Need serious advice.. help!!

Transfer Students
1

<p>I need advice from somebody who is more experienced with the whole college/university thing than me. Me and my boyfriend currently attend community college in Michigan, but we BOTH want to transfer to a Florida college, preferably UF or FSU. </p>

<p>A little background on us: I am originally from Florida, he is from Michigan and I moved up to Michigan in with him right after I graduated high school last year. He had already been attending community college for a year or two when I moved up there. I know after hearing my story, some of you might say, just stay in Michigan and attend college there, but I do <em>NOT</em> want to stay in Michigan to go to university. I do not want to live there beyond completing my two years of community college. Being from Florida I don't really like Michigan to be honest.</p>

<p>I have only completed 10 credits at the Michigan community college. My boyfriend has completed about 56 (he graduated high school 2 years after me) at the community college. That is almost enough for him to transfer. Honestly, he should have ALREADY transferred to a university. But he has been waiting on me.</p>

<p>We wanted to transfer down to a Florida university together, but I am worried that he will severely hurt his chances of getting accepted into an out-of-state university if he remains in community college waiting on me for 2 more years.. meaning he will have been attending community college for <em>4</em> years. Won't that look bad on him if he went to transfer? ESPECIALLY to an out-of-state university. </p>

<p>And plus, if we did complete our 60 transferable credits at our current community college.. what if we were unable to get into a Florida university? Then we'd be forced to go to a Michigan university. And i don't want to do that.</p>

<p>I love him enough that I do not want to destroy his chances for getting into the university he wants or messing up his education over me. I am also concerned for myself as well.</p>

<p>With the amount of credits he has versus me.. I am beginning to think: maybe it would be better for him to transfer to a nearby Michigan university, finish out his 2 years there, get his Bachelor's, apply to law school down here in Florida (which is what he wants to do, go to law school) while I move back home to Florida and attend community college so I will be GUARANTEED to get into one of the Florida universities with the AA degree agreement between FL community colleges and FL universities.</p>

<p>It is just going to be really hard to plan a college education for us together because we did not graduate at the same time, he is two years ahead of me in his education.</p>

<p>Advice is needed desperately.. my future hangs in the balance.. thank you.</p>

2

<p>Keep in mind, this is just a suggestion.</p>

<p>It would definitely be advisable for him to transfer soon, since staying in community college for four years would mostly be a waste of time. You need to complete two years at most universities in order to get a degree, so he would be in undergrad for six years. That is especially problematic when he is aiming for an additional three years of law school. If you would like to stay together, I would suggest that he apply to both Florida and Michigan schools as a transfer student. If he gets into a Florida school, he can go there and you can go to community college back home. If he doesn't, you can both stay in Michigan for two years (for him to get his BA and you to get your AA). As long as you keep your grades up and remain a legal Floridal resident, I don't see why you would have problems transferring to a Florida 4-year college or university.</p>

<p>Good luck with your decision.</p>

3

<p>Yes I know that it would look really bad when he applied for law school and they saw that it took him 6 years to complete his undergrad. He could try to transfer to a Florida university, but he will probably end up losing some credits. He doesn't have enough credits to transfer quite yet so it might take him a semester or two to take the classes needed to be able to transfer.</p>

<p>The problem is, I have to remain in community college in order to ever be able to go to a four-year university because my high school grades were atrocious.</p>

<p>I am not sure if I am still a legal Florida resident. My parents still live in Florida and they are still filing me as a dependent. I have a Michigan driver's license. I don't know if that would affect my residency.</p>

<p>He has very good college grades. I think he has a 3.4? I know it's above a 3.0 anyway.</p>

<p>The nearest university from where we are living now is about an hour away or more (Central Michigan University) so if he transferred into CMU, he would have to move.. and there is no community college there. See what I'm saying? </p>

<p>It's just not looking favorable for us to continue trying to complete our undergrad education together.</p>

4

<p>ginabear - I think you show a lot of (forgive me, I'm a parent - so I have to spit out this word) maturity and wisdom in your outlook. You really do know the best answer, I think. But it is one that will cause you two a temporary separation, which I know you would like to avoid. The fact that you are willing to outline a geographic separation as the best course for you gives me much faith that if it is right for you two to be together permanently, you will be.</p>

<p>Don't compromise your educations to be together. Follow the excellent plan you outlined for him to get his BA in Michigan and then apply to law school in Florida. Return to Florida for your cc years and that guaranteed Florida admission. Each of these steps will make your life together once you reunite in Florida a much better one.</p>

<p>Good luck to you.</p>

5

<p>Thanks Jmmom. I just have to talk to him about this, which I am very nervous about doing. If I could figure out a way that we could work it out and avoid separation, I would do it. It's just right now I'm not seeing it.</p>

6

<p>My friend got into Berkeley and her boyfriend didnt. He moved up to Berkeley with her and now goes to the local community college there. </p>

<p>what you could do (if the relationship is really THAT worth it) is have him transfer to FSU or UF or wherever and you can go to a community college in florida near to where he goes.</p>

7

<p>I would say apply to a bunch of schools and see what happens...</p>

8

<p>If he's two years ahead of you there's no way you'll be in the same college at the same time unless he goes really slow. The only thing you can do is live together.</p>

<p>I wish my gf wanted to go to the same college as me. I begged her to go Davis or Berkeley but she wouldn't budge :o</p>

9

<p>Well, I talked to him today about it (I'm currently on vacation down in FL so I'm not with him).
I didn't think about this: he originally was going to community college for a personal trainer certification but changed his mind. So probably nearly half of those 58 credits he has are for specialty classes for the personal trainer certification, classes that will most likely not transfer to a university. So he might only have 25-30 credits that would transfer. Maybe he's not as far ahead of me as I thought he was.</p>

<p>Anywho, we're going to talk to an academic counselor at our college as soon as I get back and see what their opinion is and what they think we should do.</p>

10

<p>It just seems like (academically.. not relationship wise of course) it would be a lot easier for me to move back to Florida and complete my AA degree there. Then I would have guaranteed admission to any of the FL universities. He could try to apply to Florida and Michigan schools as a transfer student although it would be much easier for him to get into a Michigan university due to the fact he has a ton of easily transferable credits at a Michigan community college.</p>

<p>I just worry about the fact that I will have to plan my entire community college curriculum around getting into a FL university while attending a Mich community college. And we all know that there is more trouble when it comes to transferring credits to an out-of-state university versus an in-state university.</p>

11

<p>I think you are on the right track talking to an academic counselor and focusing on what makes sense academically. Focusing on getting your degrees - and working your relationship (when and how often you see each other) around that - makes a lot of sense.</p>