To keep things short, I transferred from a 4yr private (#80) to Emory, and I’m looking to transfer again, either to USC as a spring admit if they appeal my prior decision to decline their offer of admission, or after my Sophomore year ( to a school of similar ranking). I know transferring twice looks very rash but I’m low-income/first-gen which meant that I was and still am alone in the whole “college thing.” My grades haven’t dipped (around a 3.9) and I don’t think it’ll dip wherever I go. I’ve gotten involved in EC’s and made relationships with professors as well.
I’m mostly worried that it might affect my chances at law school/grad school?
P.S I’m not looking to transfer schools of higher-ranking aka, “prestige searching.” I am genuinely miserable here and I wish I had had a chance to fly out and view the campus before coming to Emory. I know if I transfer one more time, it’d be my final.
Any thoughts?
Why do you think the 3rd time is the charm? Why were you miserable at your first two colleges?
Law schools won’t care. You’re asking them wrong question for other grad schools.
Law schools won’t care.
My sympathy for your situation as a ‘1st gen’ would be higher if you hadn’t been a prolific user of CC for the last 3 years- you may not have had good info at home, and your HS GC may have been useless, but you had all of CC…
You started at college 1 on a full scholarship, and within a month you were working on getting your transfer app ready. You ‘traded up’ (your emphasis) to college 2, presumably with strong FinAid (given your family’s financial situation)- which is a feat in itself.
From another thread you wanted Cornell to be college #2, but it ended up being Emory. Apparently your transfer process did not include much research into the school itself, b/c after 2 months you hate everything about it (despite doing well academically, having good relationships with your profs and being involved with ECs). It’s so bad that you want to jump ship ASAP- ideally by spring- to transfer to #3, but definitely not for prestige. Color me skeptical.
If you are thinking that another school will look better to T14s, you are wrong. It really will be largely GPA + LSAT and secondarily what else you have done / essay / LoRs.
So, how do you know that this time you “know” that it will be the right school?
Both @itsgettingreal17 & I are pushing back to be helpful. Really.
Thank you for the pushback I really appreciate it!
I transferred out of my first school (it was actually full tuition and room and board was around 10,000 so still a little costly at least for my situation) due to financial and emotional reasons. So the biggest caveat is that I haven’t had the chance to visit these schools, which is why I made the mistake of ending up at my first one and it was in proximity to home so it felt comfortable.
Emory ended up giving me more money and being diverse, which is exactly what I wanted! This is the school that I actually really wanted to go to. I didn’t get the chance to visit but please believe me when I say I poured my heart out into researching this school, including talking to several students on campus. I was actually pretty happy here for the first time. I made good grades, got involved with EC’s and made new friends. Except things sorta started going downhill.
I’ve had a bad string of major (it’s actually laughable how bad it is) “bad luck?” happen, some related to the school, some not. I came in here with rose-tinted glasses, and I really wish I had the chance to visit the school beforehand. I need a fresh start, essentially.
I won’t be applying to Cornell, because I learned and realized that I don’t want to go there. I won’t be applying to any Ivy’s either or any other school that my stats probably couldn’t safely get me into. If I transfer, I’ll be applying to schools within a similar range. I honestly don’t care about prestige anymore like I used to in high school or even when I was transferring-I admit that I was foolish. I’ve learned that my happiness is the most important thing, and I’m not happy here, and I don’t see myself being happy here. I can stick it out the next 2 years, but I’ll be miserable. But I mean if that’s what it’ll take, I can do it.
I’ll be visiting the school if I decide to transfer again and if I get in before making my decision. And I really wish I did utilize CC better, but I really did do research into the schools, and I really was happy about coming to Emory. I know no one school is going to suddenly make me happy, but I have a good grasp of what I want, environment wise.