<p>I remember lurking on this site way back during the college app days. I'm now a freshman at NYU in CAS and my first semester is going...well, it's not exactly going as well as I'd hoped it to be. NYU wasn't originally my first choice, but it was in my top three and it happened to be the school that gave me the most financial aid. So voila, I'm here. I've been thinking about transferring to my small hometown university (UNH) ever since week one and I'm not completely sure about whether or not I should. I know it's a big jump from the oh-so-prestigious NYU to a university that isn't that well-known... Help a kid out, please? :)</p>
<p>Reasons for wanting to transfer:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>I've always wanted to go into the medical field but the HUGE 600 people chemistry class has basically scared me away from premed so I'm having a bit of an identity crisis. I can't really learn that well just by listening/falling asleep to lectures and trying to decipher the TA's accent-riddled explanations. I asked a friend who's taking chem at UNH and she said the class was around 200.. about the same size as my smallest class here (which I happen to love, it's anthropology). >> Is going to a less-prestigious school and getting better grades more beneficial than floundering at a name brand university when it comes to getting into med school? <<</p></li>
<li><p>The tuition is insanely expensive for a school where 3 out of my 4 classes suck. And I'm pretty sure it's going to get more expensive from here, considering I'm in the cheapest housing at NYU. With the financial aid and scholarships, the cost is bearable (barely) but I'm not sure if it's worth my money. Would it be better to save up for grad school?</p></li>
<li><p>UNH is closer to home, so I won't have to deal with the 8-hour, expensive bus rides during holiday weekends.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Reasons against transferring:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Living in the city is amazing (when I don't hate the honking in the early hours)</p></li>
<li><p>The extracurriculars and the people I've met are great</p></li>
<li><p>I love my job (America Reads)</p></li>
<li><p>Graduating from NYU would look better than "UNH ALUMNI"</p></li>
<li><p>I've heard transferring is a huge hassle and it's awkward 'fitting in'</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Sorry for the massive post. I needed to get that off my chest...any advice? Are my concerns valid? Or am I just being a baby? :(</p>
<p>You’re concerns are completely valid and I think you should seriously consider transferring. </p>
<p>In the grand scheme of things, undergraduate school name matters very little (this is especially true if you are premed). Also, and I don’t mean to offend you or anyone else at NYU, the jump from NYU to UNH isn’t that significant in terms of prestige. </p>
<p>If you gave me the choice between the two schools, I would be at UNH in a heartbeat. Of course, I’m not a city person at all and I’m from Maine so it would be close to home, but I still think very highly of UNH in terms of academics. </p>
<p>I suspect there is more sense of community at UNH and the entire experience would be more enjoyable than NYU. You’d also be closer to home, which I think is a huge benefit. If you already have some high school friends at UNH, they can help with the transition in terms of meeting people and fitting in. </p>
<p>Certainly weigh your options and talk to other people about your decision, but don’t feel like you’re a “baby” or need to “suck it up.” 8-hour bus rides, 800-student lectures, and early-morning honking doesn’t sound like a great college experience to me. Of course, I tend to prefer the campus-based college life to the city, and you say you enjoy the city, so do realize I’m a bit biased. </p>
<p>I transferred into NYU and my best friend is graduating as an anthropology major. Once you get out of the core MAP classes, your class size decreases dramatically. Her classes have around two dozen people, and very often do not have a TA, but a professor. I can’t speak for pre-med, but I know that for liberal arts majors, class sizes decrease as you take upper-division courses. However, your other concerns are valid re: finances and city life.</p>
<p>I would wait out the full year before considering transferring. You can still file for transfer to UNH and then reevaluate after your decision comes in. It’s only October! I would also see what your classes are like next semester - try to register for a smaller class and see how you like it.</p>
<p>If you are not outgoing, transferring CAN be awkward, but it isn’t always.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice! I definitely haven’t made a decision yet since it’s pretty early in the year and I have until April anyways…but I figured I’d ask about it. </p>
<p>culater21, no offense taken I was being a little sarcastic since NYU promotes itself as one of the top schools in the US when it’s only several majors within it that are REALLY good. A bunch of my HS friends are at UNH so that’d be nice, and I’d be able to watch [good] hockey again… argh I hate being fickle haha</p>
<p>missamericanpie, I’d totally stay here if being an anthropologist was my career goal since I love even the big intro class, but the thing is, all the premed required classes (aka the ones important to my future career) are going to be gigantic lectures. Chem is currently held in Skirball, which isn’t exactly the typical classroom environment…</p>
<p>“NYU wasn’t originally my first choice, but it was in my top three and it happened to be the school that gave me the most financial aid.”</p>
<p>Does this mean that NYU would be less expensive for you than UNH? If so, you would need to take that into consideration.</p>
<p>Give yourself a bit more time. Perhaps what you need to do is complete a degree in Anthropology at NYU, and then pick up the pre-med coursework on the cheap at UNH after you finish college. I know several people who did things like that, and they were much happier overall than if they’d struggled through giant lecture classes for the pre-med series.</p>
<p>Haha, if you need a smack then I do too, as I’m in a very similar position. I go to Northwestern in Evanston, IL right now, but I am from Maryland, right outside of Washington, D.C. Northwestern was in my top three as well but not my top choice, and was the farthest school I applied to from my home (12 hrs driving). I got into my top choice (Cornell) but it ended up that Northwestern gave me a LOT more money, and it was actually more affordable than my state school (UMD). </p>
<p>Now that I’m here, however, I’m finding the distance to be a huge annoyance for a variety of reasons. I know that, obviously, tons of people come from all over here and are fine with the distance, but my family’s pretty broke and the transportation expenses are ridiculous, and I always have to choose the cheapest options (i.e. the crappiest). There are other reasons I don’t like the distance personally… like when I was just this past week really sick with the flu and wanted to go home and get to a real doctor. Also, this sounds like such a bad reason but it’s pretty important for me… I’ve been with my boyfriend for 7 years on and off (since we were practically kids) and being this far away from him (he’s at VT) is worse than I had ever imagined. I can only see him like every three months… </p>
<p>I’m starting to seriously considering transferring to UMD like you are to UNH, but I too am worried about the drop in prestige, which I know sounds really stupid and pretentious and it probably doesn’t even matter that much… Anyway, sorry to like hijack your thread with this long post but I feel you and I’m curious to hear other posters’ opinions!</p>
<p>If you plan on going to Med school I would go to the cheapest school possible to save money. I think your overall GPA and MCAT scores along with whatever requirements for med school are more important then just the name.</p>
<p>shnokabel, no offense or anything but your boyfriend is probably cheating on you so i wouldnt get to upset about missing him. I dont get why anyone goes to college with a boyfriend/girlfriend at home or another school as its more bagge you DONT need when youre trying to buckle down and focus (if thats what youre trying to do anyways…)</p>
<p>Haha, well I do understand your broad judgment of long-distance relationships as I’ve seen MANY go that way, but our relationship isn’t like that (I know him preeeetty well after seven years of dating, and we’re incredibly close). There is no “cheating” because we are allowing each other to explore and we have an agreement that we can do whatever we want with other people, which I guess you could call “cheating.” It’s a completely open relationship. However, neither of us have a CHOICE of whether we may get upset about missing each other, and we both do extraordinarily miss each other. We’re doing everything we can to see each other more often but it’s expensive at this distance. </p>
<p>We weren’t simply going to break up after all these years because college came up, and so far we haven’t been the “baggage” to each other that most people think long-distance relationships are. We trust each other so it’s actually really easy to maintain and we just talk when we’re not busy with other things. I know it’s hard to understand because most relationships like this DON’T work well. (/off-topic post)</p>
<p>I wanna transfer to NYU so bad, its right in the middle of nyc, and i love nyc so much! I wish i were there right now haha dont miss it after you’ve transferred.</p>
<p>Whoa, I completely forgot about this thread for a while haha</p>
<p>happymomof1: What I meant was that NYU was the most financially feasible out of my top three - UNH was BY FAR the cheapest since I got a scholarship and my dad works there…I’d be paying around $4000 for tuition and maybe $4000 per year for housing. Which is really nice when taking into consideration I’m paying $30000+ for NYU per year.</p>
<p>shnokabel: Ugh, I totally agree on the cheap modes of transportation thing. I generally take the cheap $15 Chinatown buses and they’re so crowded it’s crazy. Traveling on I-95 to Boston on the Friday before Columbus day was ridiculous, it took us 3 hours just to get out of the city. I can’t imagine having to drive 12 hours…</p>
<p>relish12: Not to be a pessimist or anything, but make sure you absolutely LOVE the city (and the side affects of living in a city; i.e. insanely expensive groceries, people badgering you for cash at every street corner, loud traffic in the early morning, etc.) before coming here. I was so naive when I was applying in thinking that I’d be going to Broadway shows every night and going sightseeing all the time…nope. Those were just thoughts of someone living in the woods who learned about NY through watching How I Met Your Mother (not really, but you get the point). Unless you have lots of money in the bank, it’s tough and you get jaded with city life pretty quickly. BUT it is a great city overall and NYU is in a great area. Just a friendly reminder of things to keep in mind If you’re applying for Stern or Tisch, go for it, but if it’s CAS then I would not be so quick to make a decision.</p>
<p>I’m a stern freshman at NYU, and I have already made the decision to transfer, I’m going back to the University of Washington in Seattle (my hometown) for at least the next semester. NYU is soooo glamorized, and they make it seem like the city can substitute for a community, for a campus, for school spirit; and it cannot. </p>
<p>I know a lot of people who are transferring, I mean don’t forget NYU is on the least happiest student’s list from princeton review</p>
<p>Go wherever you will be happiest, it’s just undergrad work</p>
<p>Haha I know what NYC’s like pretty much, I spent a month there before coming to upstate New York, and despite all the extravagant prices, noise, rush, I actually love that kind of atmosphere rather than a town-college with nothing but the college campus. I actually grew up in a city pretty much like a scaled down version of NYC and pretty much loved it as well.</p>
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<p>Is that true!? Like the part on happiest student’s list from princeton review? I am currently studying in a school that should technically be the epitome of ‘college community, campus, school spirit’ because theres simply nothing around except the college campus and its events, and honestly, its definitely not as made out as it was previously. I enjoy the rush and multitude of different things to do with different people that a city brings, rather than struggle to find something out of the ordinary to do in a village-college life that I think people assume have the most ‘community spirit’.</p>
<p>Hehe that rant was a little intense. I have a pretty bad love-hate relationship with the city (and NYU) and I guess yesterday was one of my off days. Dealing with screaming middle schoolers all day = not a calming experience. If you’ve lived in a city before, you’re much more prepared than I was Just make sure your major of choice has a good reputation here, and don’t go premed if you hate 600-person lectures.</p>
<p>floridaorngjuice: I agree on the whole school spirit thing (did anyone actually go to Tear It Up events?), but I actually haven’t had too many problems with the sense of community because there’s so many clubs. It was kinda funny to see the transition from welcome week craziness to having barely any events though.</p>
<p>Lolll I’m actually a business administration major and premed, as for the 600 people sized lectures i’m rather impartial, but its definitely going to be hard to get close relationships with professors. I can only apply for transfer in Fall 2011, and the wait is killing me!!!</p>
I was being a little sarcastic since NYU promotes itself as one of the top schools in the US when it’s only several majors within it that are REALLY good. A bunch of my HS friends are at UNH so that’d be nice, and I’d be able to watch [good] hockey again… argh I hate being fickle haha</p>
Anyway, sorry to like hijack your thread with this long post but I feel you and I’m curious to hear other posters’ opinions!</p>
I can’t imagine having to drive 12 hours…</p>