So I’m facing a really big dilemma over whether I should transfer or not and it’s all I can honestly think about at the moment. I’m currently attending a low ranked (sub100) state school in the mountain west (Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho) and am considering transferring to UNC chapel hill. The reason I am attending my current school is because at the time it was the only affordable option for me. My grandparents live here so I live with them and commute to school. My dream college was UCLA but having lived in Germany (and therefore not qualifying for IS tuition) OOS tuition was just not doable. I haven’t really made any friends here and I don’t have any particular attachment to my school. The main reason I want to transfer is because after research it seems to me that UNC has far more opportunities and a good name than my current school (I’m an Econ/PoliSci major). Especially in terms of specific clubs, their exchange programs (UCL and SciencesPo exchange), and job recruitment (semi target for banks like JPM). Also, with North Carolina being a swing state, I would assume that it would be a pretty good place to get involved with democratic politics. What makes me so reluctant about transferring though is because of how far away from all my family UNC is. 10 hour flight to get to my family in Germany and six hour flight to my family in the western US. I’m terrified that just like at my current school I won’t fit in or make friends but this time i won’t have my family around me and that I’ll end up completely alone. I’m pretty introverted and shy when it comes to new social situations. All the great friends i made in high school I made by luck or by accident (and they all had similar third culture kid type backgrounds like me). Also I don’t know East Coast/Southern culture. All my
I’ve either lived in California or Europe. All this uncertainty is giving me so much stress. So there’s my dilemma, do I try to transfer for all the opportunities that UNC could give me or do I stay here and avoid the risk of being completely miserable and alone? Both options will allow me (if the NPC is to be believed) to graduate with little/close to no debt. The reason I’m sticking with public schools is because I can only attend colleges that don’t look at Noncustodial income (that’s a whole other messy situation lol). Any advice?
Risk?
The first risk is evaluating the likelihood of admission.
By state law, UNC has a max cap of 18% OOS- and that includes recruited athletes. They accept about 1900 transfer students (combined) as sophomores and juniors- and that includes students transferring from both in-state community colleges and in-state colleges/unis. The Carolina Covenant is a great deal, but for OOS it is very competitive.
What are your stats? both your HS & college record will be reviewed (average college GPA for transfer students is 3.7). It’s water under the bridge now, but if your HS record was strong enough to get into a uni like CH, it was strong enough for you to get financial & merit aid from some other OOS public colleges and a lot of private ones.
There are dozens of other unis that have just as good econ/poli sci programs as CH, so from here it reads as though you have set your cap on one place and fixed on it. If your problem with your current uni is just that it doesn’t have as many options / isn’t as fancy a name there are other choices.
But if the issue is fitting and finding friends, that can happen anywhere. Some of your complaints are familiar first year worries to anybody who has spent a lot of time on CC. If you are that much the big fish in the small pond, you can also check out study abroad (which can also include semesters in DC/NY) at your current uni. I have yet to see a uni that doesn’t have some form of support for that.
@collegemom3717 Well the admissions people told me the cap doesnt apply to transfer students so in that sense I wont be at a disadvantage. Im asking all of this because it is also a matter of applying to begin with. Of course getting in is difficult to begin with (I have no doubts about that), but considering how much stress the first year applications caused (emotionally) I only want to go through that again once I decide whether I really do want to transfer or not. I have a 4.0 college gpa. I dont know how to convert my german grades into gpa but they were good enough to get me into a competitive German uni. Also, I didnt intend on making myself seem like a “big fish in a small pond”. I never called my current college in any way a bad university (which it absolutely isn’t).
Is the core question whether to transfer at all or whether to transfer specifically to UNC-CH? b/c it’s not one or the other: there are many besides UNC-CH that will have strong econ/poli sci programs that are closer to both your family in Germany and your family in the west. Have you considered any of them?
Is the core challenge with your current university that you haven’t found your people yet? If social anxiety is the crucial factor (“I’m terrified that just like at my current school I won’t fit in or make friends…and that I’ll end up completely alone” “do I stay here and avoid the risk of being completely miserable and alone”) moving won’t change that no matter where you are- that has to change inside you.
*(also, no, you didn’t call your current uni ‘bad’- but you did open by saying that you were attending “low ranked (sub100) state school”, which had been chosen b/c it was “the only affordable option” and then said that you had your heart set on a top 5 state school because there were “far more opportunities and a good name than my current school”, which does suggest that prestige is a factor in this equation)
*(also also, the cap applies to the total student body: they can take 100% OOS transfer students as long as the overall % stays at 18% or less- the actual # will depend on the balance for the year you are transferring into, but they do have to stay inside the cap. Given the size of the school, it may be that enough drop out that the small number coming in is not enough to throw the %)