<p>26 years ago I transferred after my sophomore year out of my mom’s 1st choice school for me. I was 1st generation college (and citizen) and only applied to 2 schools; I was also a commuter. The school was a HORRIBLE fit in many ways and I felt that my parent’s were overpaying for the “privilege” for me to attend a school with an overinflated local reputation. I didn’t even tell my parents I was transferring until after I completed all the paperwork. At the end of my undergrad years, I was still a commuter but at a state school & I enjoyed those years, found professors who nurtured me, and I threw myself into ECs and my major. I remember thinking that if I didn’t transfer, I would just quit or go to a medical tech program; that’s how miserable I was. </p>
<p>So, I don’t think realizing that a school isn’t a good fit=giving up too easily. You might ask your son to do a pros/cons list of reasons why school B is better than school A. It might help him (and you) to see the real issues. Sometimes kids can’t articulate exactly why they feel a particular way but putting things on paper can make it more concrete.</p>
<p>It’s very hard for some kids to disentangle breaking-away-from-home issues from dissatisfaction with a particular place. I hated my “dream school” the first year and wanted to transfer in the worst way. I was also 1200 miles away from home. My parents very wisely insisted that I go back for the first semester of my sophomore year, and if I still hated it in November, I could transfer. Well, of course, I loved my sophomore year–same college, different attitude.</p>
<p>Transferring is not to be done lightly. In my role as an academic advisor at my current employer, I see that students usually lose ground in their programs when they transfer. Most colleges won’t accept all transfer credits toward fulfillment of their own degree requirements, even if they give free elective credits.</p>
<p>Back in the stone ages, I transferred (actually, it was officially a one-year exchange program that morphed into a transfer), applying after the 1st semester of my freshman year. I found living at home & going to commuter flagship U did not meet my needs and did not help me enlarge my circle of friends. Everyone would just come to class & leave immediately after class. I rushed a sorority, which turned into a horrendous experience.</p>
<p>For me, transferring was awesome and the transition was wonderful. I was never homesick and did not miss being 2500 miles (5+ hour plane ride) from home. In the 2nd semester at flagship U, I had started to meet some kids thru 2 national honor societies, so that could have provided SOME socialization if the transfer hadn’t worked out.</p>
<p>For my D, transferring made perfect sense for similar reasons. The state flagship U is still largely a commuter school & she found it extremely difficult to really get to know classmates there. Her transition was very smooth and she’s very happy 2500 miles (5+ hour plane ride) from home; is happy her brother happens to be at same U, as are several of her close HS friends. Her new U also has majors that she finds fascinating.</p>
<p>It is true that some kids these days DO give up when hype doesn’t meet their expectations or similar issues. Kids with perserverance aren’t as common as we’d like with the channel surfers who are used to unlimited stimulation and variety. As many of us know, there are some virtues in sticking things out a bit. My niece had a rough transition from HI to the midwest, but she did stick it out & got a great education and ended up making some very lasting friendships. She’s graduating this spring after her 4 years there & is going on to the grad school of her choice with merit funding. She could easily have given up earlier, but she persisted and we all believe she’s stronger because of it!</p>
<p>I made it clear to D that if she was unhappy at her college that transferring was an option. Why spend four years being miserable? Of course, I also made it clear that she had to finish out the semester or year we had paid for and get the credits for it. </p>
<p>So far, she’s happy so it’s all theoretical anyway.</p>
<p>Actually, I knew more people who transferred among my own friends than among my children’s friends. </p>
<p>Among my high school classmates, quite a few started at out-of-state or private colleges and then transferred to colleges in our own state university system. Their rationale was either financial (the first school they picked was putting more of a strain on their family’s finances than they thought it would) or a combination of practical and financial (they didn’t like the first school and figured that they may as well finish college somewhere cheaper, regardless of whether they would like the cheaper school better).</p>
<p>What I do see among people in my kids’ generation is deliberate transferring – that is, competent students doing their first two years at a community college to save money and then going to our flagship state university or other colleges for the last two years. Two of my son’s apartment mates in his senior year (at the flagship state university) had transferred from community colleges, were doing well, and thought that their approach to college made enormous financial sense – which it does if your community college provides adequate preparation for upperclass courses.</p>
<p>I don’t know anyone in my own generation who made use of community college in that way. The people who went to community college were those who couldn’t get admitted anywhere else.</p>
<p>Where I lived it was totally different. Many of us who were good students in HS attended cc and then transferred and we did it to save money. We were baby boomers and a lot of us had 2 or 3 siblings in college at the same time.</p>
<p>We were fortunate because 1. The cc we had in our area was very good. and 2. There was no stigma attached to attending.</p>
<p>Come to think of it, many kids in CA also use CCs to save a lot of $$ and attend schools near part-time jobs and live at home to save a lot for the family & transfer to the 4-year school after having completed all the prelim work. I know several & it has worked well for them. It makes good economic sense and will still give them the degree so they can get the appropriate jobs. Personally, do know one kid who was miserably homesick & depressed at dream U in midwest & transferred back to in-state flagship U, where he got his engineering degree & job.</p>
<p>Wow, some of us are presumptuous & judgmental.</p>
<p>There are MANY reasons for transferring. My D transferred, and it is the best thing she ever did. My nephew transferred, and it was the right move for him. Their reasons for transferring were vastly different, and they were THE RIGHT REASONS … FOR THEM.</p>
<p>Yeesh. We don’t know the minds or hearts of others, particularly those we have never met or talked to. Let’s not be so harsh, lumping transfers into some group who expects too much, gives up too easily, etc.</p>
<p>I honestly don’t think the CC systems were nearly as good as they are today. I couldn’t even tell you where the closest CC was to my hometown of Pittsburgh. Now, a lot of them seem to have set up a nice little niche business as a “Transferrable” schools to do exactly what has been described above. They have schools that guarantee their credits will transfer. However, that’s not really the same thing as the OP opined.</p>
<p>I think transferring is a perfectly legitimate thing depending on why it is done. We have become much better consumers in general. But the student has to know exactly why they want to transfer. It has to be more than that “gut” feeling when they walked onto college campuses junior year of high school proclaiming they hate the place because the sky is blue. So when the OP suggests that her son is transferring to a very similar school but yet offers nothing concrete as to her son’s reasoning I look to her and think to ask, “then why are you agreeing to pay for it?” If a kid is thinking about transferring, I think a little reality check is in order and some detailed deconstructing of the problems. I really should have transferred from my original school once I decided I didn’t want to go into education, the options were limited and that was reflected by my lack of engagement in the classroom. By my junior year, I probably wouldn’t have been a great candidate for transfer regardless.</p>
<p>As others have said, sometimes there are very legitimate reasons a school is not what you expected and a transfer would be a very good decision. My brother complains a great deal about the lack of a work ethic in the young hires his very large company brings on. They expect raises for showing up and they don’t put much about themselves “on hold” in the expectation of getting ahead. They lack persistence and come off as entitled and spoiled. This is a guy (my bro) who transferred twice by the time he had his undergraduate degree AND was in the Navy for several years inbetween finishing his BA and MBA. Believe me, he is no quitter. So for this and several other examples, I don’t think one behavior guarantees the other in the least. You can be a brat no matter what you do in life! Bt knowing when to walk away is just as important as knowing when to stick around and fight.</p>
<p>Transferring has been common for decades. It’s silly to blame this generation for a pattern that’s been around forever. My mother (high school class of '59) spent a year at a state flagship before transferring to an elite private college – the flagship was willing to take her after her junior year of high school, so she enrolled in order to get started sooner.</p>
<p>I had a friend my freshman year at Harvard who transferred there from Swarthmore because Swarthmore was too small. After a year at Harvard she transferred right back to Swarthmore with a new appreciation for smallness!</p>
<p>My mother transferred three times, but that’s because she was following my Dad around. :)</p>
<p>Some give up too easily, some don’t try to make friends so the problem will exist at any school…</p>
<p>…but lastly, we’ve seen kids transfer due to mediocre academic performance (so parents refuse to keep paying), or because the family can no longer afford the costs for the child to “go away” to school.</p>
<p>And there is my D, who transferred because she learned some things in a freshman seminar that opened her eyes to what she truly wanted to do in life … and another school was a much better match for fulfilling the new aspirations than the school she currently attended. She has had opportunities as a result of her transfer that have been beneficial beyond anything she could have imagined. Freshman year was not a mistake, nor was the transfer to the new school. It was all necessary in the scheme of things. Oh … and the new school, with wildly great financial aid - even compared to the wonderful merit scholarship at the old school - has been less expensive (nice plus).</p>
<p>My nephew also changed his mind about what he wanted to do, but his biggest reason for switching schools was to be closer to home & friends. He switched junior year, and it has been a terrific switch for him … he is so much happier. That should count for something. New school is probably a tad less expensive (Georgia Hope scholarship, so just room & board to pay - and new school is in a lower-cost area).</p>
<p>Cost is a factor for most people I know. I work in financial aid at a school in a very economically depressed area of the country. We have gained students from other state schools this semester due to costs … they can live at home & save money, so students are moving back & coming to our school. </p>
<p>I honestly don’t know any students (personally) who have transferred without good reason. I know there are many … but my personal experience has not included students who transferred without good reason.</p>
<p>I’ve known two people who have transferred from my school and then transferred back the following year. I think decisions to transfer–and the reasons and wisdom or lack thereof beyond them–are very individual, so it’s hard to generalize.</p>
<p>Actually when that older generation found things they did not like, they did not always transfer–they overturned things–made changes, most of which are still in place today. Obviously since I’m here I can handle the technology just fine. Remember, we invented that too. We’re just a little more discriminating in the use and see no need to be texting others when we are with friends or eating dinner in a restaurant.</p>
<p>And If I went by what people here claim their kids do, there are no kids in college drinking, screwing people they just met, smoking a little weed, cutting class etc etc. Yeah right.</p>
<p>Barrons, your post makes me want to go off-topic about the giant computer that required a “man behind the curtain” to whom we gave our cards … and the typewriter-type devices we used for the stuff we could do ourselves … and laughing about the do-loops that were often don’t-loops … technology seemed to promote personal interaction, rather than inhibit it, back then!</p>
<p>I think this is a normal pattern now a days. It is the problem of right coaching and advice from parents. Also, some part of awareness level plays a big role in this. </p>
<p>Two people on my hall transferred after 1st semester because they both got Cs on their first biology test and they were both pre-med. They liked the school but had no intention of getting Cs. This was 30 years ago.</p>
<p>It’s silly to blithely compare non-docmented transfer rate stats. “Believing” more kids transfer now is just unsubstantiated opinion. I transfered thirty-something years ago, and my D transfered about ten years ago. Both of us assessed our situations and made rational decisions which led to much better outcomes.</p>
<p>If that’s a character-flaw, then obviously, it’s inherited. :)</p>
<p>Agree garland that we can’t know actual transfer rates, but it does seem like more kids transfer now than back in my day. My son transferred from his first school. When he was making this decision I wondered why I couldn’t remember many transfers when I was in college.</p>
<p>My totally unfounded conclusion is: today it is so much easier to find out information about other schools, check out their catalogs online, submit applications online. Maybe what discouraged many thirty years ago was the sheer hassle?</p>
She could easily have given up earlier, but she persisted and we all believe she’s stronger because of it!</p>