Confused About Transferring Out of NYU

Colleges and Universities A-Z New York University
1

I am currently a sophmore in Tisch School of the Arts studying Film and TV. I sometimes think and fantasize about transferring to USC School of Cinematic Arts, and these are the reasons:

  1. Social Life:
    In my freshmen year, i absolutely hated NYU. I felt extremely lonely. I am an international student and living so much far away from home on top of barely having anyone to hang out or talk to was really hard. NYU is a really big school and there are literally no resources to meet people. Even in your residence halls. I had two friends that I was somewhat close with, and it wasn’t until the end of the second semester I made my group of friends. Now I love them, I hang out with them all the time, however, sometimes I feel like NYU is still making me feel lonely in some ways, and I am scared I will regret paying all this money to a college I am not even fully happy with. If I go to USC will I be happier/ More friends/ More social college life?

2)Academics
I study Film and TV concentrated on animation, but I feel like NYU puts more emphasis on live action filmmaking rather than animation. I wanna go to a school where I can put much more emphasis on animation and actually meet people who are passionate about animation, rather than people taking animation classes here because it “sounds fun and cool.”

3)Weather and Location
I hate NY weather it is too cold and I get extremely depressed when its super cold. Moreover, all the animation industry is in LA and I feel like it would be a better opportunity for me to study there.

Concerns:

Scholarship:
My first choice was USC while applying to colleges but I ED1 to NYU to higher up my scholarship chances, since I’ve heard that USC doesn’t really give out a lot of scholarships to international students. I have about 20,000$ scholarship in NYU now and I am afraid that if I get into USC they won’t give me any scholarship.

Friends:
I actually love my friends here now and the thought of leaving them makes me very scared. I barely had friends like them in high school, they are the coolest and the sweetest. I met all of them end of the second semester on my freshmen year and now I am on my first semester of my sophomore year. I haven’t made any other friends besides them though, and I want to make more, but I feel like it is impossible to do so in NYU. I also have a boyfriend here that I have been dating for a year now and I don’t want to leave him as well.

Location:
I actually really like New York and the fact that it is our campus. I will probably move to California after some point since all the animation industry is there, that is if I decide to stay and graduate from NYU. Is it a good opportunity to live your college life here?

Professors:
I’ve actually made really strong relationships with my professors here and I feel like that is one of the strongest points of NYU, networking. I am scared that if I go to USC I will not be able to make connections like these with my professors.

My biggest concern is going to NYU for 4 years and then looking back in my adult life and thinking I made a big mistake by paying all this money and staying at a school I am not fully with/ have doubts about. I know I am ranting too much but I wanted to be honest and I am very confused. What should I do?

2

There’s a old saying that the Grass Is Always Greener on the other side of the Fence. What it means is even if you’re in a good situation a different situation will always looks a little bit better. If you had gone to USC you might now be wondering whether you wouldn’t have been better off at NYU.

My advice to you is to stop thinking about the pros and cons and really ask yourself: which school do you want to have a degree from? If the answer is USC and you want it badly enough to leave your friends at NYU then apply for transfer. You don’t have to accept the transfer offer if they don’t offer you a scholarship large enough to make it possible.

In terms of your questions of which school will give you better opportunities in the future, you need to understand animators and filmmakers come to LA from all over, one good school isn’t going to give you enormous leg up over another. There might be marginal differences between the contacts you’d make at one vs the other but ultimately it’s going to be up to you to make the opportunities regardless of what school you go to. IMO the most important thing is for you to stop second-guessing your past decisions, commit to one school and devote yourself to getting the most out of your experience at that school. Don’t waste 4 years on thoughts of what you should have done differently.

3

With what you’ve said I don’t think it would do a lot for you to transfer to USC. Also like you said, you already have friends, you’ve established networking at NYU. If there’s nothing outstandingly wrong about NYU I would not transfer. Or worst case(if you really wanna scratch that itch) just submit a transfer app, see if you get in and then by the end of this year you can decide what you really wanna do.