<p>I'm a student at Ohio State, and I have a full ride. Basically, every quarter, they give me $2000 extra to buy books and spend the rest as I see fit. But, I've gotten to wondering if I should transfer. I was considering Penn, Cornell, Georgetown, and Northwestern. If I got in to any of those, should I leave the comfort of a fat stipend at a respected school to go to an elite school where I'd have to pay?</p>
<p>No, save the money and go there for Grad school.</p>
<p>That's what I originally thought. But then I starting thinking that I could have a better shot at a top grad school if I went to an elite school to begin with. An Ohio State student with a 3.7 isn't going to get the same attention as a Northwestern student with a 3.7, right?</p>
<p>I've seen evidence to say otherwise, rather that they are fairly similar.</p>
<p>I toured Sewanee a while ago, and they have graduates who go on to very selective programs at Duke, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and the like, yet not many people put Sewanee in the same boat as some place like Williams or Amherst. I'd say good internships and a solid GPA, GRE, and recommendations will get you farther than the name "Northwestern" on a diploma. At Ohio State, you will also be more competitive for the best internships right? </p>
<p>But, to be fair, that is only my understanding of it, and I could be completely and utterly wrong.</p>
<p>Exactly. Where you go in undergrad doesn't matter near as much as what you do in your time there.</p>
<p>Batten down the hatches and stay at OSU. It won't hurt your chances to get into a good grad school. You will be so happy later to be debt free, at least from the undergrad perspective.</p>
<p>Depends on your career goals and the type of grad school you hope to attend. At business and law schools, top colleges seem to be clearly favored. And certain industries/job categories only recruit at top schools.</p>
<p>Well, I'm hoping to go to a top 20 grad school for economics. Ohio State is 28th for econ at the graduate level, so I suppose the jump from 28 into a top 20 won't be too hard if I do well in undergrad.</p>
<p>Exactly. Just do good, do your work, do some outside work and maybe try to write a book or something lol and you will be fine.</p>
<p>Strong undergraduate economics programs: Chicago, Northwestern & Yale. Stanford, MIT & Penn's Wharton School are also great undergrad econ programs.(Princeton & Harvard are not accepting transfers.)
As a transfer student, you may not receive much-if any-financial aid, therefore, transferring may not be a realistic option if seeking financial aid. You may simply be suffering a mild case of "buyer's remorse" since a high GPA from OSU"s economics program should get you into a top 20 grad school for economics.
On the other hand, if you do not need financial aid & are not academically challenged at your current school, then submit a transfer app or two to the elite econ programs and see what develops during the rest of the year.</p>
<p>You wrote: An Ohio State student with a 3.7 isn't going to get the same attention as a Northwestern student with a 3.7, right?"</p>
<p>Your base assumption is faulty. </p>
<p>Why do you think that your 3.7 gpa at Ohio State (competing against top 15% students) would translate to a 3.7 at (fill in the blank top 15 school) where you will compete against top 2% students, and you will likely be in the 25-50% quartile in academic preparation and achievement?</p>
<p>You proposition is not really any different from a AAA baseball player expecting that his .325 batting average would translate to a .325 in the big leagues... when in reality it would be more like .260! Or that an Italian league basketball player averaginig 24 points per game would expect to maintain that average in the NBA (more like 10 points per game).</p>
<p>Assuming you are drastically underachieving at Ohio St., you could perhaps keep up the 3.7 at a top 15 program. Are you drastically underachieving?</p>
<p>Actually, I have a 3.8 after my first quarter, but took honors classes and then a calculus class. I actually entered as a sophomore on credit hours and got a 33 on the ACT. I could probably a handle a top 15 decently well.</p>
<p>The $2K per quarter will seem like small change if you succeed in business which a top school will give you a better chance at doing. Given all the great aid, if you have the qualification which it seems you would probably also enjoy the peer group more.</p>
<p>Well, I don't really want to go into business. I'm more of a pure economics person, and hopefully I can get a Ph.D. and teach. And yeah, I definitely think I'd feel more at home in the peer groups those schools offer. That's one of the reasons I'm considering transferring.</p>
<p>pierce08 - so are you saying the Honors and Calculus classes were really tough? If so, that doesn't translate to a 3.7 at a top 15 program, nor does 33 ACT, which probably places you into the 60th or so percentile at most Top 15, not 80th percentile.</p>
<p>I'm not saying you aren't going to be able to bark with the big dogs... only that in general, limited exposure can lead one to believe that success in a lesser competitive environment will tranlate into equivalent success (vs. peer group) in a hyper competitive environment.</p>
<p>You are lucky that you get full tuition. I don't think you should transfer; moreover, that too in such financial crises as it is today.</p>
<p>Yeah, the honors classes and calc class were really tough. I'm not saying I could get a 3.7 at a top 15, only that I would be able to handle it and do decently. Honestly, I don't want to go to a school like Penn or any other top 10 very much because a lot of those kids are there for what I consider the wrong reasons. The only reason I'm considering Penn is because my philosophy professor is very respected there and might be able to write me a good rec.</p>