<p>I go to a top tier school, and I intend to apply to Brown, NYU, BU, Amherst, Stanford, and UPenn.
Including my AP's I have 44 credit hours so far, and after this semester I'll have 60 credit hours total. Would it hurt me to leave in the middle of the year? I honestly despise my school, and my general happiness has gone up ever since I even considered transferring.</p>
<p>Pros:
I could live with my sister in Boston and check out the area, see if I like it.
I would work full-time and save money for when I get back to school
I would be away from this horrible university</p>
<p>Cons:
I was undecided on my major, so I only have two classes under my major</p>
<p>What are some unexpected cons to taking the semester off? It's a little hard for me to find reasons NOT to leave, but I want to make sure I'm making an educated decision.</p>
<p>ALSO, some of the colleges I mentioned do accept spring transfers. Is it easier or harder to transfer in the fall or the spring?</p>
<p>Do you have student loans from your previous school?
If so MAJOR con, having to start paying back your loans, because your grace period will run up before attending school full time again ( to them it will appear you dropped out) …I went half time just to avoid this after talking to someone about my stafford loans…food for thought.</p>
<p>What if you don’t get into any of your transfer schools? Can you take a leave of absence just in case?</p>
<p>I’m not sure about numbers for spring vs. fall transfer, but it might be easier socially to transfer in the fall when there are more entering students, both fr and transfer.</p>
<p>Brown is where I really want to go, Stanford and UPenn are my reach schools, and BU is my safety. Because Amherst and NYU are so unique (and stark opposites of each other), I want to check them out first.</p>
<p>What I really want to do is live in the Boston area so that I can compare each school. I don’t think that a weekend visit would be enough to get the feel of the social environment, and I want to make sure that I can be happy during my time in college–something that I failed to do when first choosing colleges.</p>
<p>I already know that I don’t want to return. I want to know whether staying or leaving for one more semester would be more beneficial for me.</p>
<p>Do you think that I could contact my loan servicer and see if I can extend my grace period?</p>
<p>Yes you definitely could contact them, all you have to do is ask if it can be extended, but some places are more strict than others and it’s definitely a factor to include.</p>
<p>Are you planning to apply for FA? Hopefully you know that B is need-aware for transfers and states that it has limited FA for transfer students.</p>
<p>I realize. But I’m not asking about whether or not I should transfer, or where I should go, or whether that school will accept me; I’m asking if there are specific reasons why I should not take the spring semester off.</p>