Why do students transfer?
1-Seeing a college with more “prestige”, often one that denied them admission as a freshman.
2-Financial reasons.
Just guessing:
Change in financial circumstances; change in family situation which calls for the student to be closer to an ailing relative; desired major not available at present school; realization that life is short & goes by quickly so why not study by an ocean or mountains; poor fit socially; experience traumatic event & need change of scenery to aid in recovery.
Occasionally a summer job or internship can affect one’s career goals resulting in a reassessment of best school to meet new career objective.
Also, I can imagine one attending a school in a rural location becoming enchanted with the big city during an internship resulting in a desire to transfer schools.
I heard an admissions person say during an info session that there is a greater transfer rate among students who applied ED. This guy had worked at several schools and saw the same thing happen across all. Could be because kids change and evolve during senior year in high school, and the choice they made in November isn’t necessarily the choice they would make in May
@wisteria100 : Interesting post about buyer’s remorse.
My daughter is transferring this fall. Her interests changed and the current school couldn’t support what she wanted to do. She was tied to a BFA scholarship also which made it a difficult choice to do. She wanted more academics and even changed to the BA program first. Long story short… She applied to another school that is giving her double the amount of scholarship and she gets to make her own major the way she wants it.
The kid doesn’t get into their desired major.
All the reasons above are valid. My D considered transferring in her freshman year. She was very unhappy for a while. Her plans to transfer evaporated as she became closer to her group of friends. In addition, at one point she thought she might want to major in something the school didn’t offer, but I suspect that was simply to add to her “reason” for considering a transfer.
I think a lot of kids run away to another school when they feel the school they are at doesn’t work for them. The problem is, they don’t realize that by leaving their current school, they aren’t really solving anything. Definitely sometimes kids find themselves at the wrong college. But often, a student really just needs to stick with something. In general, I think that if a student is thinking of transferring for social reasons, the problem isn’t going to go away by transferring.
Agree with @Lindagaf - a lot of times the student doesn’t get a ‘magic’ fit early in the first year (we’ve seen posters giving up b/c they don’t have any ‘best friends’ by November). That and ‘trading up’ are probably the most common transfer reasons I’ve seen on CC- and as @Lindagaf says, a lot of the time, by the time they have a transfer acceptance they have found their people, and go through a conflicted ‘should I go or should I stay’ process.
- Sometimes the kid just gets it wrong- I know a student who insisted that Bucknell was just the place for her, even though the GC/parents/etc couldn't see it at all. Transferred after 1st year to Brown- which made all kinds of sense for her.
- Following a friend / bf / gf and it doesn't work out
- Money: FinAid 1st year made it just possible, but not enough in subsequent years (have seen this happen at NYU, JHU and a couple of other places)
- Blow of transition from being The Star to struggling to do well (esp at the bigger name places)
*Recruited athletes who struggle academically, move for a better position, want to stop competing but need their scholarship $ to make it possible to stay, or lose their $$ for other reasons.
Fit is often a big thing and fitting in socially. That is the most common reason you see on CC and the college may have been significantly different than they were expecting or they chose “name” instead of where they will thrive.
- Finances
- Kid didn’t really understand the school, or kid didn’t understand themselves (or both).
- Change at the school (dropping a major, for example).
My daughter is at a small LAC and had several friends transfer, all for different reasons as far as I remember. One had some mental health issues and took time off (so I guess that’s not a straight-up transfer but I’m pretty sure he’s now at a different campus). One transferred to a cheaper state school. And one realized she wanted to go into nursing and that wasn’t an option at the small LAC.
I’ve seen kids who transfer to be closer to home. It’s easy to romanticize the idea of going far away and experiencing a completely new environment, but homesickness can be tough.
Also, as others have said, finances.
Personally, I transferred because I put no effort or any sort of research into choosing a college the first time around. It really came down to fit, not just socially but a place where I could get the most of my academics and really push myself.
If I had looked into anything about my first school besides location and offering a major I liked I wouldn’t have picked it as a high school senior.
Life is too short and too expensive to be some place where you don’t want to be.
Sometimes kids bite off more than they can chew. Anecdotal, I know, but both cases of transfer known to me happened because the kids flamed out academically at college #1, and had to transfer to a less rigorous school.
I transferred because I did not know much about the city where my initial school was located.
Of course that being the days pre-www/google, was common the know little going in. No excuse today.
Turned out to be a very high crime city, and did. ot feel it necessary to spend 4 years there. Had excellent HS and fresh grades, figured why not fix my mistake.
My son LOVED his freshman year away. He made friends, enjoyed being on his own, and did well academically.
But he was aware of the financial strain it put on our family. And, far moreso, he decided he wanted to join the local fire department.
So he came home, transferred to a local community college, and joined the fire department. As soon as the paperwork gets processed, the fire department will pay for his CC tuition.
Kids in theater often change out at the college level. I know many talented kids that went to a college for a BFA in theater and after a year they found their calling in something like computer science and their college couldn’t support this field so they had to switch schools. Often losing their BFA scholarship.
Started at a local college and lived at home to save $$$. Decided to move out for junior year but apartments in NYC were always expensive even with a bunch of roommates. Brooklyn wasn’t even hipster back then. Transferred to college in upstate NY where R&B were cheap.
Originally I thought I wanted the big school, fraternities, large quad in the middle of campus, etc. A few months in and I realized that wasn’t the case, so I transferred from a 14,000 state school to 1,400 LAC. Best decision I ever made!