I’m sorry that this is going to come across as long-winded – this is my first time expressing these concerns to anyone, and I’m likely to edit out and condense a lot of this once I have a better sense of what needs to be conveyed for the sake of my question.
I’m currently attending Ohio State University as a dual major in math and philosophy, after transferring from one year of community college. I’m in-state, however, the tuition is still expensive for my parents, and I’ve recently become a European citizen. My family is European and my grandfather, when he passed, left me enough money to cover tuition for both undergrad and grad school with the discount I’d receive by being an EU citizen. I’m concerned that I’m bleeding my parents dry especially now that I’ve agreed to an expensive study abroad program in England over the summer. The program goes over and won’t allow me to return in time to OSU for the beginning of the fall semester. Its coalesced with my general frustrations with OSU; that the teaching in my philosophy courses don’t seem so great (derivative and digressive class sessions where it doesn’t seem that much is accomplished, classes being cancelled, not much material being covered, etc), the math department being under national investigation for sketchy practices (online assignments with questions that professors are unable to answer, professors not being told what’s on the exams and occasional questions that don’t test what’s been covered in class, etc) that both a TA and advisor have outright told me are to weed out students. I’m still very grateful to be at OSU and to have received my already transformative education, however, I’ve been seeking the experience of studying abroad for the past 2 years for the life experience that would come from it. I understand that drugs, partying, and excessive drinking are prevalent at all colleges, but given Ohio’s rural nature, the amount of sketchy behavior right by campus (I’ve been chased and have seen people chased by aggressive people demanding money on the sidewalk across the road from campus, once almost got mugged half a mile away from campus in a decent area, was on a bus half a mile away from campus when someone, the same person who threatened my mom 6 months ago when she came to visit, flashed a gun while shouting misanthropic stuff after beating someone, and no action was taken, etc), everything is constrained within campus, and I feel suffocated by aspects that I could otherwise overlook in environments that offer valuable opportunities for education and connection outside of the campus itself. As is, I’ve been gaining a pessimistic outlook that’s made me incompatible with my lifelong friends, and that has been upsetting my parents. I just got back from spring break, where I was able to travel to a place my dad was working at, and my outlook transformed back to an optimistic state, making me realize that my pessimism is sourced from my reaction to OSU’s environment. I chose OSU because I’m essentially a 1st generation college student who didn’t research college in high school, and I realized how valuable the opportunities are at a 4 year university by spending a semester at community college, motivating me to transfer. Given how late it was, I went with the easy option, or OSU, since it was in-state, and I knew that I could transfer again to meet my goals of going abroad.
With all of this in mind, would it be a good idea for me to transfer again, abroad, while potentially impeding my chances for grad school? If so, would it reflect poorly on my transcript to stay in Europe with my family for the fall and spring 2019-2020 semesters, since I’ll be there already from my summer abroad? I would plan to work and take classes online from OSU while applying to european schools for transfer. For clarification, my GPA is around 3.5 and my ACT is 32.