I am indecisive over my transfer opportunity. I currently attend UCR and have a Junior Transfer acceptance to UC Davis. What’s holding me back from UCD is: 1) I have a research position here. 2) I made a lot of friends here. 3) if I transfer, I would basically have to start over. 4) I’ve gotten used to the campus and city, so if I transfer, I would have to get used to the campus at UCD. 5) exploring more of Southern California.
Reasons why I’m considering Davis: 1) closer to my home (I live in the Bay Area). 2) I’ve been having health issues lately and my mother had to fly down to SoCal to attend some of my appointments–basically no more financial burdens for flights, etc. 3) I always here jobs hire because of where a person got his degree from… I.e Davis is higher than Riverside in terms of ranking. 4) new beginnings?
I am currently a Microbiology major. Weather is not a problem since the weather is almost the same for both of these cities.
I just want to know others viewpoints on my current situation and help me see other opinions that I may not have already seen or noticed. Sorry for descriptive scenario. But any views on this, I greatly appreciate.
In addition: Davis was my first initial dream school when I was applying back in high school…
For your particular field, it is the rank of your graduate school, not your undergrad, that will matter…and getting into graduate school is more a function of your individual initiative and performance, as well as relationships with professors that lead to great letters, more than it is a function of your school’s ‘name.’
Unless you already have a plan to somehow get a job with just a BS in microbiology, you might want to stick out your undergraduate time, then apply for graduate school to Davis. Or wherever.
To me this was a pretty clear-cut case of it being more beneficial to stay where you are, until you mentioned the medical issues. So I’m going to base my answer on that. Mind you, I’m coming from the perspective of a lower-middle class income in a family with a lot of chronic health issues.
How chronic is the medical condition? Do you know for a fact that it would necessitate your mom (or whoever) coming to the school frequently? How much money would she (or whoever comes down to be with you) save by you being at Davis compared to Riverside? Is there any way to avoid her coming down even if the condition persists?
If it’s a case of not needing her down there often, then it may actually cost you more money to go to Davis when you consider that you have to move your stuff up here. Or if you know that you could mostly handle it yourself with only occasional visits necessary, it shouldn’t be a big deal to stay in Riverside. But if you know that you’ll need family help frequently, then I could definitely see the reasons for transferring to Davis.
To offer some responses to your other points:
- If you can avoid it, you don't want to lose your research position. Given that you have research experience though, you probably wouldn't have issues finding something else up here. But you'd also have less time with the professor you're now researching with, and potentially wouldn't be able to go as in-depth into the research as you could if you stayed where you are. There's also the chance (albeit fairly slim in this case) of not finding something up here.
- On one hand, if they're good friends you'll stay in contact with them regardless. On the other hand, you already have an established social group and would need to completely reestablish yourself at Davis. Plus you only have two more years of college, and it's a lot more fun with an established friend group than if you're reestablishing. Though if you're someone who makes friends easily, it shouldn't be much of an issue. If you're not, it's an entirely different situation. Given that you listed this as a reason for staying, I'm guessing you'd rather not leave your current friends behind.
- Yes, and it's your call on whether that's too much of a hassle or not.
- See above
- To me this is a good reason for staying simply because it could give you more experience with a part of California different from the Bay Area if you don't end up back in SoCal. But again, it's your call on whether this is important to you or not. Given that you mentioned it, I'm assuming that it is. But remember that you can always go back down to SoCal after you graduate if you want to explore.
- Closer to home for the remaining two years, yes. But you can always go closer to home after you graduate too. To be fair though, you could go pretty much anywhere you want after graduation if you really want to. I don't know, to me it's not really worth it to transfer just to be close to somewhere when you could always go there after you graduate regardless of where you go to school.
- See the first part of my post on the medical issues
- It's much more about what you do than where you go. Plus after you have experience under your belt, the vast majority of people don't care where you went to school. If they do, they're probably not the kinds of people you want to be working for. We're not talking Stanford vs Riverside here (for an extreme example); Davis vs Riverside wouldn't make such a big difference for this to be an issue.
- You can get new beginnings after you graduate though. It isn't like this is your only opportunity to go to Davis. You could go for grad school, or hell just move up here if you like the area in general.
As I said, to me this seems dependent on your medical issues. If it’s not too much of a burden financially and/or you know you can handle it on your own, I would stay. If it is too much of a burden or you know you couldn’t, I could see your reasons for transferring.
I’d stay put for all the reasons you list. Your research work will more than make up for any ‘prestige’ edge Davis might offer.