My dd finally said it out loud last night. She wants to transfer. She is finishing up her freshman year and has been unhappy there this whole time. Her school ended up not being the right place for her and while I knew it, and even suggested the possibility of transferring, she was never on board with the idea.
Apparently now she is and I am feeling even more stressed than when we were looking at schools while she was in HS. So I can imagine how stressed she feels too. Thinking about all of the logistics is overwhelming.
Where do we even begin? Is it too late in the year? How do we find schools that are still accepting applications? How do we try and find schools at this late stage when it took over 3 years in HS to find the place for her. Any and all advice appreciated!!!
What’s your home state? A lot of students in this situation come home and enroll in a local community college, which then sets the up well to transfer to their flagship or other in-state school. Would this work for your daughter? As you say, it would be a scramble at this point to start from scratch in hopes of transferring in the fall.
Has she gotten good grades this year? What is she studying? Have her academic interests stayed the same, or is she rethinking major as well as school?
@aquapt we are in VA. She purposely did not apply to the schools here that 95% of her HS class went to. I am not sure that cc would be the best route for her either. She had good grades in HS but her grades in college are not as high. I think the stress of everything took a toll her on her academics. She did change her major recently and even her advisor told her that the school would not be the best fit for her new interests.
I’m sorry her first choice didn’t work out, but that’s ok.
Quite a few transfer deadlines have passed, but not all. What kind of school is she looking for? What are her stats (HS and college)? Does she have cost constraints? Major?
There is a common app transfer app, she can create an account and look at deadlines. She can also visit school websites to get transfer app deadlines and application directions (some schools have their own transfer app).
If a fall transfer doesn’t work out she could transfer for spring, when some schools take transfers. She could go back to her current school in the fall, or take the semester off, or go to CC, or take online classes, or work and not take any classes.
Both of my kids transferred after freshman year. My D knew it wasn’t the best fit very early, and she had time to investigate schools & applied early. She ended up at one of the schools that she had turned down previously.
My S decided that he wanted to transfer at the end of the year. He wanted to transfer to the state flagship, but he had missed the deadline. He considered a local campus of the flagship, but after meeting with an academic advisor, who suggested taking 12 credits, he decided that it wasn’t academically challenging in the way that the main campus would be. He ended up enrolling in a local public university with the intention of transferring to the flagship the following year. However, while at this school, he found that he enjoyed the relatively small classes and the professors. He graduated from the school and is happy with his education.
Need more info on what kind of school she’s looking for and what kind of major.
My D22 transferred over winter break. She told me before Thanksgiving that she was thinking of transferring which really surprised me. I was feeling like maybe she should wait it out for the whole year and see if things got better so I did not encourage it. At Thanksgiving at my sister’s house she declared she was definitely planning on transferring and shortly after that she contacted the school she was interested in transferring to and they said sure come on in spring. It was a school she had applied to and been accepted to out of high school so they didn’t require the whole application over again but wanted her college transcript.
So, yes, I think it could be a possibility that your daughter could still transfer now to some schools, but some have probably closed the transfer applications too. Just depends on the school.
This isn’t a great list for transfers…best to go to websites and the transfer common app.
Frankly, that NACAC list isn’t a great list for incoming freshman either…there are hundreds of schools still accepting apps that aren’t on that list, which just serves to confuse people. IMO of course.
If I put in a transfer filter, 240 options appear. Is the info perhaps out of date? Is there another source that might list colleges still accepting transfers?
I think the list is just incomplete, like it is for the schools that are still accepting incoming first years. I don’t know of any resource beyond school websites and the common app transfer app that would show a more complete listing of schools still taking apps.
Maybe her perspective has changed on this. There are a number of public universities in VA…and some are large enough that she would never see anyone from her HS…unless she wanted to. I would check the deadlines for some of these schools. They might be a possibility. Many transfer deadlines are later.
She could also take a gap year and take some time to research some places to transfer to. And maybe work and let college number one get completely out of her system.
Is she interested in studying abroad? Perhaps if it’s still possible, that can buy some time away from campus and only have to be on campus one semester next year while you work on an exit…or maybe even no semesters.
My daughter, for example, will do a DC semester first and will go abroad second.
My daughter transfered into Junior year after spending time backpacking in South East Asia. She did a study abroad in Indonesia and told us she’s staying longer. She wanted to transfer so planned on it for the following fall. She also got a Presidential 1/2 scholarship to boot so that saved us half tuition.
It was a career major change also.
Talk to the schools she’s thinking about going to, to see what their process is. Lots of schools will still have seats to fill. I didn’t read the whole thread but make sure whatever she was unhappy about doesn’t repeat itself at the new school. It’s also hard to go to cc after going to a 4 year away school. Also… Make sure her credits transfer cleanly or she might have to repeat some classes.
Good Luck.
Thank you for all of your imput and advice. When I posted, this was such a panic filled moment as her request came out of the blue and so late in the game. I knew she was unhappy and that her school was not a fit for her after all, but it took awhile for her to admit it.
We were able to pinpoint what did not work for her current school, pick out a couple of things that she did like and then come up with a couple of new options.
She called the transfer admissions counselors at a few schools, confirmed they were still taking applications and in a span of 48 hours, had everything done to apply (common app, HS and 1st Semester college transcripts, letters of recommendation, etc). Now we wait.
She also knows that if things don’t work out and she is not accepted for whatever reason, she will head back to her current school for fall semester with hope that she would be able to transfer in the spring.
She has a really good head on her shoulders and once she admitted to herself and to us that she was ready to transfer, she took care of business and I am super proud of her.