Transferring/Skipping First Semester and Law admissions

Graduate School Law School
1

<p><em>reposted from college life forum</em></p>

<p>Hey all, I currently just started college at a place that is very very far from my home (NYU). I'm really having a hard time adjusting, both physically (I feel literally sick/feverish all the time- can't concentrate/study well) and psychologically (I feel like I can't think, homesick, etc). Well, since it's early in the year one of the options available to me is withdrawing from my current college for a full refund, waiting until spring, and then attending a college closer to my home as a commuter (St. Norbert College, btw). The other option being just to get passing grades and transfer in winter.</p>

<p>I was just wondering would this have an adverse affect on future plans or careers? Specifically, would it hurt my chances of going to a good law school (a lawyer-friend told me no one ever asks where he went for undergrad)? Would any employer look down upon it (or would they just care that you had the degree)?</p>

<p>Credits wise I'm fine, I have over a semester's worth of credits completed via college courses in high-school, so missing fall semester would really matter (plus I'd just take summer classes if necessary). I can still complete everything in four years.</p>

<p>My thinking is that it would be more beneficial to go to the local, yet still well respected college (#4 in the MidWest :) ) where I would be happier and do better academically (and hence better on the LSAT) than to torture myself just to say "I went to NYU". </p>

<p>Thanks in advance, I'm just having a very tough time adjusting/picturing myself here.</p>

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<p>Given the date, I assume you've just started school.</p>

<p>If you "feel literally sick/feverish all the time," I would assume that you're actually sick. It's not uncommon for people to come down with the flu, or mono, or something else, when they've just left home for the first time, and find themselves living in close proximity with people from all over the world. Homesickness is also extremely common, and usually temporary.</p>

<p>I spent a week on bed with the flu my first semester of college. I recovered, got permission to drop a class, did well in my remaining classes, and stayed two years (before transferring to another school for reasons that have nothing to do with the topic at hand).</p>

<p>On the other hand, if you're absolutely sure NYU is a bad fit, nothing says you have to stay. I have a friend from law school who withdrew from Brown after her second weekend, took a year off, and went to a liberal arts college a few thousand miles closer to home.</p>

<p>Law schools care about where you went to college, but care even more about how well you do there, and how you do on the LSAT.</p>

<p>If a little voice inside you is insistently telling you that you made a mistake, and you're sure it's not just the fever talking, or routine homesickness, do what the voice tells you. Don't let the imagined priorities of some future, nameless admissions committee dictate to you how to live your life. It's your life, not theirs.</p>

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<p>While I agree with Greybeard that it's your life...your reasoning is wrong. Going to a different college is extremely unlikely to affect your LSAT score. So arguing that going to St. Norbert's will help you get a higher LSAT score is more than a little silly. Going to NYU won't help you get a higher one either. It's just a non-issue.</p>

<p>While it's true that if you are happy you may do better academically and hence have a higher gpa--an important consideration for law school, it's NOT true that going to a less competitive college automatically means you'll get a higher gpa and that will get you into a better LS. If that were true, the top law schools would be filled with people who got degrees from St. Norbert's and colleges like it. If you look at some of the threads on this site, e.g., breakdown of students at top law schools or a very similar title and several others, you'll find the links to websites showing the undergrad colleges attended by students at a # of top law schools. (My definition of top is limited to the top 14-16 law schools.) You won't find a heck of a lot of students from schools like St. Norbert's. </p>

<p>That does NOT mean you can not get in from St. Norbert's--you most definitely can. However, the idea that it will be EASIER to get in from St. Norbert's than NYU is only valid to the extent that you think you'll do a lot worse academically at NYU because you are unhappy. </p>

<p>My advice: stick it out for one semester. I think a conservative estimate would be that two-thirds of those who are unhappy this early in the academic year are happy by Thanksgiving. If you aren't, you can check out transferring to St. Norbert's second semester. If you do, you won't be kicking yourself a few weeks from now, sitting home alone without much to do, while your friends are busy with their new friends and classes, your flu symptoms are gone, and you're wondering whether you should have tried to stick it out. </p>

<p>You will have to make sure you focus on academics enough to get good grades so you can transfer...but that really shouldn't be a problem. You aren't trying to transfer to a more competitive college, so you don't have to ace everything. </p>

<p>I also don't think you realize how much of college life you'll be giving up if you live at home and commute. I think you'll find that you miss out on a lot of activities if you have to leave in time to drive home. You'll also miss out on a lot of the maturation process that living on your own fosters. </p>

<p>So, make your decision based on whether you really do hate NYU, but give yourself a semester to make a rational decision. Don't talk yourself into it with silly arguments that you're doing it to get a better LSAT score. </p>

<p>There was some reason you chose NYU. Try to remember what it was. Give it a fair chance. You haven't yet. </p>

<p>I'm a parent. I've known one heck of a lot of unhappy frosh who became very happy sophomores. Give it time.</p>