Put Aside BS For a Sec: Why Do You Really Want To Go There?

<p>OK OK OK OK OK OK
Enough with the fabolous research opportunities and the eminent, world-class faculty that is not available at your school. Enough with the "unique social atmosphere" and the wonderful, diverse courses that are not available at your school. Enough with trying to hide your hunger for more prestige in your school name. I am sick and tired of trying to justify my reasons for transfer.</p>

<p>I'm sure that for some of you, transfer is a necessary step that you must take in order to progress to the next stage in life (i.e. you are finishing community college, you just came back from Iraq, etc). But for many of us, it has to do with a lot of things that we don't really want to say in our essay.</p>

<p>Let's put aside all pretentious reasons for wanting to transfer and let's be totally honest for a second. </p>

<p>Why are you really applying to the schools that you're applying to?
We all know that, even for some of the best students, the chances for transfer are very slim at the top schools. So let's put aside our concerns regarding our chances of being accepted, and just blurt out the real reasons why you decided to apply to that school.</p>

<p>Uh stop trying to act like prestige is the #1 reason and we're all trying to hide it - sounds like you're feeling guilty over this yourself. </p>

<p>I go to NYU, which is a good private school in NYC. But it's too expensive and my Dad lost his job because of the recession, and we can't afford it anymore. I mean NYU will give us a bit more FA and I could take out more loans, but I feel guilty for the financial burden. My sister will start college in a year as well, and she seems to favor the private LAC's like Bucknell and Lehigh. So anyway I'm transferring to a SUNY school to cut costs. Good luck to everyone trying to transfer for whatever reason :)</p>

<p>Both schools I applied to was because they are small, west-coast, and have strong academics.</p>

<p>For the prestige, son.</p>

<p>For the intellectual environment, vast amount of opportunities, ability to engage with some of the greatest minds, quality of education, etc....truly. Those of you transferring merely for prestige...good luck. Not only does that tend to show through on your application, but your bound to be unhappy at the institution if you do get accepted.</p>

<p>To be closer to home.</p>

<p>the sense of humor i find here at CC never ceases to make me lol. :)</p>

<p>ok so minus the prestige, i honestly thing going to a better school than the one i'm currently in is because of the opportunities it'll land me. I have a 3.7 here at some state school that barely anyone knows, but if i can get a 3.7-8 at a high end university like USC, i think i'll have a somewhat easier time trying to get into med school/dental school or whatever and possibly find better jobs in the future through the trojan family network. </p>

<p>oh i forgot to mention, the west coast with its +60 degree climate average is also an advantage. :D</p>

<p>Simply because I hate Fordham and at this point, I'd rather go to any school.</p>

<p>Because I hate CC and want to move somewhere warm! I hate the cold.</p>

<p>because USC is the best school ever :)</p>

<p>and Barnard is the closets thing i can get to Columbia (sorry lol)</p>

<p>Conteplating my reasons for transfer led me down this path. You know what, most of us can tough it out. If we absolutely had to, we could finish the 2 or 3 years at our current school in crappy dorms, giant classes, whatever.... the thing is though, when you are paying 5, 10, 20, 40 thousand dollars for an education, you deserve what you pay for. I REALLY want to be at Penn and I REALLY hate my school. I could tough it out here if I had to and come out with the same economics degree. Yeah, a part of my apps is prestige. Still, Penn's prestige brings some of the brightest people around the world to its campus and that's a company I want to be a part of. Otherwise, yeah, the diversity of the student body and classes, opportunity, being closer to home... it's all real stuff. It does really matter to me.</p>

<p>I hate Case Western. All work and no play. It's supposed to be a "grad school-like atmosphere." And Virginia Tech is my dream school that I didn't get into. I don't mind taking a "hit" in the rankings department (since Case is ranked much higher than VT in the US News rankings). What's the point of going to a world-renown school if you're not happy there?</p>

<p>Does prestige have anything to do with where I am applying? Absolutely, but everything you mentioned is far more important and is not provided at my school, at least not entirely. Am I happy where I go? Not really, which is why I'm applying to transfer. Like violaghost said, I could tough it out, but when my family is spending thousands of dollars on my education, I deserve the best I can get.</p>

<p>Need blind policy</p>

<p>"man I don't do it for my health / man I do it for the belt"</p>

<p>Miley_Cyrax, you win.</p>

<p>hahah guys. </p>

<p>well i really want to go to ivies cuz of prestige/job opportunities. i want to be able to work & get internships. my school has jack **** in that area.</p>

<p>I feel like I'm not using my full potentials here. My current school doesn't have the program I want (and I realized being a business major in Canada is pretty much BS). For the last twelve years I have changed schools every one to two years because my family moved a lot. I have been in my current city for three years now, it's too long. I want to get out and see the world. I want to live in rez and experience real college life instead of commuting for two hours a day. I want legit pre-law advising which my undergrad-program-to-be seems serious about. I want to learn from profs who aren't so engrossed in their research that students and lecture materials lie at the bottom of their priority lists. I want to be able to go on exchange to partner universities in the UK,</p>

<p>After high school, all of my close friends left for other universities in Canada or the States. While the majority of my classmates went to my current university, I'm mere acquaintances with them. If I wasn't friends with them in highschool, what makes one think that things will be different in univ? I'm the kind of person who LOVES to meet new people and forge new friendships, not dwell on people with whom the only interaction is "so... how was that midterm in XYZ class?"</p>

<p>And finally, I don't want to be limited by financial capabilities anymore. I turned down Berkeley for freshman year because we couldn't scrape $45 000 together. Money seems to be the cause of all the fights between me and my parents. And while they fake a smile and tell friends and relatives what a wonderful local university I'm attending right now and how much money I'm saving them, I know they secretly wish that I'm at some school people have actually heard of. <em>I</em>'m disappointed in myself. Twelve years of keener-ship and ... that's it? How anti-climatic. </p>

<p>My dad is jobless and my mum is on the brink of losing her job. They're both professionals and they toiled for years just to see their employment prospects go up in smoke. I want them to have someone in their lives that they're actually proud of.</p>

<p>(Sorry for the length... wow, typing that actually gave me a lot of perspective. None of that is in my actual Why Transfer essay. Thanks for the thread man!)</p>