I am a senior in High School, and I will be attending Miami University in the fall. However, I do not like the university at all. I was accepted into my top 2 schools (William and Mary, Richmond), however, I cannot go because of financial reasons. As my parents were unable to say how much we can afford for college until after the application deadline passed, I was unable to apply to other schools I could afford. So I am going to Miami solely because of financial reasons, even though it is almost the exact opposite of the school I want to go to.
Despite my dislike of Miami, my parents will not let me transfer to a different school next year, regardless of the cost. I have even asked, hypothetically, if I could transfer to a different school if it was even cheaper than Miami, and they said no.
Do you guys have any suggestions of how to convince my parents to let me transfer next year?
I’m with your parents on this. You haven’t even started college yet. It’s a terrible idea to go into your first year focused on transferring. Go to Miami with an open mind, make friends, get involved. Miami is a great school with tons of opportunities.
Transfer students typically get far worse aid too so the likelihood that transferring will bring down costs is doubtful.
You make the best of it. Get great grades, prove you can do the work, and go to a college you like better for grad school. Plan to get involved, meet people and find ways to enjoy what th college has to offer. If you aren’t paying, there isn’t a lot you can do.
Do you have a good sense of what impeded your parents’ ability to determine how much they could pay for your education? Lots of parents are surprised by the cost of college, and many don’t know what they are ready, willing, and able to pay until after the admissions and aid packages have arrived. This causes problems like yours for their kids. But truly, the cost of college has skyrocketed, and it still shocks many of us who have been tracking it for years.
Your choices right now are to attend the university that your parents have agreed on and do your best to find ways to be happy there, or to take a gap year and apply again to a new, more affordable, list. You put this university on your application list for some reason, so there must have been something that you liked about it back at the beginning of the process.
If you truly cannot bear to attend this university, then you need to plan now for a gap year so that you can work up a new list of places to apply to that will definitely be within your parents’ budget and/or offer you a full-ride for merit so that you don’t need financial help from your parents at all. Freshman applicants get better financial aid than transfers do, so if money is an issue and you have good stats that could get you serious merit-based aid, a gap year is better than starting college this fall.
It seems to me that MiamiOH is a good, affordable alternative to W&M and Richmond - I can see how there could be things you like less about the size and setting, but to say that the environment is the opposite of those top choice schools seems overstated. What are you planning to study? What do you have in mind as a transfer school, that you would like better within your budget?
I would agree that if you are dead-set against going to Miami, taking a gap year and reapplying would probably put you in a more advantageous position for FA/merit than trying to transfer.
Are you interested in studying abroad? A strategy that worked well for my daughter, when she wasn’t sure about possibly wanting to transfer, was to get started in her first year on planning to go abroad sophomore spring. That allowed her to give her school a fair chance for three semesters, while having the time abroad to look forward to, and knowing that if she decided to do transfer applications, she could submit them before going abroad and plan on a fresh start upon her return. As it turned out, she found a major she liked and put down roots socially and decided not to transfer; but keeping that option open while taking advantage of study abroad under her merit scholarship allowed her to feel good about committing to a “trial period” without feeling stuck. And maybe your parents would feel more open to the transfer discussion if you agree to revisit the question after you’ve made a good faith effort to make things work for a full year at Miami, rather than starting your college experience with one foot already out the door.
What less expensive other colleges are you interested in?
Seems like if you really want to transfer, you may want to investigate whether starting at a community college and living at home during that time would cost even less than attending a four year college that you do not want to attend.
In general I think it is a terrible idea to start one college with the intent of transferring out. This will stand in the way of your making meaningful friendships, developing relationships with professors, and getting involved on campus. Then if your transfer doesn’t work out as planned you will be really stuck. I’d go to the college you enrolled in with the intent of staying all four years. It is fine to throw in a couple of transfer applications but don’t count on it working out.
On top of that transfer students rarely get strong financial aid packages so since money is an issue you are unlikely to match the offer you have received as a freshman. You are not alone – finances are part of the decision package for most students.
There are thousands of people all over the US and the world who would give almost anything for the chance to attend a 4 year university in the US. Go in with a positive attitude and make the most of your opportunity.
Since the universities are in two different states and the reasons are financial, I’m assuming you live in OH and your parents are refusing to pay out of state tuition. That’s the only logical reason. Good for them! You had the grades to get into W&M and Richmond, so I’m thinking that you got so hung-up on your college choices, you didn’t bother to apply anywhere else in-state except MiamiOH…because your parents made you do it. You had the grades to get into Cincinnati, Akron, OSU, and OhioU.
You really don’t have anyone else to blame for your college options except yourself. Your choices are MiamiOH or community college for a year and transfer to another in-state school. Out of state was never an option. Finances are a precondition before even applying to a school. There’s no way to make these VA schools affordable, because your parents aren’t going to pay for them.
@coolguy40 I’m actually from PA, and applied to Miami solely because I got a postcard that said because my SAT was so high I had the chance to get merit money. I know how much my parents make after taxes, and after in-depth research, it appeared to me that my family should be able to afford a $40k a year college. But I was wrong, which was mostly my mistake (I say mostly not because I am saying my parents should have more money, but because they were unable to give me an estimate of what we could pay for college). Due to my presumption, I applied to prestigious colleges I thought I could afford, and then Miami as a major fallback. Had I known how much my family could afford, I would have applied to cheaper colleges that I would still have liked. Which is what I would like to do now because I 1) know how much my family can afford and 2) do not like Miami.
Take a gap year and create a new list.
This seems like a bad story that keeps getting worse…
From the sounds of it you weren’t following a good college application strategy which would have included (1) finding out what your parents could afford by having them fill out a free FAFSA estimator and then seeing if they could pay that amount (2) focusing first on finding a safety that you wanted to attend and could afford instead of just sending off an app as an afterthought
I point this out to suggest that maybe, just maybe, you should reconsider your decision that you need to transfer. Perhaps you still don’t know all there is to know about college.
I don’t doubt that Miami may not be as great a fit as you wanted, but like many HS kids you are casting things in black-or-white terms. Most adults find that life falls on a continuum. Even if Miami is not your first choice it seems unlikely that in each and every aspect it is “the exact opposite” of what you want, and that your preferred elements are not to be found even in a small degree there.
But maybe you’re right, it is completely wrong for you. In that case take a gap year, apply more carefully, get a job to earn some money or sign up for some volunteer work that interests you. Be careful about enrolling in any classes at a community college (people may suggest this to “keep your hand in”) without checking first at colleges you’d consider that it won’t force you to apply as a xfer student. I don’t know the rules in PA where you live or what other colleges you may be considering, but I know that out here in CA you’d have to apply as a xfer to the state schools.
My advice…if you don’t want to go to MiamiOH, then take a year at community college and transfer somewhere else. That’s the choice you have. Make sure cost is a precondition before applying to a college, otherwise you’re only going to make yourself angry wanting something you can’t have. Being happy at a school is more a matter of adaptability and choice. You can be happy and bubbly at MiamiOH, Penn State or Pitt. It’s your choice.
Miami said you could get merit…but was that as a freshman? Is that still the case because usually transfers don’t get merit aid.
OP is going to be a freshman at Miami in Ohio, known to give huge merit to many middle of the road students.
Miami in Ohio has strengths, though, depends a lot on what the OP wants to study. Miami Ohio has a great deal of Greek life and parties as its in a remote Ohio town. Its known for good psychology, good English, and solid business analytics. Its an older school that has a small and relatively unknown engineering program thats in the shadow of Ohio State, and Case Western. I would say its better to do freshman year at Miami than a community college where you will not tend to meet top caliber students. Since you got a good merit package, you will also meet other scholarship students at Miami. If you earn all As at Miami, your chances for transfer are probably better than if you get As at Community college, unless you are from California, which has guaranteed programs that transition students to a bigger 4 year program. I am guessing you are from the midwest though.
Looks like the OP is from Pennsylvania (based on reply #9), where the community colleges do not appear to be that good options (the transfer pathway to the flagship schools more commonly starts at expensive branch campuses), and the in-state publics are expensive with poor in-state financial aid.
So if the OP is in Miami Ohio with a good scholarship, that probably is the best choice for now. However, if paying out-of-state list price, it may not be as attractive a choice.
I’d be looking at that NACAC list.
@bobthorton - What are your parents willing to pay? If you take a gap year and apply to other places with that in mind, what is the likelihood that your grades and test scores will get you in?
What are your stats?
Why do you dislike MiamiOh?
What is your major and career goal?
How much will MiamiOh costs your parents each year?
Your parents seem to either realize that transfers won’t get a better aid pkg or they don’t want you going too far away.
@mom2collegekids 1510 SAT, 4.4 GPA
It is too big, in Ohio, a party school that focuses on sports more than what I would like, and not near a seat of government (State/National). I would much rather be near DC.
Political Science/Economics, I want to either go into law or government.
$30,000
I may not be able to get a better aid package, but they are simply not letting me even have a chance to try and transfer to see what I can get.