I currently am a freshman at the University of South Carolina, about a month into my second semester, and frankly I hate it here. The biggest reason is mostly because I want to change my major from business to journalism, and SC doesn’t have much of a journalism program (not even ACEJMC accredited, to my knowledge), but also because I’m not a fan of the big state school environment here, especially such a greek life-dominated one, and have found it very difficult to acclimate myself
What I am basically looking for in potential transfer destinations is a much smaller school (should under 15,000 undergrads, under 10k would be great), obviously with a good and reputable journalism/communications program, and preferably near or in a big city in the northeast/mid-atlantic regions. The list I have come up with so far includes American University (DC), George Washington University, Emerson College, Hofstra University, Northeastern University and possibly Temple University (only because of the location in Philly, good journalism program, and my ability to get in-state tuition, not sure how I feel about the size of the school). First of all, any tips on how anybody might think my odds are at getting accepted into any of these schools would be greatly appreciated… I got a 3.6 GPA first semester and am on track to do at least the same this semester. Not sure how highly any of these schools way HS credentials for a transfer applicant w/ 30 incoming credits, but I had a 1740 on my SAT and a 25 on my ACT, and my HS GPA only a 2.9. What I’ve always thought (mostly since its what I’ve always heard from my dad) is that it is much easier to get into schools via transfer, especially with a 3.6 GPA, but obviously this is my first time doing this so I’m not sure if I believe that or not, any tips on the accuracy of that idea would be appreciated also.
I know i’m rambling quite a bit, but where I am feeling hopeless is the financial side of things. Obviously, all of these schools are very expensive, and from all the searching I’ve done, I can’t find any sort of merit scholarships I qualify for as a transfer student, except for Hofstra’s transfer merit scholarships. On top of this, it’s fairly common knowledge that journalists aren’t exactly very well paid, and even though i’m 100% sure that journalism is what I want to devote my career to and study, I feel uneasy about paying $50k a year to do so. I don’t want to go to another large state school like Temple or Maryland, since I feel like i’ll just run into the same problems socially that I did at South Carolina, but all of the smaller privates that seem like they would be a perfect fit, seem like they might be out of my price range and/or too selective and I won’t get it.
Basically, does anybody have any advice to offer? Do I actually stand a decent chance at getting accepted to any of these schools as a transfer student for journalism, and if so, does anybody have any tips about getting scholarships or financial aid from any of these schools? Again, I apologize for the length of this post, but I’m just feeling pretty lost in all of this :-S