Transfer at Spring(completing semester) or Withdraw & Consequences

I have this problem. I chose my current school because of athletics and an academic program I was interested in. Long story short, the athletics are not great for my mental health, and I chose psychology as my major (which I can get anywhere). This being said the school I chose is not cheap, so I am thinking of transferring to a less expensive college closer to home that still offers Psychology and small classes in that program. My debate is whether I should finish out this fall semester, but only one of my credits would transfer to the school I am primarily looking at - which seems like a giant waste of money for an “experience”. This being said I can finish out the semester, but would it be worth it to? Or should I just withdraw my classes since the only credit transferring is a psychology class that I may want to build upon at the school. I realize I will have to attend summer school, which is fine. But I was also wondering if I planned to go to graduate school, would this ruin my chances? As well as how does the financials work if I withdraw?

I’m surprised the semester has even started yet. There’s no sense in spending a bunch of money taking classes that aren’t going to transfer over to the school you’re going to. I would take as few as I can, then transfer. Be sure to talk to the financial aid department if you plan to take fewer classes, because that will affect your award/loan amount. As far as graduate school, it won’t affect anything. Graduate schools look mainly at your last two years of undergraduate coursework and GRE test scores.

Withdrawing won’t ruin your chances for grad school.

If you can withdraw and not owe this current institution a whole lot of money, then I say pack up your bags now. Go meet with your advisor and the financial aid office and see what is possible.

Good luck!

Yes my University has been started for a week now, and my drop/add period has ended so all I can do is withdraw from classes.

If all you can do is withdrawal, I would not recommend doing that. A bunch of Ws on a transcript all at once can not only affect your financial aid over time, it can raise a red flag for a competitive graduate school. I would just move forward and keep your classes. Even if they don’t directly transfer over, they usually will count as your free electives.

@coolguy40 brings up a good point about how Ws can affect your aid id you don’t maintain satisfactory academic progress. Since you are past the drop-add period, you probably wouldn’t get any money back if you left now, so there isn’t any good reason to leave. Do your best to get good grades this term, take advantage of everything you are paying for, and set yourself up for a successful transfer.