well. And I am not from a city, so I figured that I would not be able to handle a school in a city setting. There is nothing to do in Erie, and there is hardly anything to do on campus either. This is a small Catholic school, so I realize now (a little too late!) that the social scene isn’t going to be as fun as say, Florida State (where my two best friends are). I am a very outgoing social girl and this is very strange for me being here in this setting. I feel like I need a school that’s a little bigger with more going on, on and off campus, and maybe even a school in a city setting!!

Many high school students have ideas about what they want to do in college. Then, they get to college and realize that’s not what they want at all. This shouldn’t come as a surprise! How are you supposed to know at age 17 or 18 what you want? How are you supposed to know what kind of college experience you want when you’ve never been to college? As a high school student, you don’t have a lot to go on when making your decisions about college. I hope you don’t feel alone in making this kind of “mistake.”

I know its still early, but if nothing has gotten better here yet, when will it? The problem arises here: If I know I want to transfer, should I stick out the whole year here? The trimester system makes it tough. My thoughts right now are that I should leave here after the first trimester is finished. I should stay home, work, get introductory courses out of the way at my community college, and really concentrate on making the right transfer choice. Is this not a good idea? Should I finish the year out here? I just don’t see the point in spending all the tuition money to go here if I know I’m not staying! Shouldn’t I be home, focusing on making the right choice for the college I’m transferring to? Will it look bad or will it be harder to transfer if I have transcripts from two schools (Mercyhurst and a community college)? I really need your help. I am the oldest child in my family and my parents and I are unsure of what the steps we should be taking to transfer are. I know its still early, but if the college doesn’t seem right… its not right! I have to go with my gut feeling on this. Also, shouldn’t I start the application process to these schools relatively soon? These are all hard questions and I am hoping you can give me some sense of direction.

You seem to be looking at two options:

  1. Stay at your current college for a year and then transfer
  2. Leave after your first term, go to a community college and work, and then transfer

Regardless of which option you choose, if you want to go to another school as a sophomore transfer, you need to start the application process NOW. By application process, I don’t mean that you have to fill out the forms right now, but you need to do the preliminary research, gather info, and such (stuff we’ll go into detail in our book). Many transfer applications are due March 1, which doesn’t leave you a lot of time. To help you make the decision, you should try to take a more objective look at your options by listing the pros and cons for each. As you think about the pros and cons, ask yourself:

  • Will doing this help me reach my goals in life?
  • Is this feasible?
  • Will I be happy?

Now, let’s look at the two options in detail.

Option 1: Stick it out for the year

This option is the “traditional” one for transfer students. The vast majority of transfer students we’ve interviewed took this route. (Some transfers stayed two years at their first school.) We’re very familiar with this path, since it’s what we did. This is also the “safe” route. You stay where you are, continue to work hard in school, and in the meantime, look into transferring and do what it takes to put together strong applications. There’s no sudden, drastic change of routine. If you’re determined enough and you work hard, you should be able to focus on making the right choice in your next college while continuing with your college routine.

Staying a year would give you time to establish yourself at your college and time to learn about what you want. I often ask transfer students, “Did the time you spend at your first college help to give you a better understanding of what you wanted in your next college?” The answer is almost always YES. Staying might also give you more time to get to know your instructors, from whom you will need recommendation letters. (At the same time, many students stop communicating with their professors on a regular basis once the term is over, so staying beyond one term won’t necessarily help you with building relationships with professors.)

You can stay and spend the rest of the year at your college thinking to yourself, “I can’t wait to leave. Why am I making myself miserable?” or you can say to yourself, “I’m learning so much about myself, and yes, there is light at the end of this tunnel.”

A similar argument could be made about staying at your first college for 2 full years (transferring in the fall as a junior) versus 1.5 years (transferring in the spring semester of your sophomore year).

Option 2: Leave ASAP, go to a community college and work, and then transfer

I know of three people who have transferred twice. One person went to a large university, decided to essentially drop out and go to a community college, and then transferred to William & Mary. So, it’s not completely unheard of to go to two schools before settling down (possibly at a top college, nonetheless). Finishing off the year at a community college and living at home would definitely save you a lot of money. If you choose this option, make sure you have a clear plan for the next steps and stick to that plan. Otherwise, it might be hard for you to get back on that bachelors degree track. A lot of the general requirements are similar for many schools, so some might say that it doesn’t matter where you spend your first year or two of college. From what I’ve heard and from my own experience taking summer classes at a community college, the classes are less rigorous than at four-year schools. So, you’d better do an excellent job at the community college. It would look really bad if you went to a community college and did worse than your first trimester at your first college.

Will it look bad or will it be harder to transfer if you have transcripts from two schools? I can’t give you a definitive answer to that, but I don’t see why having two transcripts will necessarily hurt your transfer application. I would say that your essay will be crucial in this case, because you’ll have to explain your decision VERY carefully and show that you did indeed make the right choice and learned from your first year. It doesn’t hurt to call up a school and ask the admissions office for their opinion. Also, if you’re going to spend a substantial amount of time working at a job while attending community college, it might even be impressive in the eyes of admissions officers, especially if you gain a lot from your job.

This option sounds like your way of “taking time off,” something that some transfers do to give themselves perspective and time to really think about what they want. One transfer student I spoke with left his university to do community service work. Meanwhile, he got his transfer applications together, and he’s now at the University of Pennsylvania. Others took time off to work for a political campaign or teach in India while applying to transfer.  Here’s a great book called Taking Time Off by Colin Hall and Ron Lieber. The book isn’t specifically about transfers, but it’s a worthwhile read for anyone interested in taking a break.

Just to conclude…

I’ve mentioned some of the advantages and disadvantages of each option, but obviously, you know your situation better than anyone else. Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide.

The transfer process is not as straightforward as the freshman application process. Transfer students have taken varying paths to get to where they are. Knowing how other transfers have navigated through their journeys can help you make the road less bumpy (that’s why such a big part of our book will be based on stories directly from transfer students!). But there’s one thing all the people we’ve interviewed have in common: they don’t regret their decision to transfer. We certainly don’t.

Please leave a comment with your input/advice!

(Photo: Tiago Rïbeiro)

Fall 2008 College Transfer Acceptance Rates Added

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Just added Fall 08 transfer admissions rates for some of the top schools in the US (the Top 50 National Universities according to US News).

Check it out by clicking here, or clicking on the “Stats” tab at the top of the page.

We wanted to give everyone a sampling of the most popular schools that students might be curious about. Keep in mind there are about 2,500 four-year colleges in the US.

As with all statistics, take them with a grain of salt. The numbers change each year, and, if you can make a strong case for transferring, your odds will be much better than what you see here (and, of course, the opposite is true too).

As always, feel free to contact us by using the form on the right of this page, or commenting! We read everything.