To start off, I’m a senior in high school and recently got my rejection letter from NYU. It’s been my dream school since I was very young but due to circumstances (going to a very rigorous school in the city, dealing with multiple personal problems, etc) my high school GPA is low, like an 84/100 (my guidance counselor said it was about a 3.0). I’m going to Binghamton for now because their in state tuition is the cheapest, and it’s a pretty good school. I’d like to experience what it’s like to be in a college campus, but I’m not sure if I will enjoy the isolation (I’m a city person and grew up/live in NYC). I’m determined to work hard and get myself together in college and would appreciate any helpful tips from other people who have successfully transferred to NYU, so that I can plan my academics and extracurriculars accordingly by the time I start my freshmen year in college. I’m planning to major in International Relations with a minor in political science btw.
@shk637 Can you and your parents afford NYU?? It has terrible financial aid. Compared to binghamton, the price is about 13K per year higher… Do you really want that debt?
Being sad and lonely at Binghamton is also not a solution.
Maybe you should look at schools with better financial aid that are in urban areas.
Temple University is one.
USC, depending on family income, could be one, but you need to se what they offer. Also transfer students don’t always get great financial aid.
Any of the CUNY schools are much cheaper and they’re in NYC. Try Hunter, Lehman, City College, Baruch. They offer great value as professors want to be in NYC and so CUNY attracts some really good professors. You get all of the stuff that NYU offers in terms of location and many of the job contacts, but not the high price tag.
Other SUNY schools are in cities: Buffalo, Albany, New Paltz is not a city but it’s a really cute town.
You may want to consider private schools that offer great financial aid, like Vassar and Hamilton (but that’s a smaller town), Colgate, Cornell. Cornell takes transfer students into their CALS programs especially.
Best of luck
Yeah, I heard NYU is notoriously stingy when it comes to financial aid, especially to transfer students. My parents said that finances aren’t a problem, and even if it was too much for them, I’d still like to know that I got accepted. I wouldn’t want to be sad and lonely in Binghamton. At first, I wasn’t very excited, but Bing is a good school, and for a very reasonable price, so I’m pretty open to going to the school and experiencing what it’s like. I’m a city person but maybe I’d enjoy being somewhere secluded. I am actually considering transferring to a CUNY (most likely hunter but I took classes in City College every summer in high school and I agree, the professors are great and everyone is nice and laid back compared to the cut throat, tense environment I experienced in high school.)
I heard that getting into Cornell as a transfer student is also easy compared to other Ivy schools, but what I’m worried about is that the academic competitiveness there might be similar to the one in my high school.
What’s the question exactly? It is definitely possible transfer after one year, but it will still be difficult since you will only have completed 1 full semester of college, so your high school grades and standardized tests will still weigh in pretty heavily. Also you should not go into college with the mindset to transfer because you will probably not get the full experience. Reassess your happiness and grades after your first semester.
Cornell’s transfer rate is higher than other Ivies, but that’s because many of them are guaranteed transfer. It is still very difficult to transfer to Cornell by any measure, and it is presumably harder than freshman admission.
Definitely apply to Cornell and NYU again. It’s worth a shot if they’re where you will be happiest!