Should we bother trying to transfer?

Transfer Students
1

<p>Hello, everyone:</p>

<p>This is my first post here. I am a parent of a USC sophomore who, really isn't very happy at USC. However, he has a 4.0 average after 1 year at the Viterbi Engineering and was taking some reasonably heavy math courses along the way to beat. I guess I was kind of thinking to myself "well, if you are going to pull the ejection cord, isn't now the time to do it?" </p>

<p>Trouble is, USC is a fantastic school and honestly, if he transfers it has to be to at least a peer institution or even a better one. He wants to stay in engineering. So we would be talking MIT, Northwestern, Stanford, Cornell, or he can just slog it out as a trojan. Which I think is a wonderful place, and a lot of the time he is happy, too.</p>

<p>Can you bear with me if I explain this a bit? He graduated '13 from a CT public high school. The only thing I can say is that he had a horrible guidance counselor who despite his scores and nearly straight A's discouraged him from applying to any sort of top tier school. The only thing I can think of was that she liked to keep her "batting average" up and not encourage her students to "stretch" in their application process (it must have kept her from receiving the irate phone calls from parents.) So, no, he really didn't apply at the caliber of places he should have, and really wouldn't listen to his loving parents in the whole process...(We're lucky he applied to USC)</p>

<p>BUT..and I like I said, there's no point in going through all this if we can weasel our way into a top tier school (lateral or upward move.) But a lot of good stuff happened senior year after the college apps were submitted.</p>

<p>So, here's the run down:</p>

<p>COLLEGE:</p>

<p>Freshman year Viterbi engineering 4.0, Alpha Lambda Delta honorary, selected for Viterbi School Honors Program</p>

<p>His professor letters won't be that great as for the most part they don't know him. (Somewhat large classes) He had one twice and once or twice he remarked that "so and so" knew me by name (!)</p>

<p>HIGH SCHOOL</p>

<p>Senior year--took 6 APs and got 5's all of them, bringing total APs to 8 (all 5's), (National AP Scholar)
GPA slightly over 4.0 with the bumps for the AP (had one B freshman year)
SAT (1500/2230)
SAT II: 780 (Math II), 770 Chem, 730 US Hist</p>

<p>In high school he lots of extra curriculars and sports and captianships, and received an award for that type of thing. </p>

<p>After graduation, he was awarded all academic lacrosse high school team which is something that he is very proud of.</p>

<p>In terms of schools, we really haven't zeroed in on any, but the ones that come to mind are (Cornell, Northwestern, MIT...) Once again, he's engineering/mathematics oriented, and he would be lost if he couldn't play lacrosse at a club level.</p>

<p>My thinking is that his academics at USC should be pretty impressive to anyone, no? and that the second half senior year stuff (when no one was looking) 6 AP's all 5's (Calculus BC) have to count for something, and the all academic-sports team, etc. wouldn't that make a top tier college take a look? I would also really like to avoid the stress of bringing this up if we're barking up the wrong tree.</p>

<p>So, I appreciate the candid feedback, comments, observations, and I hope no one is too put off by anything I have said.</p>

<p>ParentalUnit55</p>

2

<p>Can you quantify what exactly he doesn’t like?</p>

3

<p>I don’t know that USC was even a place he ever wanted to go in the first place. The school fit his screens he had and the app didn’t have any essays I think–a lot of short answers. Obviously they were correct to admit him, because he’s doing fantastic. I really hate to say all this because I know there are so many people that are dying to get in. So, maybe we can make room for one more. </p>

<p>I really don’t know why he doesn’t like it. Honestly, I really think, it goes back to not really wanting to seriously go in the first place. It can color your whole percetion. I don’t think he likes LA that much. He doesn’t seem to make friends very easily there, and yet he has tons of friends back home here in CT–I mean tons of friends. He think he feels like a fish out of water. I have so many phone calls with him crying that just rip my heart out. All in all, we’re all put here to be happy, ultimately, the bottom line is I really can’t put my finger on why it isn’t working out.</p>

<p>So, like I said, I want at least mentally to explore this option, but sure don’t want to go down this path if it’s a waste of time.</p>

<p>(And, yes, he’s seen the school shrinks.) </p>

4

<p>If the reason for transfer is “prestige”, it is an absolutely wrong reason. A top engineering student from USC is just as employable as a student from MIT. He will also be very competitive in getting in to top advanced degree programs.</p>

5

<p>Maybe Cornell or Penn but somehow I kind of doubt these one post poster.</p>

6

<p>You need to get him to articulate more clearly why he would want to transfer and what he is looking for in a new school. Otherwise he may be no better off in a new environment. Classes won’t be any smaller at Cornell, for example (and the weather will not be better!). </p>

<p>Transferring is not all it is cracked up to be. Coming in as a junior, other students already have formed friendship groups. Two years is not long to settle in at a new school. He may also find it harder to keep up his high GPA at a higher caliber school like MIT even if he can get in. And depending on the course sequence at his new school, you might end up paying for an extra semester or two.</p>

<p>But if he is truly miserable, in tears on the phone as a sophomore, then you probably need to encourage him to fill out transfer applications. But… don’t worry about prestige. You want him in a place where he is comfortable and mentally happy. That may mean a more lateral move than you are considering. Stop thinking about it only being worth it if he “moves up” in schools. It could be worth it to move for his own mental health and happiness.</p>

7

<p>In my opinion, if you can’t pinpoint more clearly why he’s unhappy at USC, transferring doesn’t seem to make sense. There’s no point in going from one bad situation to another, and if you don’t know why he’s unhappy, then it would be difficult to transfer to a school that would make him happy. You say that he did not want to go to USC in the first place, and that may be part of the problem, so where is it that he originally wanted to go? Has your son expressed interest in wanting to transfer? If so, where does he think he would want to go?</p>

<p>He’s obviously doing very well academically and has always done so, so being able to transfer to a good school is probably not an issue. But if you don’t know exactly what the problem is, then transferring doesn’t necessarily solve his problem.</p>

8

<p>I also wonder about the timing of this post. If this person is seriously thinking of transferring why wait until the August to pose this question. Didn’t school just started?</p>