Should I transfer, I don't want to!

<p>I'm a sophomore in the honors program at the College of Literature, Arts and Sciences. Last year I made a very tough decision when I chose to attend Michigan, when there were several schools I had to turn down due to my financial status. Right now, I have a 3.9 GPA with two A-'s in humanities classes( I'm not too strong in writing 10 page papers with extremely harsh Graders!).</p>

<p>I want to stay at Michigan, since it's definitely one of the best in the Nation, however schools such as MIT do have an added value ,but I don't think that makes too much of a difference( but my parents feel MIT beats Michigan). </p>

<p>If I transfer I need to make sure I get a full ride at the places I transfer, if money is an issue I really can't do that!. Do you think MIT is ahead of Michigan or do you think in another 3 years they will be on the same boat because of Michigan' switching to the common app!. Help please!</p>

<p>i don’t think michigan will reach MIT status anytime soon. but it’s definitely up there at the top for engineering and business. its still pretty strong for other subjects.</p>

<p>It sounds like you’re getting pressure from your parents to do the transfer application to MIT and see what happens. Well, why not? </p>

<p>If you get accepted and actually get a free ride, you can make a reasoned decision then.</p>

<p>Right now, you’re just engaging in pointless speculation about which college would be better “in another three years” when there’s no basis for assuming that you will have a choice between UM LSA and MIT. </p>

<p>My gut reaction is to say, do the transfer application and IF you get in and IF you get a free ride, then you can really attack the question about whether MIT is worth giving up what makes you happy and successful at Michigan, which you have said you don’t want to leave. </p>

<p>If you get into MIT and get a full ride and don’t want to go, then you can post here again for suggestions on how to persuade your parents that you will do better staying where you are, in the program where you’re doing so well because you’re happy and have friends and a life and it ought to be your decision…</p>

<p>Either tell your parents not to mess with a good thing — a 3.9 and a happy college student — or do the transfer application and deal with the choice when you actually have a real choice.</p>

<p>Thanks for the reply, the real question is if MIT is a better overall school than Michigan(rankings apart) . US news is a rather absurd way of ranking schools, especially when Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, Emory etc place over Cal and Michigan.</p>

<p>Better? Depends on your major.</p>

<p>I’m actually in almost the exact situation as you, but 1 year into the future.</p>

<p>I applied for transfer last year and got into several other schools. Transfer admissions are super-competitive (at least to the schools you’re thinking of), so I wouldn’t take it as a given that you’d get accepted to MIT. My GPA was higher and the rest of my stats were ridic as well and I still got rejected by a few of the top schools (although I didn’t apply to MIT because their deadline was too early, but I think I fit their profile pretty well).</p>

<p>Another thing to keep in mind is that financial aid for transfers is generally not that great. Some east coast schools gave me like 15 or 20k, but UM was still cheaper. Northwestern gave me a whopping 1k leaving me with a potential 50k bill! Haha.</p>

<p>I’d say go for it, apply first and ask questions later. If you get in, then you can make your decision. You should start working on essays and lining up letters of recommendation now bc it’s a ***** to work on them during the school year. You also need all of the old crap from your high school like transcripts and counselor’s letter of recommendation. If you have more questions pm me or email me bc my pm box is getting full.</p>

<p>It’s all in speculation at this point, I don’t really want to transfer to MIT for I believe Michigan is equally good or even better in terms of a perfect blend!. However, I’m keeping the option open because of my parents. I’m pretty sure no one would want to transfer from Michigan to Cal or Michigan to Cornell or Michigan to Northwestern unless you genuinely have a problem with reality.</p>

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<p>It’s not clear what this means. MIT doesn’t offer merit scholarships afaik. So you would have to be in position to receive a great deal of financial aid. This would perhaps be possible if your family’s financial situation drastically changed since last year - but you’d have to be pretty sure of this.</p>

<p>You should go ahead and apply. Being accepted as a transfer is extremely difficult regardless of how well you did your first year. In a way, it’ll still be a lottery. So give it a shot and weigh your options when the time comes.</p>

<p>Having transferred to Michigan, I can tell you that the transfer process is much tougher than applying to school from high school. It is extremely difficult to get scholarships, let alone a full ride from a school as a transfer and that is assuming you get accepted. Like others have said it will not hurt you to send in an application and see what happens, but don’t get your hopes up. You also need to consider where you will be in comparison to other students at a school you transfer to. You may need to take summer classes to graduate on time or extend school by a semester or two to fulfill your graduation requirements.</p>

<p>I recommend that you evaluate your reasons for transferring. Its important to transfer for the right reasons. Will changing schools give you opportunities that Michigan can’t or perhaps there are some changes you can make this year to make Michigan feel more like the right place for you. You only get to go through college once.</p>

<p>What in the world are you doing in LSA if you had/have hopes of applying to MIT? If you hate writing papers you shouldn’t just look to transfer to MIT, you should look to transfer out of LSA at least. But yes I joined LSA because I wans’t sure if I wanted to be take pre-med route or engineering. After I saw the ridiculous humanities requirements I’ve already decided to transfer to the engin school and taking courses for that. You should consider this at the very least if you wanted to apply to a school such as MItOh yeah, you’re probably not going to get a full ride to MIT unless you found the cure to cancer or unless they’ve personally contacted you (And I don’t mean those superficial letters that most people who scored well on SATs got from HYPS and such)</p>

<p>Awe that wasn’t personal…</p>

<p>Mde, perhaps OP is LSA because hes interested in mathematics instead of…errr sociology??</p>