Want to transfer out of Cornell - not sure where I can

<p>I'm a freshman at Cornell, and basically hating it here. I want to transfer out, but don't want to have wasted money (i.e. transferring to a state school after wasting $70,000 at a private one) and don't want to lose too much prestige. As is, my grades aren't looking good for math or french. I may or may not pass math, and will probably do OK but not an A in french (taking 2000 level so that I can just get rid of requirements faster). Other classes are looking like As.</p>

<p>I've been looking at maybe LACs like Colgate (got in there before, wish I had just went there to begin with) or easier unis to get accepted to like Georgetown. Any recommendations for where I should look, or general advice for me in preperation to transfer?</p>

<p>Another note, Cornell won’t let me transfer any of 86 college credits from dual enrollment, which means I have to do a bunch of things I would have been able to skip just from doing APs instead. So a school which has laxer credit transfer would be sort of nice.</p>

<p>I don’t think you will really have issues transferring to another university… if that’s what you want to do. As someone that might apply for next fall, what don’t you like about it? The people, the academics, college life? </p>

<p>Yes @nocornell please say what you don’t like about Cornell, (prospective transfer applicant here)</p>

<p>Also, I wouldn’t exactly say Georgetown is easy to transfer to…</p>

<p>Yes, please look for schools that have whatever it is you feel Cornell is lacking. Once you narrow that down, it will help you locate colleges. Colgate is not exactly an easy gut school by any measure. And just because state schools accept more students, that doesn’t make them less prestigious. UMich or UC Berkeley or UNC or UVA anyone? If you’re looking for a school that’s less of a grind . . . or less competitive among the students? You may want to try an “alternative” college that is highly respected, like St. Johns in Maryland or Santa Fe, or Pitzer, or UC Santa Cruz. None of these colleges are easy . . . but you may like the atmosphere better as less competitive among the students. Hampshire, Sarah Lawrence, Bennington, or NYU Gallatin. Avoid places like Johns Hopkins, Carnegie Mellon, etc. </p>

<p>If you got into Colgate before they may simply reactivate your application when you apply to transfer. Some schools do that. Call and ask. You’ll also need to be able to clearly articulate why Cornell doesn’t meet your needs and why Colgate (or other school) will - It could be size, flexibility of curriculum, majors / minors offered, etc. If you’re truly wishing you’d picked Colgate be heartfelt and tell them that in your essay. Most transfer deadlines for Fall 2015 are mid-March - Post an update. </p>

<p>The administration and the culture in general are just pretty crappy. Every student activity has an application process and is incredibly overcompetitive. They say bigger = more opportunities, but that’s definitely not true for Cornell. Too many people here are immature.</p>

<p>Georgetown has a high transfer acceptance rate to other similarly ranked schools, I have legacy there, and maybe I would get in after they see I can do well enough at a similar school.</p>

<p>You’ve got to keep in mind it’s not about where you’d get in - it’s about where you “belong” - you’ve got to build a case for new school’s “culture” + majors / minors / flexibility + EC opportunities (the Cornell example of having to apply, competitive, etc. is a good reason for smaller where they might invite everyone) + geography / size / etc. Did you apply last year to Georgetown? If so, were you accepted / waitlist /denied? I’d imagine legacy would help - I guess my point is it can’t be about getting OUT of Cornell - it’s got to be about getting IN to school X - if that makes any sense.</p>

<p>What about your in-state public universities, which are likely to give full subject credit for your dual enrollment courses?</p>

<p>Reputation drop too extreme from Cornell to state school.</p>

<p>Depends on the state school (and subject). I’d put Cal, UMich, and UVa at or close to Cornell overall.</p>

<p>In something like engineering, UIUC, PU, UT-Austin, UCLA, UCSD, & GTech are in the same league as Cornell as well.</p>

<p>There’s nothing wrong with transferring if you aren’t happy where you are.</p>

<p>But I suggest do sufficient research to make sure your subsequent destination is really likely to be a material improvement for you.</p>

<ul>
<li><p>first and foremost you would need to investigate credit transfer policies, if that is a big concern.</p></li>
<li><p>If you are really going to get all those 86 credits transferred, suggest do not just blithely commit to a small school without ensuring that it will have a plethora of upper-level courses for you to take [as Cornell does, obviously] when you reach your senior year. In the area you ultimately decide to major in, and sub-areas within that major field which interest you the most at that time. The reason for this caution is, my D1 matriculated to a large LAC which gave her credit for her vast array of APs and college courses. But ultimately she found she had slim pickings, course-wise, in the upperclass years, in the areas she gravitated to. A lot of students would not have encountered these limitations in upper-level course offerings, but she did, precisely because she skipped all those intro courses.</p></li>
</ul>

<p>To do this investigation do NOT look at a school’s course catalog, which lists every course they ever thought about. Look at the registrar’s list of courses they are actually giving, eg each of the last two semesters. Also look at the number of sections. When only one section of each upper-level class you may want to take is given, irreconcilable scheduling conflicts are more likely to arise. Also keep in mind a matrerial number of upper-level courses at LACs may be offered only every other semester or every other year. D1 was, ultimately, hampered by all of these situations.</p>

<p>It’s too bad you encountered problems joining up with certain student activities you wanted, but suggest make sure you won’t encounter the same problem subsequently. It would be a shame if you left because you didn’t make the a capella group (or whatever) at your first school, and then went someplace else and it turned out that you also didn’t make the a capella group there either! [BTW if you wind up staying you can try joining again, or maybe even start your own club.]</p>

<p>Suggest do actual investigation regarding the administration and culture to find a situation that will really be more appealing to you in these regards. Whatever they may be. </p>

<p>Bear in mind that the “culture” at your current school may look one way when you are a freshman, and have to live with, and deal with, all the diverse personalities that exist there in the the freshman dorms, but may be perceived totally differently once you are an upperclassman living, and mixing, primarily with your own group of friends. The truth is , with so many diverse types there, there really is not one “culture”. But as a freshman this may not always necessarily be so obvious.</p>

<p>But nevertheless, if you dont want to chance wating for a better situation to develop there for you, just do the work to make sure your new environment is really likely to be “better”, in that regard.</p>

<p>Since the university does not specifically select for maturity level, there is no reason to suppose the level there is actually abnormal, overall. In truth, out of those thousands of students there, some are immature, some are average maturity, some are like 80-year olds, and everything in between. The trick at a large school is to find your cohort of like-minded individuals, If you stay. Which most people eventually do. But there are no guarantees.</p>

<p>But the point is, if you are seeking a more “mature” cohort, do whatever research is appropriate to determine that the students are really more “mature” in your new environment. Else you will get there and find it is just the same in this regard. [BTW maturity levels will increase naturally anyway, to a good extent, as all of you get older through your college years.]</p>

<p>nocornell: I want to add a few things to the discussion </p>

<p>First, college is MUCH harder than high school just about everywhere. You are required to be self motivated and glean from the text book what you need for the final. Being able to outline a course well is an essential skill to success. Unfortunately isn’t taught in high school.</p>

<p>Secondly, I have met MANY people from MANY different colleges and have NEVER heard them say anything good about the administration with the exception of a few small liberal arts colleges such as Williams.
You can probably expect the same problems elsewhere.</p>

<p>Third, IVY schools tend to give out higher grades than that found in state universities. I have seen ivy school professors give out as many as 35-50%% A’s at Harvard and Yale. Princeton had clamp down on this and require no more than 35% A’s in any subject. If you transfer, you might want to check out the grading policy at schools that interest you. It might result in your getting lower grades than you are getting at Cornell, which supposedly has among the lower grading standards among the ivys.</p>

<p>Fourth: Do NOT assume that you will find the average student at other schools more mature. Frankly, the emotional maturity of students ages 18-21 aren’t usually that great anywhere. If anything, the ivy kids on the average tend to be more focused.</p>

<p>Fifth: If you transfer you will probably lose credits. Consider this point.</p>

<p>Bottom line: Really investigate the culture and grading policy of any schools that you may transfer to. Frankly, most students erroneously believe that “the grass grows greener elsewhere.” It really isn’t true. If I were you, I would readjust your thinking and try to get tutoring and help from any learning center on campus or hire a tutor. I would keep bugging the professors for help to clarify problems. You also can always retake a course to improve the grade. If you, however, thinks that Cornell is just too hard for you, you might consider taking a leave of absence or even transferring to a cheaper community college. This will give you time to improve your study skills, get more maturity and beef up your GPA. If you do well at a community college, you can transfer to a great school after that. Many states schools have 'guaranteed" admission with community colleges in their states such as UVA, Berkeley etc. </p>

<p>@taxguy‌ I’ve been in college before, why do you think that I’m unable to? Academically, it’s pretty mediocre here. The only times I do worse than an A are in classes that are completely uninteresting to me and relatively unimportant what grade I get. And on the contrary, Cornell has grade deflation, as opposed to most Ivies grade inflation; so I’m not sure what you mean. It is in no way that I believe Cornell to be hard, I just find it immensely unenjoyable and completely intellectually non-stimulating. Again, I already went to CC, so I don’t know if you even read my post and therefore yours seems rather strange.</p>

<p>Excuse me ,but I didn’t see ANYTHING in your original post about attending a CC. I just reread it and still didn’t see it. Also, you mention that Cornell isn’t hard. Ok, so why are your grades "not looking good in math and french? " I guess you simply find it uninteresting and don’t feel you should lower yourself to study these courses? If so, good luck going anywhere else. </p>

<p>You’re immature. Thanks College Confidential for being useless again!</p>

<p>Actually the poster did mention she had 86 dual enrollment credits at the start of this thread. Its not surprising someone does not perform well in classes they dislike. </p>

<p>I see only one immature person on this thread. Can’t say you’re making feel inclined to help.</p>

<p>I’m sorry you found my post useless.You asked for general advice and I actually made an effort at giving you some, that I thought was not useless. So, sorry.</p>

<p>It’s hard to really give you anything more specific because you are pretty vague, IMO, about what your real issues are there.
So I’m afraid you will have to work at it yourself. It shouldn’t be that hard. There are thirty top-thirty LACs (or whatever your cutoff may be) and thirty top-30 universities. You could go through the list of them, cross out most based on various critieria, and then carefully screen the final ten or so based on these various “fit” issues of yours. Then ask them about their credit transfer policies.</p>

<p>One suggestion is, if you want people to help you it’s probably best not to publicly disparage the other people who previously tried to help you. That’s kind of a deterrent to others who might otherwise come forward, don’t you think?</p>

<p>I do encourage you to transfer though.</p>

@monydad not sure why you’re getting all worked up, I was talking to taxguy who was just being rude after I clarified some points in response to his first answer.

As a note, I’m still at Cornell but now applying to schools to transfer. I got my GPA up fairly well, and am on the Dean’s list.