I am a freshman in undergrad and have already transferred once mid-year due to financials. I transferred from a fancy and pricey institution in NYC to a public state university. I do not plan on graduating from the state uni, so I need to transfer by the end of my soph year. My stats: High school GPA: 3.77 and my two freshman GPAs are 3.5 (first semester) and 4.0 (second semester). My standardized test score was (VERY LOW) a 20 on the ACT. I had the option of turning my low grade in philosophy to a Satisfactory (how would I recover that grade if needed?) So colleges look into Satisfactory grades, it is not included in the second semester GPA. The schools on my list for transfer are :
Brown U- Northwestern University Cornell University- Barnard College- Hamilton College - Boston University - Wesleyan University
It depends on what those schools need right now from transfer students.
I think if you were having problems before with financial aid, you’re going to have even worse problems now with financial aid because transfers don’t do well with funding. With the coronavirus all the schools have lost money. They just don’t have that money for transfers at those pricey schools.
Check the financial aid pages for the schools you hope to attend and see how they fund transfer students. If you qualify for federal funds like the Pell and federal loans, these may be your only options for funding, which isn’t likely to put a dent in the annual cost of attendance.
Stay at your instate school and do well. It doesn’t matter where you get your degree as long as you graduate. You seem to be hunting for prestige and that is going to cost you a lot of money which you probably don’t have.
I am transferring to a third school because my school does not have International Relations as a major. I am a philosophy major due to the school not having IR and I think that Cornell is the right place because not only does it the entirety of its undergraduate courses prepare me for law school but it will help make law school easier. So, I am not necessarily hinting for prestige I have simply found a program that will bolster my success in law school while majoring in IR. Comments, thoughts?
When did you decide that you want to major in IR? Just recently?
Were you restricted in the home-state public U that you could transfer to for some reason, and that is why you ended up at one that doesn’t have an IR major?
If money is an issue, you should look at your own affordable home-state system and see if any of those universities offer your major. If not, then look for similar majors.
But, frankly, since Law Schools don’t care at all about your major, just your GPA and your LSAT score, if the only place you can afford to study at is where you are right now, and the only tolerable major there is the one you are in, then just put your head down and aim for good grades and a good LSAT.