I am currently debating if transferring after my freshman year is worth it. My two choices are either going to my dream school that I will not be able to afford after the first year or go to another school that isn’t the best fit for me or who does not have a strong science program. Just FYI my goal is to go to med school so science is very important to me. I just wanted input to see how hard was the transition and making friends/connections after transferring your freshman year?
I did it years ago.
The administrative issues were not that difficult to deal with. But socially I found that most social groups are formed up during freshman year and it can be sort of hard to break in as a transfer student. Especially if you don’t have a hook like a sorority or fraternity or sports team to join. You will have to be much more aggressive about making friends and joining groups then you would as a freshman when the school kind of does a lot of that for you naturally.
Were you only admitted to these two places? Do you have any other options at all? How are you going to feel when you have to leave that dream institution when your cash runs out? If you burn through that much money in one year, how are you going to afford the next three?
No to mention of course, that right now the chance that you really will be on the dream institution’s campus for the full academic year look pretty slim. How will you feel about shelling out that money, and not having the experience you want from your laptop in your bedroom at home?
It is OK to take a gap year and revisit the whole college application thing. It is OK to enroll at your local community college, and then transfer (maybe even to the dream institution) in two years.
How bad is the science program at not-dream? Has that place never ever sent anyone to med school?
It is always hard to opine without the names of the schools but here are a few comments:
–It is a terrible idea to start at a school without a firm plan in place to afford all four years. You cannot count on money just showing up down the road.
– In general I also 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
– Transferring after a year may make it more difficult to find an affordable school. It can be very difficult to get merit aid as a transfer student.
–My recommendation would be to; 1) go to the affordable school with the intent of staying all four years. It is hard to believe that an accredited college would not have a science program that is at least competent (you can always look to supplement by doing research with a professor or something like that) or 2) take a gap year and reapply to a group of schools that appear affordable (run net price calculator) and that you feel could be a better fit.
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I agree with @happy1 that it is a terrible idea to start at a university if you are not going to be able to afford a full four years there. I think that you need to look at the acceptances that you have in hand and discard the ones that you cannot afford to attend for a full four years. Then look at what schools are remaining.
Spending a lot of money for a freshman year at a university that you cannot graduate from is a waste of money. Of course there is even some risk that classes in September might start off on-line, making it an even bigger waste of money.
If you are taking premed classes at any university, you should expect classes to be more difficult than you are anticipating and your fellow students to be stronger than you are anticipating. You would be surprised how many very strong students are attending “average” universities. Many of the stronger students will start off as premed. You can attend an “average” university, start in a premed class, discover that the first midterm is brutal with a class average of 45, and one quiet kid that you never noticed in the back of the class will be sitting there with a 95.
Usually it is also a bad idea to even have a “dream” school.
I do not think that there is much more that we can say without having the names of the schools.
@happy1 @DadTwoGirls Both make strong points. OP, we need more context to make an informed suggestion or opinion. I will say this… I am a former transfer. Went from a solid albeit not spectacular school to a T20 school. I’m happy. It worked. But, it’s not the easiest thing in the world. Credits may not transfer, going into a new location, feeling you are starting over again and socially it isn’t easy. My best advice is if you transfer do it for the right reasons and be truthful about whether you are going to CONCLUSIVELY get more out of the new school. For me, it was easy, because even if socially things were difficult, I upgraded in schools by a significant margin. I could point to that as my reason and sleep well at night knowing the struggles eventually pass and that I made the right decision even if it was hard being new and having to make new friends. That is an important thing to consider.
ALSO… wherever you transfer… you bring YOURSELF. The same attitude, problems and outlook come with you to a new school.
Again, I’m happy, would do it over again if I had to and made a good decision. Doesn’t mean it was easy, and certainly doesn’t mean everyone should do it. Certainly not as many as currently do.
@happy1 @DadTwoGirls @irish2022 y’all all make good points. I think what really has me scared per say is that my “dream school” is the only school that I actually got to tour and research about. I was gonna tour the other schools I got into but everything kinda took a turn with corona. I just don’t want to have that feeling of regret if I went to another school and were to keep telling myself that maybe I would be happier if I had gone to my dream school. And because I don’t really know much about the other schools I’m kinda pointing a blind finger and just picking one if I do choose to not go to my dream school. So that is why I’m back at the thought that maybe transferring is worth it because at least it would give me the chance to really learn and know about other potential schools if I do in fact don’t get enough money . Or maybe I should just take that leap of faith and go to another school than my dream school.
Simply put your dream school is unaffordable so you need to take that out of consideration. Most people do have to to take finances into account when choosing a college and many people can’t attend their dream school due to affordability. You need to move off of that dream school and focus on options your family can afford.
There are ways to try and research schools – many have online events, you can go through the websites and look at courses/professors in your areas of interest, you can look at the school newspapers online to try and get a sense of what campus life is like, you can contact the health advising group and see if there are people to speak with etc. I know the corona situation makes things difficult but do the work and make the best and most informed decision you can under the circumstances rather than just “point a blind finger” towards a college.
And never forget how many people in this world would do almost anything to go to a 4 year college in the US.