Seeking input on my list of potential transfer colleges

Transfer Students
1

{I previously posted this and am seeking more input about different school recommendations, the schools that have been removed are Penn state and Syracuse}
Hi, my name is Jessica and next year in fall 2017 I will be entering my second year of Nassau Community College. I currently have a 3.87 GPA and hope to have a 3.92 by the end of the Fall semester. This may be long, so I’m sorry about that. If any one has school suggestions, see a school on my list that you think I should get rid of, or just transfer advice in general I would be very thankful.

List of schools *PS this list consist of a lot of reach schools at the moment

1.University of Virginia
2. Pomona College
*3. Penn State (was previously accepted)
4. University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
5. Syracuse University
6. Vanderbilt
7. Tulane
8. University of Southern California
9. Pitzer College
10. Colgate University
11. Claremont McKenna College
12. George Washington
*13. Syracuse
I’m also applying to 4 SUNYs but the only one I’m certain about is Binghampton

I don’t want to apply to as many schools as I listed, the list used to be a lot longer. I took out a lot of schools that didn’t offer a lot of financial aid. My EFC is 1320 but my mom can’t actually contribute anything (she’s in the process of paying me back money).

I’ve recently added UVA to my list because it has a lot of the things I want in a school. It’s a big school with D1 sports, I think it has a good location, has generous financial aid, I looked into my major requirements and I liked the classes. I like the programs, the school has this good vibe about it if that makes sense. Honestly when I saw the website I just really like the school then when I looked at their academics I liked it a lot more.

Pomona has a “Politics, Economics, Philosophy” major that I like a lot. I’m currently a political science major but if I went to Pomona I would define lay try and change it to that. Pomona is a really good school for my major. It’s in California which I love. I like that you can take classes at any one of the colleges on the Claremont campuses because I saw that some of he other schools had classes I liked. One of the drawbacks for me is how liberal the school is. When reading reviews about the school on Niche, which I do for every school I look at, the students said it was overwhelmingly liberal which is annoying to me. I also think they take the least amount of transfers of any school on my list.

*Penn state was my dream school, I thought it was the best of both worlds academically and socially. I still think that but when I got accepted the first time I got about 25,000 in aid and this school cost over 50,000 for an out of state student so I don’t think it would be financially doable honestly. When I visited I liked the people a lot more than I like the school. When I slept over at a dorm and ate in the cafe a lot of students sat with me and I thought that was really nice. This city girl also saw a cow for the first time which was cool. But when I got to the campus it was kind of a dud.I

I like UNC for a lot of the reasons I like UVA, big state school that still offers a good name and friendly people. A girl I watch on YouTube just graduated from UNC but I watch her vlogs and it seems like a great place. She shows the good and the bad, the activities, sororities, and sports etc and it seems like a place I could be happy.

Vanderbilt is really good for my major. I spoke to a representative at a college fair I went to this year and she told me I had a real shot of getting in. I like the program and internship opportunities I was told about. The main thing that concerns me is he schools location. I’m from NYC and I’m black. I’ve never directly faced racism so I honestly don’t think about it that much so when I met with the Vanderbilt lady, I had never heard of the school before that, I thought this school is great I hope I get in. Then, as stupid as this sounds, I watched family guy last night where they drive through the south then got arrested and that freaked me out. Then I looked up most racist states and Tennessee was on the list. So that bothered me because I didn’t know what to do with that information.

My hand is tired and for the rest of the schools it’s mainly the same reasons as listed above. About the SUNYs btw the reason I’m not focused on them is because during my first application process my school pushed SUNYs onto us hard and I applied to four then like I am going to now. It was the most complicated process ever, they lost everything, I was supposed to be going to Buffalo and they changed the housing and over admitted people, the housing was so much money and the SUNYS I got into ended up costing more or around the same as most of the schools I got into. I am applying again but there aren’t any that I love.

I want to go to a big school but I’m not against a small school. I want to go to a school where I can go to games I love hockey and baseball. No I wouldn’t go to a school based on their sports but I am taking into account how much I will enjoy the school itself. I hated my highschool, I don’t like my home life (it’s one of my motivators in doing well, the thought of being able to leave), and I’m just not happy with my current situation so I want to be in a place where I will be happy. I plan on going to Law School, hopefully a tier one because I want to go into coorporate law. I want to have an internship while in school. I want to live somewhere really different from NYC because I’ve never loved any where else. I want to study abroad because I went on a highschool trip to Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Liechtenstein and I loved it there. As I said before I’m not into an extremely liberal school like Reed. And if the school is liberal I just don’t want it to always be the topic of conversation. I want to dorm so I can have that experience. I don’t think I can afford a sorority but I’ve always liked the thought of them. I don’t care if the school is predominantly white or what the demographics are as long as it’s a good environment to be in. I’m fine with any size classes, all my classes now have about 25 people but I’m not a big talker so I wouldn’t mind a bigger room.

Classes I’ve taken
Fall 2016
HIS 20th century Europe, B
ENG 101 A
Intro to Politics and Gov A
Algebra 2 and Trig A
PHI Critical thinking A
Spring 2017
Pre Calc A
Eng 102 B+
Intro to Sociology A
Intro to Psych A
Business Law A
Fall 2017
Intro to Philosophy
Calc 1
General Chemistry
ECO principles of macro
ART Drawing
Yoga
Volleyball
I’m taking these classes so I can get an associates degree and I’m taking the economics class because UNC recommended taking it and two other classes before transferring

My first semester I did something called “conversation partner” where I was paired with someone who was learning English and we met once or twice a week for an hour and we talked. I got a job at the movie theater in November. I’m going to work at a summer camp this summer. During the fall I really do hope to join a club. Also I do events for animal adoption and fundraising for shelters. I really want to volunteer at a shelter at least once a week starting in the summer. I’ve also looked into volunteering at psychiatric facilities and shelters because it’s another “passion” of mine

2

USC is extremely expensive and they also doesn’t give great aid.
Pomona College’s transfer acceptance rate fluctuates between 3% to 8% (Last 3 years)
(Liberal Arts Colleges, especially elite ones, generally have a low transfer acceptance rate due to small size and high retention rates).
UNC- Chapel Hill has a high transfer rate, but most of the spots are reserved for North Carolina residents and in-state CC transfers. Transferring from out of state will be difficult.

Tulane, Vandy, and George Washington look like good matches. Many of the schools on your list are reaches, and it is fine to apply to reach schools depending on how much you can afford on application fees, but I suggest applying to more match schools.

3

Please don’t paint the South in such broad strokes or get your info from a sitcom or lists of racist states on the internet. You do remark that it is irrational to do so. I do understand the concern but you might find that Southern hospitality doesn’t see color. Are there racists in TN, AL, MS, etc? Sure. But there are more good hearted people and there are racists in all states.

I’m more concerned that your list still isn’t affordable. Even if you get generous aid, you have no parental support so $5,000/year net price would be a challenge. What you have in your favor is you just need two years so if you have to take loans for $5-8,000/year, you will not be completely swamped with debt upon graduation. If you want to go law school as stated, zero debt is preferred.

4

You need to think this out more carefully. I am assuming you will be a junior transfer, in which case you will not be able to study abroad. Most of the colleges on your list are very expensive. If you plan on going to law school, your undergrad does not matter. You just need a high GPA and a good LSAT score. So you should look to save money since law school is expensive.

You also state that you prefer a big school and someplace not too liberal. 4 out of the 10 schools you listed are small liberal arts colleges and 3 of them are pretty liberal. Many of the schools on your list are high reaches and expensive private schools. I strongly suggest you look more into SUNY schools in addition to the 4.

5

Go to SUNY Binghampton. You won’t get much aid as a transfer student to most of the other schools you’ve listed.