A top 10 school offered transfer in Spring or Fall 2021 after waitlist process. A student may attend a top 30 school for the current semester. Besides for no merit scholarships, what is the other difference between the transfer offer and offer of regular admission? Is it worth of acceptance of transfer offer and freshman going to a different school next semester? Thanks for sharing.
Can you afford the other school or would it require substantial parent or co-signed loans?
Starting at one school while planning to transfer makes it difficult for a student to fully immerse themselves in life at their current school.
Congratulations on the offer!
Agree with the above, adding if you choose to transfer, I would do it for spring 2021, assuming it’s a good fit and affordable.
I would not transfer only for a step up in rankings.
The only data provided is school “ranking”, of which there are many. That’s a terrible way to decide what college to attend, and there’s no way anyone here can accurately advise you what to do, IMHO.
Select the school that best fits the student’s goals, college needs, etc. Attending a “top 10” school that is a terrible fit for a student is a path to failure. Same with a “top 30”.
If you believe the student will have a much higher chance of success at a different school next year, and that school requires a semester completion, rather than just waiting for Spring admission, then the significant effort of “starting college” twice may be worth it. But I’d suggest that bar is fairly high.
Rankings are the biggest misconception in the college world, and you never want to make a college decision based on them. At this point, you really need to focus on your ambitions, because that’s what really matters. In the end, you’re not getting any more than a bachelors degree.
Well, ranking should be considered, especially top 5 or 10 schools. Better school means easier for the future life such as pursuing advanced study, find jobs etc.
Difficult to answer this question without more specifics:
What are the two schools in question ?
Cost-of-attendance and affordability of each school ?
Intended major course of study and any career in mind ?
The names of the particular schools in question are important.
For example: Hard to imagine one from #25 Barnard College transferring to #7 Carleton College, but it would be easy to understand a move from #27 Colorado College to #7 Middlebury College.
Is one school a National University and the other an LAC ?
With respect to National Universities, one’s major is important–typically more important than a US News or other ranking.
I am talking about the same major from the US News ranking schools.
It is about the same major from the US News ranking schools, top 30 vs. top 10.
Still difficult to offer advice since a school ranked #30 may be much more highly regarded / ranked for a particular major.
If pre-med or pre-law, then it may not be a worthwhile move. However, it is hard without knowing more info.
Are both National Universities or are both LACs or a mixture ?
Without knowing affordability, the particular schools, & one’s major, any proffered advice risks being “garbage in, garbage out”.
Clarification regarding my post #7 example of Colorado College & Middlebury College. I should have written that a move from #27 Colorado College to #7 Middlebury College would be easy to understand in the case of a foreign language major due to the one course at a time curriculum at CC that might make language study more difficult since a student of foreign languages should take a language course each term.