<p>During my freshman year of college at DePaul University, my mom was diagnosed with terminal cancer. I chose to drop out and return home to be with her. After one semester at a local community college, I enrolled at a nearby four-year school, Mills College. I've spent two years here and last summer my mom past away. I really am not enjoying myself at Mills and I'm strongly considering transferring. But a major issue is cost.</p>
<p>My dad promised to pay for 4 years of college, and if I stay at Mills, I will graduate on time and not have to late out any personal loans. But all of the schools I've applied to as a transfer require two years for me to graduate, so I would have to take out personal loans for one year.</p>
<p>I was accepted to several colleges, but am seriously considering University of Denver, Case Western Reserve University, and University of Hawaii at Manoa. Because I'm a California resident, I receive a serious discount at University of Hawaii. Tuition would be only $13,000 for a whole year. Also, I have a friend in Hawaii who will let me stay at their house for free. So Hawaii would be really affordable.</p>
<p>University of Denver offered me a $12,000 scholarship, but I estimated that I would still have to take out $35,000-$40,000 in loans for my final year, for both tuition and housing.</p>
<p>Case Western Reserve University is by far the most expensive of the options. They did not offer me any financial aid, so I would have to take out $55,000 in loans to go there.</p>
<p>I haven't gotten the chance to visit any of these school, so I'm not really sure about the vibe of the campuses of what kind of people would be there. Also, I'm majoring in Anthropology and I think that Hawaii and Denver seem to have the better anthropology programs. But I know Case is a more prestigious school.</p>
<p>I first want to express my condolences about the passing of your mother. </p>
<p>I think it would be good to know why you are unhappy at Mills. Is it that it’s close to home? Or do you feel that the academic experience isn’t rigorous enough? Knowing that will make the cost-benefit decision on whether loans (and an extra year) is the right choice to make. Also, are you sure that you won’t run into the same problem once you transfer? Hopefully if you can ensure that won’t be the case, that will at least leave transferring as an option on the table. </p>
<p>Not knowing much more, this is a very difficult choice. On one side, one should never be clearly unhappy on where they go to school. The other side is that you only have one more year left, and the additional loans plus a year of taking unnesccisary classes seems a bit pointless.</p>
<p>Have you thought of taking a semester or year off while you are applying to the schools just to avoid a year’s worth of tuition. You could probably find a coop or something to do for that period of time.</p>
<p>Ignore what I previously posted. If you really wanted to transfer, I would go with the cheapest school in this case. 55k is somewhat ridiculous to pay for one year and I think you will probably be able to get the same starting salary for any job regardless of which one you go to (I might be wrong).</p>
<p>You might also want to consider graduate school if you only have a year left at Mills. It might be more useful.</p>
<p>blueapple: There are a few reasons why I’m not enjoying Mills. I definitely feel like it’s not academically challenging enough for me. I graduated high school 3rd in my class and took 7 AP courses. Most of the people I know at Mills took one AP class, maybe two. I just don’t feel like it’s the caliber of school that I want to have a degree from after all the work I did in high school to get into a good college.
I also don’t like the politics of the school. Mills attracts a very specific type of person. This school is extremely liberal and sometimes I just can’t stand it. The students and professors practically laugh at me if I don’t agree with their liberal opinions and I don’t like the one-sided education I’m receiving. Last year, one of my professors even offered us extra credit if we went to Occupy Oakland with her. I just don’t want future employers to see my degree from Mills and assume that I fit the Mills stereotype.</p>
<p>marty212: I am considering graduate school. Probably an MBA and/or a Masters in Anthropology. I don’t know how much the prestige of the undergrad college is taken into consideration during the admissions process for graduate schools.</p>
<p>Another think I should point out is that I just realized something. At Mills, I’m currently a psychology major (and hating it) and a math minor. If I drop the math minor, I could finish my psychology degree in one semester. I really like math and would prefer to have that math minor, but I’m not sure if a minor is worth staying at a school that I’m not enjoying.</p>
<p>Dippy, many of the universities on the west coast have liberal leanings, so I would take UH off the radar.
When you chose your major, what were you planning on doing with the psych degree? If anything, it required graduate school if you planned on doing anything in that field. It’s also kind of a liberal degree, so I’m puzzled by the choice, given your AP background. Most of the hs kids in my children’s AP classes were STEM majors.</p>
<p>You need to check with the universities that you planned on applying to, to see if they will accept your credits, you may have too many. If you change major, that could be a different story.<br>
Good luck!</p>
<p>happymomof1 - I considered becoming a math major, but unlike psychology, math classes have to be taken in a certain order. And because Mills is such a small school, they only offer most of the math classes once a year, so unfortunately I wouldn’t be able to graduate on time with a major major.</p>
<p>aunt bea - I really only chose to major in psychology because it was an easy major. And at the time I had to decide, my mom was very ill and I just wanted to major in something that wouldn’t be stressful so that I could focus on my mom. I do plan on going to graduate school. I haven’t decided what I’ll study in graduate school, but it certainly won’t be psychology. I’m considering maybe anthropology, education, or an mba.
In high school, I took 7 APs: english language, english lit, us history, stats, calculus ab, calculus bc, and studio art. I’ve always like math, but never science. I’ve always been more of an arts person. That’s why I started at DePaul as a costume design major. But I quickly decided that I needed some more academically challenging classes. Spending everyday drawing and sewing got boring pretty fast.
Most of the colleges I’ve been admitted to have accepted around 60 credits. I’ve don’t he math several time and I can’t really figure out why Mills considers me a senior, but most of these other colleges see me as a junior. I think it may be because Mills accepted all of my costume design courses as elective credits.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I didn’t start applying to transfer until many deadlines had already passed, including the UC deadline. Plus I don’t think I fulfill some of the transfer requirements, like a foreign language. Trying to get a bachelors from a US would probably require three more years. I don’t feel like it’s worth the time.</p>
<p>Dippy: You stated that you wanted an easy major like psych and in your earlier posting, you also stated that the caliber of this school wasn’t challenging enough. It’s a psych degree! Can’t have it both ways.
If money is an issue, and, before you jump into grad school, don’t you think you should look at some requirements of these programs? Some may not admit you if your major is not the specific discipline. You don’t appear to have a clear idea of what you want to doo other than NOT doing psych.
So you’re basically stuck because your Bachelor’s degree in psych, at this point, won’t really get you anywhere other than with a diploma that you can’t actually use.<br>
Stop; research the schools and finances, then make a decision.<br>
I would suggest that you consider the STEM majors. You don’t have to study ALL of them, just pick a discipline within STEM. You’ll probably make more money with those majors.</p>
<p>“I can’t really figure out why Mills considers me a senior, but most of these other colleges see me as a junior. I think it may be because Mills accepted all of my costume design courses as elective credits.”</p>
<p>That is likely. But also, most schools will only award degrees to students who have spent a minimum of two years in residence at that college. There’s no such thing as transferring in as a senior at most schools. Hawaii is the only option that is affordable to you, but it’s likely to be just as liberal as Mills, and not necessarily any tougher academically.</p>
<p>If you are almost done with the psych major at Mills, I would just finish and get your degree, and use your remaining electives to take all the STEM courses you can. If you want to do a master’s in STEM, you may be able to take the required prerequisite courses as a post-baccalaureate student. Take the toughest STEM courses open to you now (whether they conform to the “minor” sequence or not) and get the best possible grades in them, and you’ll still have a shot at graduate programs. The prestige of the undergrad school is not a big factor there.</p>
<p>When it came time to choose a major last year, my mom was in and out of the hospital. I chose psychology so that I didn’t have to focus on my schoolwork. I needed the flexibility to focus on my mom.
But the caliber of the college overall is also lower than I would like. Even in the science and math courses I’ve taken (and psychology is consider a natural science at Mills).</p>
<p>I also did the math, and turns out because Mills uses an unusual credit system (one course = 1 credit = 3.5 regular semester credits), most of these colleges I’ve applied to have considered me a junior. Because they transfer each of my Mills classes to be 3 credits, not 3.5 as Mills claims they are. Also, for some reason, Mills requires 6 less courses to graduate than a regular semester college, that’s why I’d be able to graduate in only one more semester.</p>