<p>Hi,
I'm looking to transfer for next year. I'm currently a freshman at Miami University (OH) and am hating it here. This school was my fallback, and I am attending 100% for financial reasons (I have a full tuition merit scholarship).</p>
<p>The problem is, most of the schools I am researching do not extend significant merit aid to transfer students. I have a 36 ACT, 800s on both my SAT IIs, 5's on all 9 of my AP tests, a 4.0 GPA from high school, etc. I know that this kind of info is less important when transferring but I'm just giving it for background. I expect to have a strong GPA (fingers crossed) this year at college as well.</p>
<p>I'm looking for suggestions of good schools that will give me a merit package or that are not too expensive on their own. My family doesn't qualify for financial aid, but we can't afford $50k/year. State schools are fine, I just want a well-ranked university that I can afford. Thanks!</p>
<p>Transfer students are judged mainly on college GPA for admission and scholarships (which are less common than for frosh). High school achievements are still considered if you apply to transfer at the sophomore level, but are likely to have minimal to no importance if you apply to transfer at the junior level.</p>
<p>What do you dislike about Miami University, and what are you looking for in a school? Or you are looking only for rankings?</p>
<p>“My family doesn’t qualify for financial aid, but we can’t afford $50k/year. State schools are fine, I just want a well-ranked university that I can afford.”</p>
<p>Well, what can your family afford?</p>
<p>We can afford about $20,000. My dad is dead set against me (or him) taking out any loans because he will have to cosign on them and he doesn’t want to risk having to use his retirement fund to pay them back if for some reason I can’t. He’s pretty pessimistic about the economy so he’s been conservative in what he will spend on our educations and on loans, etc. </p>
<p>I just feel like Miami is not a great school academically, and the social scene is much too party-heavy for my taste. The kids tend to be rich and snobby. I do like the size of the school and all the clubs it offers, so that’s something that I would be looking for if I transferred.</p>
<p>You might want to check out Shimer College in Chicago. They are part of a consortium of colleges that share a campus, so even though they are tiny, there’s about 10,000 students among all the colleges located there. They give out lots of financial aid. My daughter didn’t qualify for any need based financial aid (her parents are very fortunate financially), and they still gave her about $10K/year. The tuition isn’t bad for a small private college–about $27K/year. And if you are thinking about grad school someday, around 25% of Shimer grads ultimately get doctoral degrees–best in the country except for two technical colleges.</p>