Prospective Transfer

Transfer Students
1

Hello,

I am currently a freshman at a strong, but not amazing private school. I’m halfway through my third quarter and i am certain that I want to transfer. I’ve tried very hard to make this school work for me, yet i still feel incredibly uncomfortable here and would rather be pretty much anywhere else. It’s not a good fit for me at all, it’s not close to home, and to be quite honest i feel as though it wasn’t my choice to go here.

Here’s the issue: even though I’ve presented what i think are rational plans for a transfer, my parents (mainly my mom) are not hearing it. My first choice would be my state’s public flagship university, which is still a pretty good school and would be approximately $15,000 less to attend next year, a short drive from home, etc. Having endured a pretty bad living situation this year that my college would not let me change, a big draw of this school is that I could move into a house with my friends from home who currently attend. However, my mom has a really distorted image of the level of prestige of my current school, and claims that i would be “throwing my life away” by leaving. How might i change her seemingly preconceived mindset? I’ve already tried contacting a college specialist and having them speak to my mother, but that didn’t seem to work. All i hear from her is that “i’m not trying hard enough to like it.”

In no way do I feel entitled to have my parents pay for my education. It seems a little bit unreasonable for them to only consider paying for one particular college, though. I really don’t want it to come to this, but if i hear from my mom that she will cut off their financial support if i leave, i would still do it. I’d rather be working and in community college than stay at my current institution. This would be my last resort though.

In such a case, i’d be curious about establishing independence through emancipation, and if that is feasible at all…? The aforementioned state school offers full ride scholarships to Pell Eligible students, and surely if i were a financially independent resident I would qualify for this. From what I’ve heard though, this is hard to attain if you are under 24 and not married. Does anybody know much about this?

Thank You

2

How young are you? Emancipation is for people who are less than 18 years old. So, if you aren’t that old yet, go to legal aid and find out what you would need to do to become emancipated.

If you are 18 or older, you won’t be able to become independent for financial aid purposes until you meet the standards set by FAFSA.

Since you hate your current university, speak with your advisor about taking a leave of absence for a year. Then take the year off. Work. Save some money. Look at places to possibly transfer to. Give your mom some time to understand that there are places that are better fits for you than your current university.