Hello all, so I am in kind of a tough situation here. I apologize in advance for the long story but I can use some help. Basically, last year as a freshman I attended a somewhat prestigious state school which I transferred out of after the first year to attend a slightly less prestigious state school. I absolutely hated my original school the first semester, I had no friends, I did poorly academically and there wasn’t much to do on the weekends so I found myself sitting in my room alone 90% of the time. I was pretty outgoing my first semester but all of the friendships that I thought I developed pretty much fell through which made me pretty disappointed. So I pretty much gave up and decided it was the school that was the main problem. After that drag of a semester I was pretty much dead set on transferring to get a fresh start. However, when second semester came around I winded up making a few pretty good friends that I would socialize with often, but I was still pretty unsatisfied with the lack of things to do on the weekends. This school was pretty greek life heavy, so if you weren’t in a fraternity or sorority there wasn’t much to do and the town was pretty small. There were a few clubs that I joined and enjoyed but not clubs that held any events or things to do during the weekends. So I decided to take a leave of absence for this fall semester in order to attend my new school and now here I am at my new school and i’m not sure if I made the right decision. There is definitely a better social scene/night life here and more stuff to do and I have made some friends but no one that I seem to have common interests with. I’m sure I would make more friends here as time goes on but now I am deciding to change my major to Business Administration and my old school is known for having a good school of business. My new school does have an accredited business program but not as prestigious or competitive as my old school. So now I am wondering if it would be worth it to use my leave of absence and attend my previous school again. I’m just trying to consider my networking opportunities and it seems that I would be able to develop more connections in terms of career opportunities at the old school. I do miss my old school, but that could just be because I spent a year of my life living there. I still have friends that I keep in touch with at the old school but I fear that I will still be unsatisfied for the same reasons that I mentioned before if I were to go back. I understand now that I probably transferred for the wrong reasons and should have just stuck it out at the other school due to the better reputation instead of transferring because of social problems. So I would like some advice or guidance as to whether I should go back to my previous school or should I stick it out here since I already made the decision to transfer? Thank you.
55 views and no responses. Is there really no one that can at least give me some help with this issue?
What do your parents think? What are the financial implications of transferring yet again?
Sounds to me like you made an impulsive decision to transfer the first time and you are only 1/2 way through your new school and want to transfer again. If you were my child, I would tell you to bloom where you are planted and forget about transferring yet again.
No financial implications at all if I were to transfer again and my parents are leaning towards me going back to the old school since it is held in higher prestige which is the main reason I’m thinking of going back. At the same time the academics are a little more rigorous at the old school so I’m not sure my grades will be as high which could be an issue. I do agree with you when you say it sounds like I made impulsive decision, since I did. So now it makes me feel like I will really regret my decision if I don’t go back since I feel like I made a mistake even transferring in the first place, but I could be totally wrong. It’s not that it’s bad at my new school, it’s just that obviously the friendships aren’t the same and it doesn’t really seem like it was worth the hassle of transferring here. So as you can tell I’m pretty indecisive about it since each situation has its own pros and cons.
It sounds like you are expecting the school to entertain you, to make school fun. It really doesn’t work that way. The opportunities are there, you have to find them and you aren’t going to do that by sitting in your room 90% of the time.
I don’t think it matters where you attend. Either school will work for a business degree.
Make a balance sheet for each school. Put pluses and minuses for each one then see if one is a clear choice. But include hard data in the mix. Which has more courses you’d be excited about taking? How are their internship programs? Are you guaranteed entry to the major? Is either a weed out program? If you see the details in writing it might help.
It is a bit hard to know since we don’t know the names of either school. However, a small difference in “prestige” is a very bad reason to transfer back to a school that you didn’t like. It sounds as if you like you new school better, and it is a very good school. You also said that you hated your old school.
A small difference in prestige does not matter. Liking your new school better does matter.
Based on what you have said I think that you should stay where you are and try to do as well as you can where you are. If you tell us the names of the schools, then we might be able to make a more informed opinion.
Also, regardless of which school you end up attending, you need to learn to write with your ideas thoughtfully organized into paragraphs.
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You should learn how to type paragraphs instead of walls of text
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You seem to think we live in a credentialed world. That a program that is “more prestigious or competitive” results in better opportunities and offers for each student. In the real world it is what you have done that counts. I guarantee you that kids from your current school that have leadership positions in clubs and seek internships are going to do much better than many kids from the “better” school without these
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You may not really have a choice about transferring back. You write " I decided to take a leave of absence for this fall semester in order to attend my new school." At some colleges they do not permit you to take a LOA to go enroll somewhere else to see if you like it. TSo if you call up your old school and say “I’m coming back” they may refuse to give you any units for the work you did this year or even refuse to take you back. Better check up on the rules first if you haven’t already.
Agree with @mikemac above. You need to see if your credits are transferable and you may have to submit a transfer app. It doesn’t sound like you are on LOA from your old school.
Please learn to edit before you post. Using the word “pretty” nine times in six sentences makes me wonder if this post is real. In the event it is, I am glad you relaized that your reasons for transferring in the first place were, frankly, immature. Remember that for a really good degree in business, you need an MBA ideally.
The grass isn’t always greener. I think youneed to stop trying to find something better than weave you have and instead make the most out of what you chose.
Here is an example LOA policy
It may differ at other colleges. ASU, for example, says