<p>I will be a freshman at the University of Illinois Urbana-Campaign this fall, and although I am looking forward to going off to college, I'm not so thrilled about UIllinois. Its much pricier than I thought; as an out of state student I will have to put up around 50k per year total. While my parents are willing to pay, I don't want to have them pay all that money for me to go to school somewhere where I would be miserable. I am highly considering going to grad school(law or mba) after college, and it would be a lot easier on my parents if I went someplace cheaper. The price isn't the only issue though, since I HATE cold weather, and being from VA, Illinois will be absolutely freezing for me. To go along with that, I really wasn't a big fan of the campus when I went to visit, nor am I thrilled with its location in the middle of a cornfield. I picked Illinois because I got into their business school and it was the best one I got into, plus a few relatives of mine went there as well. There's a good chance that I will love it at Illinois and stay there all 4 years, but I want to keep my options open in case I don't really like it and/or I'm able to transfer to a better school. </p>
<p>Basically, I'm wondering if there are any requirements to transferring someplace else that I need to complete if I wanna transfer after my freshman year. I'm also wondering how hard is it to transfer to another school, like say UVA,UNC, USC, BC, GTown...essentially I want to know how hard it is to transfer to a better(and hopefully warmer) school. For reference, I had a 3.7 GPA in HS, varsity athlete, 30 ACT, NHS, solid volunteer hours, also got into PSU,Indiana,Miami(FL). I plan on getting at least a 3.5 at Illinois this year, although I should be able to pull straight A's fall semester.
If anyone is willing to give me some advice it would be much appreciated, or if anyone can point me to another source where I can find more information about this type of transfer, that would be awesome. Thanks!</p>
<p>With a 3.7 GPA and a 30 ACT, why didn’t you simply apply to more/“better” schools in the first place? Surely you had to know when you applied that Illinois can be a hell of a lot colder that Virgina. Was money an issue when you confirmed your enrollment? Did you apply to UVA for freshman admission? You’re in-state and have good grades/test scores. </p>
<p>Georgetown takes a small number of transfers every year, but if you keep a high GPA in college, coupled with your good HS academic record, it shouldn’t be impossible to transfer to one of the schools you listed. You also would need to have a good essay for why you want to transfer and make good connections (as good as they can be in less than a year’s time) with your professors as you’re going to need to letters of recommendation.</p>
<p>I would say to immerse yourself in the campus and try to find the positives about it. Join clubs, make friends, and do well in your classes. You can check the schools websites for transfer histories. I know USC has an articulation history page that lists many schools (articulation history, not agreement.), so you could see if they have one with your current school and try to take classes from it.</p>
<p>@meShannon It’s kinda hard to explain, but my school district is extremely competitive and sends kids to top schools all over the country. Even with a 3.7 GPA, I wouldn’t be in the top 15% of my class(luckily they don’t rank). I knew kids with over 4.0’s and 2100 SAT’s who didnt get into any of the schools I listed below, most notably UVA, which is nearly impossible to get into from my location in VA. And I did apply to better schools, but was rejected from USC and surprisingly rejected from Tulane. I should have applied to more schools, but I didn’t work too hard in high school and now its coming back to haunt me a bit. I know if I go off to grad school, where I went to undergrad isn’t as much of a big deal, but with the economy the way it is, if I get offered a solid job out of college it’d be much more reasonable to take it rather than pay another 200k to go to grad school and possibly not have any job offers afterwards. </p>
<p>@princess Yea I am definitely going to do my best to get involved, I will give Illinois its chance to impress and grow on me before I decide to leave. I just think that I would be happier someplace with better academics and possibly a warmer climate.</p>
<p>mpball28, are you from nova? I know it’s so hard to get into UVA from that region in VA (not where I’m from, but where I’ve spent the past couple years).</p>
<p>@brishe yea, Nova has great high schools but they are so competitive that it makes it super hard to get into really good schools in VA/surrounding areas. That’s why I’m hoping I would have a better shot as a transfer student at UVA, but also at other schools. Hopefully a semester of college with at least a 3.5 GPA can show these schools that I’m better than what my high school grades were. Unfortunately though I’m not sure if that will be enough time, I might have to transfer as a sophomore if I want a better chance, but I really don’t wanna do 2 yrs and then 2 yrs at another school. Especially from a huge school like Illinois, it will be tough to get recommendations from professors in large freshman gen-ed classes.</p>