I am currently a junior economics student at Arizona State University, I began as an architecture student and that program is the main reason why I chose to go to ASU as well as the honors college which I was admitted to. My freshman year I discovered that the architecture program was not accredited and would require 2 years of graduate school with an architecture degree or 3 years of graduate school with a non architecture degree, this definitely affected my opinion on the school and as a result I regretted going to ASU. Had I not attended ASU I would most likely be attending either the University of Denver or the University of Colorado Boulder for a business degree in economics, both of which are likely better degrees than my ASU economics degree I will currently receive this year. Since my second semester of my freshman year I have wanted to transfer to a different school because I do not enjoy the lifestyle of Tempe/the Phoenix desert lifestyle and would like to be in a less urban environment that I could be closer to nature and have easy access to trails for Mountain Biking, rock Climbing, running and just a more outdoors focused culture, the problem is that ever time I work up the courage to confess to my parents that I would like to transfer they end up talking me out of it and telling me to wait it out to see how the next semester goes. The issue is that I always feel that I would rather be in a place where I could be closer to the mountains and have a higher degree of mi unity towards the types of activities I would like to pursue than I do at ASU but my parents have a stigma against me transferring, I feel that they see me transferring as a failure, while I truly don’t feel happy in Tempe. I am too far from the activities I would ideally be participating in and I would like to be in a less busy/urban environment, I am currently over an hour away from decent rock climbing and 20 minutes away from any decent mountain biking. I do not have a car in Tempe so being close is an important factor. I enjoy my economics classes and have numerous friends at ASU but I honestly just would rather be in Boulder, Denver, Fort Collins or even Flagstaff where I could pursue my hobbies more easily than I am able to in Tempe, how do I convince my parents to transfer for the rest of my education?
Thanks!
If you stay put you will graduate in May?
If you transfer you will need at least 1.5 years more to graduate (more likely 2 years).
The difference in an ASU econ undergrad degree and a UCo-B econ undergrad degree is not worth that much more college- even if your parents can - and will - pay for it.
Plan a strong finish to your degree and then either:
= instead of applying to transfer, apply for a masters in Econ (UCo-B doesn’t have one, but UDenver & UCo-D do). It will take you about the same amount of time to finish as transferring would, but you end up with a Masters instead of a 5-6 year BA/BS.
OR
=start actively job hunting in the cities you want to live in. Now is not too soon to be researching the kinds of jobs available in those markets. Move where you want to live in June. Very little difference in time line, and gets you up and out without extra debt.
How much more would your parents have to spend for you to get a degree in Colorado? Transfers don’t usually get much aid and you’d probably have to tack an extra semester on to your education. Are your parents willing/able to pay that?
Even without aid at CU I feel that it would be about the same cost as I am a Colorado resident. My issue is more in the fact that my parents seem to have a stigma against me transferring to any where.
Did not mean to say this year, I meant this next year spring of 2020 I will have 3 semesters left at ASU. The added time to graduate from credits not transferring over could definitely be made up by taking summer courses. At ASU summer courses are not an option because scholarships do not carry over for the summer session. My current scholarships at ASU make my school slightly more expensive than Colorado in state tuition, however it is a relatively marginal difference.