I was thinking that I want to stay in NYC. But I still want the college experience so I was thinking if I were to get into Boston University, I could go for a year or a year and a half and transfer back to nyc in time to rent a room in an apartment with one my friends. Have you done this? Is this a bad idea? I’ll save a lot of money.
Say what? Boston University costs over $70,000 a year in cost of attendance. If you can full pay that for a year and a half…you should be able to start at a CUNY school from the get go…if you are from NY…are you?
BU does not guarantee to meet full need for all.
A coupleof weeks ago, you wrote this…
So…what happened?
Your other threads seem to imply you are caught up in the prestige of the schools. There is a HUGE price difference between Boston University and your instate choices. Who is paying?
That makes no sense whatsoever. You can either return to NYC after you graduate or attend a college in NYC. Plenty of schools in NY provide the traditional college experience.
Totally agree. Your plan makes NO sense. None.
It’s just that something came up and I really want to be in NYC and CUNYs sound a bit appealing atm. What do you think of Baruch? CUNYs are extremely cheap and if I start with an expensive college and transfer somewhere cheap, it might end up being a decent price overall.
How bout if you think smart.
If you plan to get you degree from a CUNY or SUNY school…start at a CUNY or SUNY school and forget about Boston University, or wherever.
If you attend BU for 1 1/2 years, it will cost you roughly $100,000…and you will still have 2 1/2 more years to go…and that’s assuming all your credits transfer.
No one…NO ONE will ever know…or care that you spent your first 1 1/2 years at some expensive college because your degree will NOT be from that college. It will be from the CUNY or SUNY from which you graduate.
I’m not sure why you think this goofy plan is a good one…at all. Frankly, if you plan to transfer anyway, you are wasting a LOT of money attending an OOS/Private University.
You are instate for CUNY and SUNY schools, and they are good options. Go there for all four years…get your bachelors.
Then move to Boston or go to grad school there.
Or just stay in NY which it sounds like you want to do anyway.
This isn’t a very good idea. It will cost more than a CUNY, you’d have to start over socially, your credits may not all transfer so you might end up paying for an extra year, you won’t have longer term relationships with profs who could write you recs later for jobs or grad school.
A terrible idea IMO. It would be an absolute waste of money. Why would you spend $100,000 to get intro level classes done at an expensive school you have no plans to graduate from?
You have another post saying you don’t like the colleges you applied to (although i thought you were still seriously considering SUNY Buffalo and UMass). You also indicated that finances were a consideration (I thought you mentioned that Temple was not affordable). So I’m not sure where you will get the funds to either: 1) attend BU for a year and a half or 2) rent an apartment in NYC with a friend (you need earnings at 40x monthly rent or a guarantor with earnings 80x monthly rent to qualify to rent an apartment in NYC).
Also understand that transferring is not ideal I would not recommend that anyone start at a college with the intent of transferring out. You may lose credits, you will need to start over in an environment when your peers are already settled in, you will have to work hard to break into already established social groups etc.
Many people want to live in large cities. My general advice for people who want this is to get an undergrad degree somewhere affordable, try to take a semester/year abroad or in an urban school that has a program with your home college, and then look to get a job in a major city after graduation. Deferred gratification is part of adult life.
If you don’t want to attend a school you have been accepted to and can afford then I would suggest taking a gap year and re-applying to a different set of schools. Focus on academics, affordability, and location. Perhaps a CUNY school with a dorm would work.
I think that a far better plan would be to attend CUNY (or another in-state option such as one of the SUNY’s), but plan to take a year abroad in either your sophomore or junior year. I am not familiar with the exchange program at CUNY, but the ones that I have looked at offered by other schools are quite good and offer quite a few options.
Why don’t you go to Stony Brook? That should be affordable on your parents’ $30k/year budget. You can always apply to transfer to a CUNY school instead in a year or two.
Perhaps this indecision as evidenced by several of your threads is a blessing in disguise. Your challenge is to make a sound decision that you aren’t going to dislike next week or next month, and for students in this position taking some time off can be beneficial.
Maybe consider a gap semester/year…work, save some money, think about what you want from life. Then, apply to Baruch for spring semester 2020, and/or apply to other schools for Fall 2020.
And to answer your initial post, going to BU then transferring is not a good idea from both a financial and a practical perspective.
In addition to what’s already been said, there is typically less financial aid available to transfer students.
You really sound very conflicted. (Based on your other thread as well). Maybe a gap year isn’t a bad idea.
You don’t want to put yourself in a situation where indecision and transferring costs you more time and money.
FWIW, have you considered starting at a community college and then transferring? That would make sense economically. Not what you are suggesting.
@CalinAmry so where HAVE you already been accepted…? Because Boston University and Syracuse have early decision only as an early option…if you got accepted to either of these early decision (oh…and you could only apply to one ED) you would have made your commitment already.
If you applied regular decision to BU or Syracuse, you haven’t been accepted…yet.
You claim to have been accepted to Temple but didn’t like that because of your view of low prestige, and it’s urban location.
And this has been asked numerous times…who is paying your college bills? You have BU and Syracuse on your list…two schools that are in the $70,000 a year range.
You need to DROP your “prestige” thing and look at where YOU can get a college education, be able to afford the costs, and so forth.
At this point, I would suggest you wait until all your admissions decisions are in…and financial aid packages. If you really don’t “like” any of these schools, then take a gap year and start looking again.
But don’t make prestige your number one criteria…at all.
What are your SAT or ACT scores? What is your HS GPA?
No…you won’t save money by going to BU for a year or year and a half.
What if I transfer from a school after a year to a NYC school? It’s obvious I change my mind a lot, I know, you don’t think I know? I constantly change my mind and I don’t have much interest in most of my colleges anymore even though I initially did. Also, I mentioned my stats and what schools I got into already. Maybe not to a CUNY, but maybe I could transfer to NYU or some other school in the city.
I obviously already dropped the prestige thing, I literally just said I am thinking of applying to a CUNY.
Let me rephrase this. Cuz believe it or not, I am thinking very hard about my future. But how about going to a college away from the city and then applying to a college in the city as a transfer sophomore?
How are you going to afford NYU? They are already super stingy with aid, and even more so for transfers. Is your budget still $30K/year?
It’s also even more competitive to transfer at some schools than applying as a freshman.
I just think it’s a terrible idea to go into college assuming you are going to transfer. It will set you up to be unhappy and not truly get involved.
Again, if you hate the schools you have applied to, take a gap year, and really spend time researching a new list.
If you think you’ll just have the same problem with indecisiveness next year, pick the school that is most palatable to you right now and give it your all.
You aren’t picking a spouse here or enlisting in the military. You are picking a college and if I recall, you had really good options already on the table. You are talking 4 years of your life. It will go by in the blink of an eye.
Transferring is less than ideal, to say the least. CUNYs can be stingy about what earned credits they will accept, even from prestigious schools. So you may end up taking some classes and then not getting credit for them. Just pick a school you can afford and can live with for 4 years. It doesn’t have to be perfect.
Why go to a college with the intent of transferring after one year? You won’t be as invested as other students, and will spend a good deal of time your second semester completing all of your transfer applications. Why do that? That does not sound like getting ‘the college experience’ that you referenced in your original post.
Further, your financial budget will limit the schools you can transfer to, as transfers generally receive lower levels of financial aid, and many schools do not meet full need for transfers.
If you are talking about transferring to a school that will cost you less than your annual budget (maybe a CUNY or SUNY?), that could work financially IF all of your credits from your initial college transfer, that is a big IF.
If your credits don’t transfer it may be difficult for you to graduate in 4 years, which will end up costing you time and money. And the money is not insignificant…at least another semester of paying for classes PLUS the lost wages of the job you didn’t get because you couldn’t graduate in 4 years.