<p>As the topic says, should I talk with my Academic Advisor about transferring?
I feel like I need some assistance, but I don't see it is very likely to get any help from my Academic Advisor about transferring to a better university. Who should I reach out to for help? I don't want to upset my advisor.</p>
<p>I’m in the same situation as you. I actually talked to my advisor this morning, and when I told her she wasn’t mad. Of course, everyone is different so hopefully you have a good, professional advisor. However, I didn’t exactly explain to her in full detail my reasons for wanting to transfer (I just told her one of the many-- that the university I’m attending now is too close to home and that I feel kind of “stuck” here because of that and the fact that my two older sisters also attended the same university). I also kind of put it lightly and just said I’m <em>thinking</em> about transferring instead of “I want to transfer/get out of here” haha. The thing is though that she’s my advisor for a major that i’m planning to drop for another one, and I had never talked to her before and now probably won’t be talking to her again. I am double majoring and only have an advisor for one of my majors, idk why, so she suggested I talk to an advisor from my other major and also the registrar office to find out which classes will or will not transfer. I’m planning to do what she suggested. It’s going to be a little awkward telling them lol but at the end of the day, transferring is a lot of work and it’s not something you can do by yourself. It’s not like we’ll be the first students ever to transfer out, and it’s their job to help students with their academic planning as long as they are attending the school. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>That is exactly what I am worried about, it is their job to help students with their academic planning, but until what level? I can’t image them helping me make a better application including recommendations etc. I am not sure yet if I want to transfer or not, but at the same time I want to look into it as soon as possible. Are you absolutely sure you want to transfer already? Which year are you in now?</p>
<p>I want to keep a good relationship with my AA (since I am an international student I sometimes struggle with the language and American system) but I don’t want to damage the whole relationship by having this conversation (I feel like now that I am a freshman it is the perfect time to get a head start if I do want to transfer)</p>
<p>Thanks for you answer;) Keep me updated if something relevant happens:)</p>
<p>No problem 
I’m glad someone else is in the same situation and yeah, I know what you mean about not wanting to ruin the relationship if it doesn’t work out :\ </p>
<p>I really love the school I want to transfer to, USC, and for a while I was sure I wanted to transfer. However, I know there’s always the chance I won’t get in since the school is pretty selective and I don’t really have any other school I’d want to transfer to (still can’t decide if another university that’s not USC would be better than the one I’m at right now) so I’m trying to not get too hung up on transferring. I’m a freshman too and I really want to transfer sophomore year. By junior year I think all the trouble with transitioning and adjusting so late in the game might not be worth it. I really want as much time there as possible to get the most out of it so I’m also trying to start early.</p>
<p>What are your reasons for transferring? Your counselor’s response to you wanting to transfer might depend on that haha. As for me I think I’m going to word it as kindly as possible because honestly, I don’t absolutely hate my current school. It’s just that I really love USC and think my experience there would be so much better, on top of being better for me academically and opportunity-wise. I don’t plan to go on and on about that to them though haha. I’ll probably tell them that with my plans to change majors, I feel USC’s programs will be a better fit and what I said earlier about being too close to home. There are also other personal and social reasons, but I don’t think I will mention those.</p>
<p>While they should be professional, I’m afraid not all advisors are. My D1 found this out the hard way. As a fr applicant she turned down several highly selective schools because we would receive little to no need based FA, this was the year Before several schools changed their FA policies for mid/upper income families. She took a full ride scholarship at a top public and honestly believed that with the perks of the scholarship beyond the money, that it would give her a first class education. What she found when she arrived was that much of what the scholarship committee stated was not true. </p>
<p>When she decided to apply for transfers after fall semester (and colleges had announced their new FA policies, making schools much more affordable for us), she talked to her honors advisor and the advisor said that she would not sabotage her College Official’s report. Well she didn’t, but she also didn’t mention that D1 had been 1 of 15 out of about a 6k fr class to get this scholarship. And the only reason that she found out at all was because the school mixed up some envelopes and sent the wrong form to one school, who then returned it to D1, and that’s when she saw the report.</p>
<p>So although I’ve always known profs/TAs to be professional and want what’s best for the student, I can’t say the same for advisors, who can sometimes be more vested in the college than the student.</p>
<p>entomom, I’m sorry to hear about what happened with your daughter’s advisor :\ Thanks for telling us about your experience. I can only hope that mine will be kind enough to try to help me fairly, because I definitely need an advisor’s help with selecting courses for next semester. May I ask if your daughter ever successfully transferred?</p>
<p>Yes she did.</p>
<p>After she found out, I had her contact the people that administer the scholarship and tell them what happened. She ended up writing a letter herself explaining the details of the scholarship and they signed it. She sent it as a supplement to the College Official’s report.</p>
<p>I think and hope that this is an isolated occurrence. Just a cautionary tale that unfortunately not everyone is as professional as they should be.</p>
<p>That is exactly what I am expect to happen.
I feel like public universities (although I don’t want to stereotype), don’t really care that much about your personal growth as they say the would. Phrases like ‘discover your promise’ are only marketing tricks, and especially because I am an international student I think the university won’t HELP me transfer out.</p>
<p>@Bubbletea94 , I am not sure if I want to transfer, but I want to at least explore the opportunity. I came to my current university (Ohio University) because I fitted my budget, I got a scholarship and the business school is pretty good (although I am undecided and I am not sure about my path yet), but so far I feel like the classes are way to easy. I used to watch a lot of online lectures from ivies and I really liked the challenge in having to think critically about questions without getting an answer from your teacher. So far I got an A in every class here without really having to work hard for it. I know I have the disadvantage of not knowing what I want to do (and some people here will tell me there is no point in transferring if you don’t know why you want to transfer and to which specific uni/major you want to transfer).</p>
<p>Besides my Dutch-directness doesn’t really help me either when I am talking with my advisor here. In Holland directness is considered honest (and thus polite) and here at my university I have gotten in trouble a couple of times already when I tried to be honest, direct and that was considered rude and impolite. I guess that is just a culture thing, but I something I have to get used too;)</p>
<p>@Bubbletea94, which uni are you currently attending, is USC a good chance for you? I definitely feel you in transferring in your sophomore year, I am a little worried too about getting ‘too late’ at another uni, however I guess I need to build up some credit here first.</p>
<p>@entomom I’m glad to hear that thankfully it worked out in the end! props to you and your daughter for being on top of things like that.</p>
<p>@Christiaan Right now i’m attending Texas Christian University. It’s a 4 year private university. one of the things I actually like best about it is the faculty and staff-- all of the ones i’ve talked to so far are so helpful, nice, and gracious. if I were to leave that would be one of the things i’d feel most guilty over because they’ve really been one of the few positives about the school. I wouldn’t know what it’s like at public universities but I’m sorry you feel that way :\ and I wish you the best of luck! although my experience with faculty has been good <em>so far</em>, still, you never know.</p>
<p>I kind of have the same problem as you over not knowing exactly what I want to major in/do in life. Until very recently I was majoring in film and graphic design. I like film and to be honest if I was really good at it I would love to continue with it, but i’m just not sure i’m cut out for it. if you want to get anywhere in that industry you gotta be pretty darn good and I feel like i’m a little behind in experience. I love Disney haha, so my original goal had been to work for it, which is why I added the graphic design major (computer visuals skills). however, I just don’t feel “safe” in those two majors, job-wise and skill-level wise. I would love to continue with it if I didn’t care about a job after graduation and how long it would take to get there 
at the beginning of the year it was just unrealistic wishful thinking I guess :c so just yesterday actually I dropped my graphic design major and added psychology. at USC if I were to get in, right now i’m thinking maybe psychology and international relations. while I would love to keep film, it’s highly competitive there and I pretty much stand no chance. I wish I had a clearer idea of what I want to do in life too because I’d be able to write a much stronger “why transfer” essay. I’m planning to research a lot more on majors before I write it. but like you, even if I don’t have a clear-cut plan, I want the academic challenge and the intellectual environment offered at USC. </p>
<p>do I have good chances at USC? hmm I hope so xD haha to be honest, I don’t know. if you read all the stats from the past successful USC transfers on threads here, I think i’m on the same level as a lot of them. however, I can’t really accept the stats only on here as a fully accurate picture of the transfer profile. there are so many factors. if you compare my stats to freshman admits however, I don’t think I would have a very good chance at all. i’m wondering if it’s the passion and drive they feel from hopeful transfer through the essays that makes them choose people with generally less-impressive grades/stats, possibly?..</p>
<p>Oh Holland very cool. I love the Netherlands (actually, Europe in general). Did you know that USC has the largest international student population out of any other university in the US? 
haha :P</p>
<p>Didn’t know that haha! Thought it was Purdue. Maybe I should look into USC too. What are you doing no in particular too enhance your chances to get admitted (except getting good grades;))</p>
<p>I attend the University of Georiga and I’m looking to transfer after this semester. Being a school with 37,000 students we’re assigned a meeting with our advisor about a month in advance to talk about how school’s going and what classes to take the next semester. When I met with mine I told her that I wanted to transfer and asked if she had any advice she could give me. Her exact response was “We have one area of speciality here and that’s to get you into the right classes for your major, sorry” I was SOOOOO disappointed and I’m still somewhat lost on how to handle getting all of my forms/records >.<</p>
<p>Sorry to hear that John, I guess we just have to look for advice here then…
Where do you want to transfer? What did you do in order to enhance your transfer chances?</p>
<p>@Christiaan ahh, not much besides good grades tbh :\ I’m trying very hard to get a 4.0 and at the lowest 3.8. I’m involved in quite a few clubs but I signed up for those even before I decided I wanted to transfer. I’m just gonna try to maintain high grades and write a really strong essay. what about you?</p>
<p>@Johnhughzy wow, that’s awful D: is there any other advisor you could go to? maybe that particular person just happened to be a bad apple out of the bunch? :\ if not, definitely keep in contact with a USC admissions counselor. all of the one’s i’ve contacted so far have been very friendly and helpful (although, one still hasn’t replied to an email I sent 2 weeks ago :)</p>
<p>I’ve talked to my adviser a couple weeks back. He was enthusiastic about it and was willing to write any paper work. He said it was better for me to leave now than later because of transfer of credits.</p>
<p>Hmm that sounds better, I think I’m gonna take the shot at it then;)</p>
<p>@Bubbletea, what did you ask the USC admission counselor? What did he replied? Will this enhance your chances?</p>
<p>I’m doing the same things as you now, just keeping my grades as high as possible and trying to get involved as much as possible;)</p>
<p>@davidthefat that’s good to hear it’s all about luck really if your advisor will be understanding or not :\ I hope i’ll have a similar experience.</p>
<p>@Christiaan oh man, I asked a looot. haha. my questions were a lot more specific to me obviously but here’s a general idea:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>if it was ok that I would only have 15 credit hours by the time I apply, since it seems that so many people on here had so many more credits upon applying (judging from old USC transfer decision threads). also if I should take a lot of credits during the spring to make up for it.</p></li>
<li><p>how much high school grades play a part in the decision and if I should retake the SATs</p></li>
<li><p>if there was any minimum GPA she’d recommend me to aim for </p></li>
<li><p>questions about GEs, requirements, and recommended courses for my major</p></li>
<li><p>if she would suggest sending recommendation laters</p></li>
<li><p>if ECs are considered in the decision (because I read on here that they don’t hold that much weight in the decision)</p></li>
<li><p>if the quick takes on the common app play a part in the decision or if they’re just for fun</p></li>
<li><p>if I applied to 2 majors, could I get into one school and not the other?</p></li>
<li><p>if I should start my foreign language now since it’s recommended or if I shouldn’t because my current school doesn’t offer the language I want to take</p></li>
<li><p>if applying to an impacted major would hurt my chances</p></li>
</ul>
<p>there were more and I would post her answers but I don’t want this post to be like 10+ paragraphs long lol. if you’re curious about her answers just let me know and i’ll pm them to you. I don’t know if this will enhance my chances honestly. I’m even a little paranoid it might hurt me for bothering her so much haha (my real counselor never replied to my second email --maybe busy, maybe annoyed? lol let’s hope not-- so some of the questions I sent to another counselor). I’m not sure if the counselors take part in the decision process…I want to ask someone but I obviously don’t want to ask them haha.</p>