Need Your Advice and Suggestions on Behalf of a College Student

Parent Cafe
1

<p>Dear Parents and Students,</p>

<p>OK, a friend of the family is in a northeastern college (north of Boston). She has not been happy there the past year (freshman year). She is looking into transfer options. She found the college she is in too isolated. So, now she is thinking of transferring to colleges in urban centers. Specifically, NYC, Boston, Washington D.C., Chicago, San Francisco and Montreal (McGill). Hopefully, she can transfer in Spring 2012 (sophomore year, 2nd semester), though she will also consider transfer for Fall 2012 (junior year).</p>

<p>The student achieved a GPA of 3.8 the freshman year. She is torn and undecided about majors. She is interested in the arts and science (specifically animal studies, could be hard science like biology or animal psychology). Overall, she is more of a liberal arts person (rather than a hard science person). So she is looking for a strong liberal arts program that will not cost more than $35,000 (all inclusive expenses, including room and board). </p>

<p>1) She has crossed GW in D.C. off the list because of the cost (more than $35,000 a year). </p>

<p>2) The UC schools, e.g., UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz, require all
pre-major requirements to be fulfilled by the time of transfer. She is still uncertain about her exact career path. Moreover, UCs generally do not accept spring transfers (the two she looked at, UC Santa Cruz and UC Davis).</p>

<p>3) She is uncertain about McGill because of the very cold winters. </p>

<p>4) Columbia College (in Chicago) may have the arts aspect but not the strong science aspect (I think, not sure if I reversed it in my conversation with her). I also feel that the weather may be a factor if she considers Montreal too cold. I imagine Chicago also has harsh winters by the lake.</p>

<p>I am thinking Boston may be OK in her mind (just barely in terms of weather).</p>

<p>5) She has submitted everything but the transcript and fee for her CUNY application (with Hunter College in NYC probably her first choice though she is allowed to put down 4 CUNY colleges with one transfer app).</p>

<p>6) She was "courted" by Fordham U. when she was applying to colleges freshman year. She is hoping that Fordham will consider her again and maybe give her some merit $? Not sure how it works with transfers and scholarship $ since my understanding is that generally, transfers have problems getting scholarship or merit $? Is this true? If not, what schools in her locations list might offer her some money? Parent are solidly middle to upper middle class but she is the third of 3 children they have put through college (she is the last one, the other two graduated from private colleges). Can't blame them for having a limit of $35,000 a year. Even that is generous. However, they will not offer help for grad school even if she transfers to a cheaper school like CUNY.</p>

<p>Well, I would appreciate getting your feedback and I will forward the info to the student. Thanks in advance for all your input. I am looking for the collective info and data available through the group here. :) Saves us looking very broadly on the internet. Would like to narrow down some schools and then do research on them.</p>

2

<p>

</p>

<p>Only if you need to go outside.</p>

<p>I would not recommend Columbia College for a serious student of the sciences. That is not its focus.</p>

<p>In Chicago, the only place I’d recommend that’s going to be close to the $35,000 is University of Illinois at Chicago, but I suspect that it’s going to be closer to $40,000 for out of state students starting in 2012, once all the costs are thrown in. DePaul and Loyola are going to be in the low to mid 40s.</p>

3

<p>American U in D.C. does offer merit scholarships to transfer students.
[AU</a> Transfer Merit Scholarships, Financial Aid, American University](<a href=“http://www.american.edu/financialaid/transferscholarships.cfm]AU”>Transfer Scholarships | American University, Washington, DC)</p>

<p>However, if the $35K is a hard-and-fixed limit, I’m not sure even the highest scholarship amount would bring the total COA under that, unless she can find some economies for room and board. (Which she may be able to–many people live off-campus and don’t have a meal plan.)</p>

4

<p>Hi, Thanks for the replies above. ^</p>

<p>Yep, the $35,000 is the maximum upper limit. So, it appears the schools recommended will not work out.</p>

<p>I also recommended AU since I saw that their FA package to S was very good (the best of all the schools he got into). However, she has ruled out AU (not sure what she has heard that has turned her off to the school). Also, it will not work if it is over $35,000.</p>

<p>Any more suggestions?</p>

5

<p>American U in D.C. does offer merit scholarships to transfer students.
[AU</a> Transfer Merit Scholarships, Financial Aid, American University](<a href=“http://www.american.edu/financialaid/transferscholarships.cfm]AU”>Transfer Scholarships | American University, Washington, DC)</p>

<p>However, if the $35K is a hard-and-fixed limit, I’m not sure even the highest scholarship amount would bring the total COA under that, unless she can find some economies for room and board. (Which she may be able to–many people live off-campus and don’t have a meal plan.)</p>

6

<p>There is a possibility (I don’t know how good) that a transfer student with a 3.8 GPA might attract some merit aid from DePaul or Loyola. It might be worth the cost and time of an application.</p>

7

<p>OK, Thanks, annadad,</p>

<p>Starting a short list based on recs here. </p>

<p>1) AU (will discuss the pros and cons with her)
2) DePaul
3) Loyola</p>

8

<p>

I wonder if it was really her location, or the size of the school. (or not making friends as a freshman.) Or other factors. Please have her consider the possibility that it wasn’t just the school’s location that didn’t match to her needs.</p>

<p>My son had a terrible time as a freshman, and location was a large factor. But, in retrospect, it was because he was too far away from home and friends. (No friend wanted to visit there 'cuz he was 8 hour car ride away.) College was too overwhelming to him that year. He and his roommate were not a good match. And he didn’t make friends. He eventually came home and eventually had a great experience at a very small LAC near here.</p>

9

<p>I am suggesting Loyola MD, because her GPA will look pretty good to them & because they give merit scholarships. And they also say they meet all demonstrated need. I have no idea how they feel about transfers but a visit to their website will answer that. </p>

<p>With a 35 k limit, she is going to have to look at state schools unless she can get either need based or merit scholarships – what state is she from & wd she consider theirs? I mean, how bad is this school she is in? Don’t they have transit to Boston for the fun stuff?</p>

10

<p>limabeans,</p>

<p>You bring up a very good point. I can’t get a grasp on what it is the student wants aside from having more networking and opportunities in a city. There may be underlying reasons for her unhappiness at the current college I am not privy to. Though she stated she has more friends at this college than at home.</p>

<p>JRZMom, Thanks for the Loyola MD recommendation. It has been added to the above list. The student resides in NYS but she is not interested in the locations of any of the SUNY campuses (at least as far as I know).</p>

<p>Again, thanks for all your great recs. They seem to meet the criteria I spelled out very well. It is now up to the student to grapple with what she really wants. Info forwarded. Many thanks. :)</p>

11

<p>I am wondering if this girl is receiving financial aid, merit aid, or some combination that is bringing the cost of her NE college down to $35K. If the family qualifies for some form of FA – which many middle class families do at some colleges and universities; it’s just hard to predict who will qualify for what – it might make sense for her to cast a wider net and see if she gets a decent-looking package at some of the schools that interest her.</p>

<p>Also, did she have a number of offers with packages that kept her costs at 35K when she applied as a freshman? If Fordham offered her a great package freshman year, is it possible that she can approach them now and re-kindle their interest? Were there other colleges that offered good packages? Do they still interest her?</p>

<p>If she is a Cali resident, there are many more than two UC’s to consider. Has she fulfilled the requirements for any major, and could she transfer in with that major and then switch if she changes her mind? Also, there are need-blind colleges within the Claremont cluster – are those too far from an urban center for her? (Or is this family clearly not going to qualify for one red cent?)</p>