No. I wasn’t working for the university in this case. It was outside of the university, and they were still retaliating.
Admissions officers are very used to hearing from transfer students that their old college wasn’t a good fit as a way to show why they left and even why their GPA was lower than they would have liked: classes were too large or the department wasn’t supportive enough or the focus wasn’t right, etc.
If you decide you really need to discuss what happened at your previous university, I would suggest you choose your words very carefully. Sure, you are trying to gauge whether a new college would be better for you than your old college, but the admission officers is trying to gauge you as a person and a student and how well you will fit into their institutions.
As a way to get some ideas, there’s a lot of advice out there about how to talk to an interviewer about why a person left their old job when it was because they were harassed or the old job was otherwise a toxic environment.
This could give you some good language to use where you give hints about why you left without actually getting into details that could be off-putting to an interviewer and at the same time showing why the new University would be a great place for you.
6 Likes
My response to that would be you asked - Could someone with more experience comment on this issue? And that’s what many have done.
I don’t mean to minimize the issue at all but you stated this:
I feel very unsafe and have left the country overseas due to the stalking and extreme racism, but the institution I transfer to should be aware that there are several people currently harassing and trying to defame me for safety reasons.
So - and I don’t know where you came from and the culture, but it almost sounds like it would have to be James Bond tracking you from another country. In most cases, out of sight out of mind - so you’d be long forgotten. If someone is truly tracking you from another country and/or continent and harassing you, you need to report that to the authorities, not your new college.
Secondly, colleges have enough on their plates - managing security, violence, theft, loud parties, etc on campus. If they are going to need to focus protection on one individual, short of it being a President of the US’s kid, they’re not going to want that person on campus - and the President’s kids come with their own security.
I can’t say it any nicer - there’s no business or institution that would want to be involved in this situation in any way.
OK - i’ll leave it alone now.
Thanks and best of luck.
8 Likes
Yes, definitely, this was already mentioned in my comment earlier, it will be done “tactfully”, but I’m looking for solid advice on it. tsbna and other posters aren’t offering any constructive advice on tactful explanations.
I found this: https://skloverworkingwisdom.com/my-former-employer-is-trying-to-sabotage-my-career-almost-like-a-stalker-what-can-i-do/
So what about your former employer? His company must appear on your resume. If you still believe you may be bad-mouthed, consider preparing one letter, yourself, that says something like this:
“To Whom It May Concern: One of my former employers, Bob Smith of XYZ Company was upset with me that I chose to resign from that company for a new job. For that reason, Mr. Smith may remain upset with me to this day. Just as former employees who are let go sometimes hold on to negative feelings, so do some former employers who feel abandoned or betrayed by resigning employees. I can only assure you that I provided the same positive performance for XYZ Company that I did for all of my other former employers. In fact, enclosed you will find contact information for four of the clients I served well while I was with XYZ Company. Clients are the ultimate arbiters of good performance, and I invite you to contact them; each has offered to serve as a reference. Of course, you may wish to speak with Bob Smith directly, and for that purpose I provide his contact information, as well.”
I don’t agree with the last sentence, though. That’s unnecessary to provide contact for someone who would provide negative comments.
Are you suggesting that mentioning a person by name is appropriate? It’s not.
1 Like
It’s not, and quite obviously inappropriate to name names, why did you assume so? There are a lot of misunderstandings in this thread, serious replies only please.
Sadly, you don’t get to dictate who can respond or how they respond.
7 Likes
Sorry, mod, I don’t believe that poster’s response was in good faith and was an attempt at gaslighting, because nowhere in my comment did I state that. The same goes for the other comments that I need to essentially stop posting (this thread was just started in the last day) and stop seeking additional advice and to not mention any negative experience in the app at all. Nor was the response about my gender in good faith, even if I were a man, because I could be an “old” man seeking to transfer college and not a “young” man - how condescending and arrogant of that poster. I don’t believe that gender comment was appropriate at all, and I believe your switch to a “slow thread” was motivated by call out for this comment as well as your own opinion that negative experiences should not be mentioned, given how you said I should leave my own thread to “process” responses and “allow others to join in”. The first is unnecessary, since I’ve been carefully processing every response and replying to every response as well as “allowing” anyone to comment so long as it is appropriate and doesn’t belittle me for seeking additional different perspectives.
For future comments, I would prefer constructive advice on tactful explanations or additional reasoning from a different angle that I should not mention any negative experience. So far, reasoning for not mentioning negative responses has been the following and quite repetitive:
- It makes me look bad
- AOs will just turn the page
- AOs don’t care about your previous university (actually not true)
- They are like HR and want to protect the university
- Fears of suspicions and similar accusations at their university
- No resources to address issues
- Many other applicants don’t mention it in their apps (but are they successful admits to “top” universities?)
- Just transfer to a university that takes low gpas, because low gpa wouldn’t be admitted anyway
For future commenters, please address the following concerns mentioned in earlier comments to keep the discussion moving forwards:
- I’m sure they would want more explanation so the same issues don’t repeat at the transfer institution.
- I’m not yet completely convinced because I would be skeptical of an application without an explanation that simply says it isn’t a good fit but doesn’t justify why performance would suddenly improve at another university.
Please also refrain from general comments about the following:
- Advising to get mental health treatment
- Advising to get legal services
Unless they are referrals to specific services or admissions counselors, as one commenter helpfully messaged me.
Thanks very much for everyone’s responses.
In response to your first question: no.
In response to this second issue: I, too, encourage you to seek legal counsel if you’re concerned about your personal security and your ability to safely attend any school due to harassment or stalking concerns. As previously discussed, no university will have the interest or manpower to adequately address these types of safety issues for one student. It seems it would be prudent to take care of these problems so that you will be in a better position safety-wise to start at your new school.
Unfortunately your situation sounds complicated and parallel courses of action seem to be required to sort through all the issues.
3 Likes
I would respectfully suggest OP reread the thread from beginning to end and ask herself are you portraying yourself as someone that an objective person would want as a member of their community.
You have ignored thoughtful and earnest advice, contradicted yourself and been extremely aggressive. Fleeing the country, calling the police and having them ignore you, conspiracy theories, etc (even if entirely true) will serve as red flags if incorporated in an application.
Noted that you will now immediately give me a thumbs down emoji, but I would suggest you consider your own behavior as clearly you have no intention of listening to any advice contrary to what you want to hear. I wish you luck and the opportunity to find inner peace.
16 Likes
Having read through this all, I agree with the vast majority of responses. My experience as relayed from other students has been it’s fairly easy to transfer just by noting a poor fit in School A. If one wants to bring “baggage” with them, schools or employers are far less likely to be interested knowing the same person could end up being “trouble” for them.
That said, seeing how the OP disagrees with them, I’ll just wish her well as she proceeds with what she feels is best.
8 Likes
I’m so sorry, I don’t take character attacks lightly, like being “aggressive” and not being “objective”. Please justify these. In fact, other posters, like you, have been aggressively suggesting I stop posting on my own thread for other advice, not the same repeated perspectives, and wishing me to leave and “find inner peace”. How condescending. Also, calling someone a man is not thoughtful or earnest at all.
Again, I’m looking for tactful advice.
“ I’m so sorry, I don’t take character attacks lightly, like being “aggressive” and not being “objective”. Please justify these”
I won’t engage in debate as I think you need support beyond my abilities or expertise.
Please note by “objective” I was talking about the AO who will read your application and by aggressive I mean misconstruing what I meant by objective.
“ and wishing me to leave and “find inner peace”. How condescending”
Actually that was sincere as you are clearly troubled. I have kids and think you need help but respect you enough to be honest.
Be safe and get well!!
7 Likes
For a little bit of other tactful advice, all the thumbs down emojis speak volumes. No one I know would consider them helpful volumes, but nonetheless, they shout out personality.
4 Likes
Actually, character attacks like calling someone “extremely aggressive” are against the mod’s most recent post about rules. I doubt that you have read the entire thread yourself and would encourage you yourself to reread from top to bottom. I take your lack of justification as a post that’s not serious to the discussion.
“Aggressive” is not a character attack.
1 Like
behaving in an angry and violent way towards another person:
Thesaurus: synonyms, antonyms, and examples
Since the conversation seems to be going around in circles, and almost every new posts is getting flagged, I am extending slow mode from 15 minutes between posts to 30.
4 Likes
I like that you clarified what kind of help you want in this thread going forward and I do hope people offer it. I will try.
I am thinking about this line you are trying to walk between sharing enough to put the lower grades in context but not so much that red flags are raised. I think if you can show that the lower grades were a blip and find a way to demonstrate your current academic abilities then that could serve as ‘evidence’ that you will perform in their new environment. On the other side of not raising red flags, perhaps you can focus on the part where you advocated for yourself and learned and sought out what was best for you. I very much agree with you that if a school is completely put off by a person having to advocate for themselves in a challenging situation then that is not a place where you want to be.
I hope you will dig deeply into the culture at the schools you are targeting. You have lived what it is like to be in the wrong place and I really don’t want that to happen to you again.
5 Likes
@Transferee1 Here is the thing. People gave you advice. You can take it or you can leave it. However, you cannot tell people “I don’t like your advice, give me different advice”.
Well, you CAN say that, but don’t expect that they will do it.
Bottom line - there is no “tactful” way to mention what you are telling us happened to you at your previous university. Any mention of conflict between you and the university will hurt your application far more that your GPA will.
If you write anything even close to “my low GPA was due to bad behavior on the part of my previous college”, almost every AO will translate that to: “I will likely not be able to do any better at your college, and I will blame you for it”.
For you, it is something terrible that happened to you. For the AOs, it is just one more story among many. They have no way to verify that what you are saying is true, and no incentive to do so in the first place.
So don’t mention it, no matter how tactfully.
Since you were always in good standing, there are colleges which will accept you with your present GPA.
15 Likes