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by Lan Ngo

College Transfer Story: Family Matters

February 18, 2014 in All Transfers, Four-Year Transfer Articles, Specific College, To Transfer or Not

scotland

by Rose Pallone

In April 2012, I got an email from the University of St Andrews in Scotland admitting me as a second-year transfer student in English Literature and Art History. I remember calling my mom, crying, to tell her the fantastic news. Her response was “Oh” followed by prolonged silence. I was more than a little confused. My parents willingly paid for the application fee, and they did not object to the idea of transferring whenever I brought it up.  Considering the college I was enrolled in at the time was my dad’s alma mater and my brother planned to apply there Early Decision that fall, I should have expected a fight. I was not, however, prepared for the war my parents launched.

At first, I reacted to my parents’ objections like a teenager. I screamed, I cried, and I nearly made myself sick. Still, I accepted my place at St Andrews (as no deposit was required), and I managed to compose myself enough to attend a meeting with my Dean of my college at the time. The Dean spoke about my options and the process of officially withdrawing from the college. At the end, he asked me how my parents felt. I told him that my mom and dad were not happy, but that I was continuing with the process, hoping they would come to terms with it eventually. My Dean gave me a weird look and said that I should try to reach my parents on “their level of understanding.” I had no idea what that meant, so I continued to ignore the problem. It should be my decision; I was the one going to school. Did I really have to make them “understand” why I needed this?

Halfway through July, I realized that I needed my parents’ help, and I wanted them to be proud of me. That evening, I sat down with my parents and just listened. My mom was concerned about the writing program and the money I needed for a school that was farther away. My dad was worried about the reputation of the school and how easy it would be to get a job after graduation. With their arguments in mind, I got to work on my very last application: a presentation on why transferring to St Andrews made sense. I conducted research for days. I showed them that St Andrews is not only a well-established, highly-ranked university, but it would save thousands of dollars in tuition annually, has incredible extracurricular activities for writers, and has a job placement percentage higher than the U.S. national average for college graduates.

I won my parents over by doing as my Dean said, and really getting on “their level of understanding.” As silly as I looked giving a PowerPoint Presentation over dinner, it was worth it, and admittedly, it was not very hard. Just keep in mind that your parents really are trying to help you succeed, and if you can address their concerns, you will have no problem getting them to stand behind you.

What’s your transfer story?

Photo: Moyan Brenn

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by Lan Ngo

Should I Transfer Out of My College?

November 4, 2012 in Four-Year Transfer Articles, Q&A, Specific College, To Transfer or Not

We hear a lot of great questions and stories in our forums.  We would like to highlight one thread that might be helpful to students who are deciding whether they should transfer out of their current college or university:

Student: I’m currently a freshman at Spelman College, and I am thinking about transferring after this year. I have been at my college for a little over a month, and it’s fine, but that’s it: it’s just fine. I applied as a sort of throw away safety, but ended up attending (for some reason I always had a feeling that that would happen though…). The school has an amazing reputation in the African-American community, but is not as well known nationally, and I am not sure how that will affect me when applying for jobs.

When I was talking to my dad about this (he completely supports the idea) he gave me a few things to think about: and the last thing he said was “Think about what you want your college experience to be like.” I know I don’t want my experience to be “just okay.” I want more diversity, more school spirit (maybe some sports teams), and more people that challenge my ideas (often I’m one of the only people talking in class).

I’m from California, so I was contemplating applying to UCs (Berkeley and UCLA) the applications are due in November, so it would be great to get advice about applying to those because the deadline is so soon! I loved Northwestern when I visited in high school, so I would probably reapply there and to USC.

Also, I’m trying to figure out what extracurriculars to do: would playing soccer for the school (they are D-III) significantly help a transfer application?

TransferWeb: Thanks for sharing your situation.  I have a friend who transferred TO Spelman.  She recently graduated from there.  I asked her for her thoughts, and here’s what she said:

I will say that Spelman is not for everyone. I believe that it is way too expensive to stay there if it is not where you want to be. It is not a place with sports teams and that type of “college experience”.

However, I would not worry about Spelman not being nationally known. Spelman is internationally known. Graduate school recruiters from the Ivies and Fortune 500 Companies recruit Spelmanites. If there is anything you want to accomplish, Spelman will do nothing but help you accomplish your goals.

So in reality, it is all up to you. I would say apply to transfer out if you feel you need or want to, so that at least you will have options. No harm done if you decide to stay. Also, if you want more information on the Spelman experience, I could help. I recently graduated from Spelman, and I actually transferred to Spelman.

Student: Thank you so much for your reply/advice from your friend! I really appreciate it.

My main concern is that I am not being challenged enough in classes. Literally yesterday my English professor canceled class because only 2 (including me) girls in a class of around 15 did the reading and she didn’t want to have a discussion with 2 people. There is an honors program, but I would not be able to get into it until sophomore year, and I’m still not sure how much more difficult the classes will be.

I also have many different interests that I think a bigger school would offer classes in. For instance, I’ve always had a weird obsession with Russia and many of the schools I am looking at have either a Russian or Russian Studies major/minor or a Slavic Studies program. I feel like I wouldn’t be able to explore these interests after college, so that is another reason I’m considering transferring. However, the major that I am in right now, International Studies, is great, and not many colleges offer something like it.

Spelman definitely does have great career opportunities. Representatives from major companies come on campus all the time, but I was worried about if companies will recognize the name after I graduate if they did not actively recruit Spelman students.

I’m aiming for a 4.0 this semester but if that doesn’t happen I think I will not get less than a 3.7-3.8. I’m in Model UN and I really love it, I’m going to join the Spanish Club (I’m a Spanish Minor), and I joined another community service club but I am not sure how organized they are so I may have to find a different one. Do you have any suggestions regarding EC’s to make my application stronger?

Here are some of the schools I’m considering: USC, Tulane, Northwestern, Brown and UCLA/Berkeley

What do you think my chances are?

TransferWeb: As the Spelman grad explained, you should go ahead and apply to transfer, and then decide later if you want actually make the switch.

Holding a 4.0 GPA or a GPA that’s as close to 4.0 as possible certainly makes you more competitive than other students applying to the schools you listed.

Regarding extracurricular activities, I would say to do what you’re really interested in and what would be worth your time and effort, and then point out that genuine interested somewhere in your application.

—

We hope this is helpful to you!  Please share your questions and stories in our forum!

(Photo: dalbera)

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by Lan Ngo

Transferring to Stanford: Why and How?

August 30, 2012 in Four-Year Transfer Articles, Ivy Plus, Specific College, To Transfer or Not

The decision to transfer is a very personal one, but it’s without a doubt one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life. Just how did I come to the decision to transfer, and what were my next moves after I made that decision? In this article, Chris (co-founder of TransferWeb) interviews me, and I provide very vulnerable responses. I admit that I didn’t really know what I was doing during the transfer application process. I operated on very little information. Since then, I have successfully completed many, many applications: master’s programs, doctoral programs, ultra-competitive scholarships and fellowships, etc. Knowing what I know now, I would have proceeded differently in my transfer application process. Through this website and The Transfer Book, I hope to help other students who are now in the same shoes I was in when I was an undergrad.

Key takeaways from this interview include the following:

  • You should have a solid reason for wanting to transfer.
  • Fit is very important in successfully applying as a transfer student.
  • You won’t necessarily get into all the schools you apply to transfer to, and that’s okay!
  • You can learn from Lan’s experience and mistakes.

Hope this interview is helpful to you!

—

Chris: You started out at UCLA, and then you decided to transfer, or at least to apply to transfer. What made you make that decision?

Lan: I started thinking about transferring my first year, just about maybe one or two months into being a freshman at UCLA. It was around October when I started thinking about transferring. A big reason why I wanted to transfer was related to my major. At that point, I was deciding about cognitive science. I was interested in focusing on something like linguistics within cognitive science. I was also thinking about majoring in business.

At that point, I was taking introduction to economics, and I wanted to major maybe in business, but UCLA doesn’t have an undergrad business school. It has a graduate business school. But if you want to major in business, the closest you can get to that is to either do economics, which is what a lot of people do when they’re at a liberal arts school, or you can do something called Business Econ at UCLA, which is just an econ major but you tack on some accounting classes that you take at the UCLA Anderson School of Business. But that didn’t sound very business-like to me, so I thought, “Oh, I want to go to business school.”

My first reaction was to try to apply to UC Berkeley Haas School of Business because I had a friend from high school who was studying there. I looked into applying to the Haas Business School. Berkeley is part of the UC system, which has some kind of special regulation, stating that if you wanted to transfer, you would have to transfer as a junior so that you had two years of undergrad under your belt before moving on to UC Berkeley. At that time, because I was just a freshman, it meant I couldn’t transfer as a sophomore. So I thought, “I’m going to look at other schools to apply to transfer to. If I don’t get in, that’s totally cool because then I’ll just stay one more year at UCLA and apply to transfer as a junior to UC Berkeley Haas School of Business.

Chris: So, you applied to transfer to the Haas School of Business?

Lan: I didn’t because I ended up getting into Stanford. I didn’t need to.

Chris: What were the schools that you applied to transfer to?

Lan: I was thinking about business, and I really did not know anything about applying to transfer to a college in general, but I knew that there was this one person from my high school who ended up going to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. This is very rare because my high school sucks. Very few people ended up going to top schools like that. I just knew of that name because that classmate went there, so I thought, “I should apply to Wharton,” which is really ridiculous because I knew nothing about the school. It’s pretty hard to get into, and I know people do get into it, but a lot of people get into that school by transferring from other business programs, I think. These are people who actually want to study business. I applied to Wharton, which is a completely different process from applying to Penn itself. I also applied to Stanford just because I had heard of that name from someone. I remember when I was a high school student, one of my friends liked Stanford. She talked up Stanford.

Chris: If you didn’t get into those schools, you would have applied to Berkeley the next year; that was your plan?

Lan: Right.

Chris: Just as a side note, there was that one student that got into Wharton from a liberal arts school that we helped with our consulting service.

Lan: That’s right.

Chris: You applied to transfer to Stanford and to Wharton. Were the applications similar; was it different to apply to a business school?

Lan: I don’t really remember too much about the application process specifically for Wharton. I guess I’m trying to block it out of my memory because it wasn’t that interesting to me. I didn’t realize how unique it was, how the application to a business school is actually very unique, in that you have to show your business prowess. I think I didn’t emphasize that at the time because I didn’t know too much about applying to transfer to any school, especially to a business school. People we’ve talked to in writing The Transfer Book who have successfully transferred to a business school really emphasized their business skills, or showed how they are really entrepreneurs or mini-CEOs, and how they really fit in at business schools specifically, and not just an economics program. I think it was about fit and presenting your best self as someone who is very suited for business school.

Chris: Long story short, you didn’t get into Wharton, but you got into Stanford.

Lan: Yes, and I can see why I got into Stanford and not Wharton.

—

This interview continues with Lan discussing her adjustment after transferring to Stanford.  Stay tuned!

(Photo: quinn.anya)

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by Chris Goodmacher

Spotlight: College of William & Mary, A Very Transfer Friendly College

November 1, 2009 in Adjusting, All Transfers, Community College Articles, Four-Year Transfer Articles, Specific College, To Transfer or Not

William & Mary

William & Mary caught our eyes because we interviewed three transfer students there, and they all had great things to say about the support offered to transfers at W&M. We also noticed that W&M has a relatively high transfer acceptance rate; for fall 2009 it was 43.7%, which is higher than their freshmen acceptance rate of 33.5%.

When asked why she chose William & Mary, Tanya, who transferred from John Tyler Community College, explained:

I went to a Prospective Transfer Day at William & Mary. It was just for transfers. It set us apart from the freshmen. It was as if the college was saying, “We know you’ve been through this before. We know you’ve been in college. Let’s give you what we have to offer. Let’s skip the fluff.”

She got to meet with current transfer students and other people at the college, including the Dean of Transfer Students at the time:

I met with Kim Van Deusen, a dean who works with transfer admissions. I sat down and had a long conversation with her. I talked about what I wanted to do and my situation. She gave me the tools I needed. We talked about the application essay.

When it finally came time to decide on which college to transfer to, it wasn’t a tough decision for Tanya. She thought about the experience she had with William & Mary throughout her transfer application process:

All of these experiences helped me to feel a connection when I came to William & Mary. This is a very personal college that cares about the individual. A lot of colleges brag about this, but at William & Mary, they didn’t have to say it because they showed it to me.

Another great thing about William & Mary is the Transfer Student Ambassadors, a group of former and current transfers who are there to help people like you. Mea, who transferred from Bard College at Simon’s Rock, told us about the Transfer Student Ambassadors (TSA) and other ways that William & Mary makes transfers feel right at home:

TSA held social functions at the beginning of the semester and throughout the semester. They held meetings about picking your schedule and how to study for finals. The transfer coordinator for admissions has been especially helpful with getting credits. I’ve also gotten emails throughout the year about transfer students working to invite new transfer students in and host prospective transfers. So there certainly is a support system for transfers.

Of course, no school deserves a 100% transfer friendliness rating. At William & Mary, for example, housing isn’t guaranteed for transfer students (see W&M’s FAQs page here), which isn’t unusual for colleges. Do your due diligence to see what each school offers and lacks. If possible, talk to current and former transfer students to get the real deal.

To give you more details that you won’t find on the William & Mary website, here’s the story of Chris P. (not to be confused with Chris, the co-author of The Transfer Book). For Chris, transferring to William & Mary was a second shot at his first choice school.

Chris attended a small private high school just outside of Cleveland, Ohio. The school had about 400 students in total, and a very comfortable, small community feel. Chris enjoyed his high school experience, but when it came time to choose a college to attend, he felt that he should get out of “the bubble” and try something larger. So he applied to a couple of big schools, Ohio University and Ohio State, with student populations of about 17,000 and 36,000 respectively. Oddly enough, however, Chris’ first choice—and the school that he had applied to early decision—wasn’t a larger school at all, and really had a completely different feel than his other choices. It was the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, student population 5,500.

“My brother went to William & Mary and every time he would come home he would talk about all the things he was involved in, and he would go on for like an hour, and I was amazed,” Chris said. “How can you do that much stuff?  How can you be that excited about it?”

“Maybe this is a pretty cool place to be, even if it’s on the smaller side,” he thought.

Unfortunately, Chris’s application to William & Mary wasn’t successful.  He ended up starting out at Ohio University, and when he got there, he discovered just how different his new surroundings were when some of his introductory courses had as many students as his entire high school. It didn’t help that he and his roommate didn’t get along, or that he didn’t like the way the administration ran things. It wasn’t long before Chris started to think about transferring.

“It was difficult to accept, because I did have a regular group of friends I was hanging out with,” Chris said. “And it wasn’t because I wasn’t fitting in… I had more friends than anyone I knew, so it wasn’t a social thing.  And it wasn’t an academic thing because I was doing fine, but it was a feeling thing… and I just felt I wasn’t being stimulated.”

Chris sought out advice from everyone he knew about whether or not he should transfer and where he should apply. He ended up applying to William & Mary and two other universities. Re-applying to William & Mary was made especially easy by the fact that the school offers students the option to re-open a previous application by filling out the Reopen Application Form available on their website.

Chris felt that he had a lot more to present to them as a transfer student than he did as a freshman applicant. First, he says that his SAT scores were “average,” and this often hurts otherwise strong applicants because colleges want to admit freshman classes that have high average SAT scores so that their statistics look good. Applying as a transfer, Chris’ SAT score would likely matter less. Second, as someone with some experience already as a college student, he was more able to demonstrate his enthusiasm for getting involved on campus through extracurricular activities, a trait that any school would love to have in one of its students. Of course, it didn’t hurt that he made the dean’s list the first quarter, and that he also submitted good mid-quarter grades, even though they weren’t asked for on the application. After a few months of waiting, Chris was accepted into all the schools he applied to.

Despite finally being admitted into his first choice, however, Chris still struggled with the decision to actually change schools all year, and ended up sending in his acceptance form to William and Mary on the last possible day.

“It’s weird because if you stay the whole year, by the end of the year you want to stay the next three years,” Chris said. “It got tougher and tougher as I went along in the process, because I got more and more tired of thinking about it and the decision. It leans you more toward staying at the school that you’re unhappy with.”

After sending in his acceptance form he finally went to William & Mary’s accepted students day, staying with his brother. There, he had “the most amazing day he’s ever had” during his college experience. “Just meeting with professors, seeing the different events you could go to— everyone just seemed so excited to meet you, and everyone was practically giving you hugs here,” Chris said. “I was just so thrilled because it was exactly what I needed.”

The summer before moving, however, he did a little research—looking at forums and in chat rooms—and discovered that his new school might be more academically challenging than he had anticipated.

“My first year of college was pretty tough for me. It was a big balancing act, my whole sophomore year here at William & Mary,” Chris said. “At times I thought, ‘Did I make the right decision?’ I love it here, I love the school, the people, the history [of the place], but the academics are much harder than I anticipated. But I was still determined to improve and work my way up… I’m doing a lot better, and I’m still involved in more things.”

Those “more things” include being involved with Campus Crusade for Christ, the University Center Activities Board Music Committee (UCAB), tutoring in the College Partnership for Kids program, and working at the library’s media center. Chris also studied abroad for one summer, an opportunity that not only let him travel while in school, but also catch up on some credits. On top of all that, he was also president of the Transfer Student Ambassadors group at William & Mary. In that role, he was working on having the school set aside a building as housing for new transfer students. He says he hopes that such a living situation will help new transfer students get a taste of what it’s like to be a freshman discovering a new school with their peers.

One great piece of advice that Chris has for transfer students is to remember when you were the most excited you’ve ever felt about going to your dream school, and injecting that enthusiasm into your application essay: “I pictured myself being involved, loving the school, and I thought, ‘If I can picture that, why can’t I make it happen?’

(Photo: Lyndi&Jason)

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by Lan Ngo

When to Dump Your College: Transfer Mid-Year or Stick It Out?

September 27, 2009 in All Transfers, Community College Articles, Four-Year Transfer Articles, To Transfer or Not

sticky

A reader sent us an email, posing some very good questions about the college transfer journey. We got the thumbs up from her to share her situation with you just in case you’ve been wondering the same thing.

I am currently enrolled at Mercyhurst College, in Erie, PA. I am planning on transferring. Mercyhurst is on a trimester system. The first trimester would finish up at Thanksgiving time. I know I don’t like it here. I have been here since August 12th, and not once have I said to myself, “Wow, I am so glad I chose this school.” I am doing well scholastically speaking so far, but there is nothing, literally NOTHING to do socially speaking. I am from Buffalo, NY, and Erie is drastically different. I find myself very bored here, and I am not finding anything that sparks my interest.

Most (if not almost all) of the transfer students we’ve interviewed started thinking about leaving during their first semester at their first college. It’s not unusual to have these thoughts already. It took a month or two for me to realize that my first university wasn’t the best fit for me.

It’s also not uncommon to want to leave your current school because of the social setting. We forget that college is a place where you live and do your work. You’re signing away four years (that’s FOUR YEARS of your youth!) to your undergraduate career. You should be happy. That’s not to say you should transfer so that you can go to, say, the #1 party school and just hang out. Your reasoning has to be deeper than that.

It sounds like you’re doing well academically, but is there anything lacking in terms of academics at your current college?

When I was applying to schools I knew (or thought I knew) that I wanted to play soccer. Well, I am on the soccer team here and I know now that college sports are not for me. I dread going to soccer every day and I am not enjoying it at all. Also, I underestimated myself and thought I would need a smaller school to do well. And I am not from a city, so I figured that I would not be able to handle a school in a city setting. There is nothing to do in Erie, and there is hardly anything to do on campus either. This is a small Catholic school, so I realize now (a little too late!) that the social scene isn’t going to be as fun as say, Florida State (where my two best friends are). I am a very outgoing social girl and this is very strange for me being here in this setting. I feel like I need a school that’s a little bigger with more going on, on and off campus, and maybe even a school in a city setting!!

Many high school students have ideas about what they want to do in college. Then, they get to college and realize that’s not what they want at all. This shouldn’t come as a surprise! How are you supposed to know at age 17 or 18 what you want? How are you supposed to know what kind of college experience you want when you’ve never been to college? As a high school student, you don’t have a lot to go on when making your decisions about college. I hope you don’t feel alone in making this kind of “mistake.”

I know its still early, but if nothing has gotten better here yet, when will it? The problem arises here: If I know I want to transfer, should I stick out the whole year here? The trimester system makes it tough. My thoughts right now are that I should leave here after the first trimester is finished. I should stay home, work, get introductory courses out of the way at my community college, and really concentrate on making the right transfer choice. Is this not a good idea? Should I finish the year out here? I just don’t see the point in spending all the tuition money to go here if I know I’m not staying! Shouldn’t I be home, focusing on making the right choice for the college I’m transferring to? Will it look bad or will it be harder to transfer if I have transcripts from two schools (Mercyhurst and a community college)? I really need your help. I am the oldest child in my family and my parents and I are unsure of what the steps we should be taking to transfer are. I know its still early, but if the college doesn’t seem right… its not right! I have to go with my gut feeling on this. Also, shouldn’t I start the application process to these schools relatively soon? These are all hard questions and I am hoping you can give me some sense of direction.

You seem to be looking at two options:

  1. Stay at your current college for a year and then transfer
  2. Leave after your first term, go to a community college and work, and then transfer

Regardless of which option you choose, if you want to go to another school as a sophomore transfer, you need to start the application process NOW. By application process, I don’t mean that you have to fill out the forms right now, but you need to do the preliminary research, gather info, and such (stuff we’ll go into detail in our book). Many transfer applications are due March 1, which doesn’t leave you a lot of time. To help you make the decision, you should try to take a more objective look at your options by listing the pros and cons for each. As you think about the pros and cons, ask yourself:

  • Will doing this help me reach my goals in life?
  • Is this feasible?
  • Will I be happy?

Now, let’s look at the two options in detail.

Option 1: Stick it out for the year

This option is the “traditional” one for transfer students. The vast majority of transfer students we’ve interviewed took this route. (Some transfers stayed two years at their first school.) We’re very familiar with this path, since it’s what we did. This is also the “safe” route. You stay where you are, continue to work hard in school, and in the meantime, look into transferring and do what it takes to put together strong applications. There’s no sudden, drastic change of routine. If you’re determined enough and you work hard, you should be able to focus on making the right choice in your next college while continuing with your college routine.

Staying a year would give you time to establish yourself at your college and time to learn about what you want. I often ask transfer students, “Did the time you spend at your first college help to give you a better understanding of what you wanted in your next college?” The answer is almost always YES. Staying might also give you more time to get to know your instructors, from whom you will need recommendation letters. (At the same time, many students stop communicating with their professors on a regular basis once the term is over, so staying beyond one term won’t necessarily help you with building relationships with professors.)

You can stay and spend the rest of the year at your college thinking to yourself, “I can’t wait to leave. Why am I making myself miserable?” or you can say to yourself, “I’m learning so much about myself, and yes, there is light at the end of this tunnel.”

A similar argument could be made about staying at your first college for 2 full years (transferring in the fall as a junior) versus 1.5 years (transferring in the spring semester of your sophomore year).

Option 2: Leave ASAP, go to a community college and work, and then transfer

I know of three people who have transferred twice. One person went to a large university, decided to essentially drop out and go to a community college, and then transferred to William & Mary. So, it’s not completely unheard of to go to two schools before settling down (possibly at a top college, nonetheless). Finishing off the year at a community college and living at home would definitely save you a lot of money. If you choose this option, make sure you have a clear plan for the next steps and stick to that plan. Otherwise, it might be hard for you to get back on that bachelors degree track. A lot of the general requirements are similar for many schools, so some might say that it doesn’t matter where you spend your first year or two of college. From what I’ve heard and from my own experience taking summer classes at a community college, the classes are less rigorous than at four-year schools. So, you’d better do an excellent job at the community college. It would look really bad if you went to a community college and did worse than your first trimester at your first college.

Will it look bad or will it be harder to transfer if you have transcripts from two schools? I can’t give you a definitive answer to that, but I don’t see why having two transcripts will necessarily hurt your transfer application. I would say that your essay will be crucial in this case, because you’ll have to explain your decision VERY carefully and show that you did indeed make the right choice and learned from your first year. It doesn’t hurt to call up a school and ask the admissions office for their opinion. Also, if you’re going to spend a substantial amount of time working at a job while attending community college, it might even be impressive in the eyes of admissions officers, especially if you gain a lot from your job.

This option sounds like your way of “taking time off,” something that some transfers do to give themselves perspective and time to really think about what they want. One transfer student I spoke with left his university to do community service work. Meanwhile, he got his transfer applications together, and he’s now at the University of Pennsylvania. Others took time off to work for a political campaign or teach in India while applying to transfer.  Here’s a great book called Taking Time Off by Colin Hall and Ron Lieber. The book isn’t specifically about transfers, but it’s a worthwhile read for anyone interested in taking a break.

Just to conclude…

I’ve mentioned some of the advantages and disadvantages of each option, but obviously, you know your situation better than anyone else. Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide.

The transfer process is not as straightforward as the freshman application process. Transfer students have taken varying paths to get to where they are. Knowing how other transfers have navigated through their journeys can help you make the road less bumpy (that’s why such a big part of our book will be based on stories directly from transfer students!). But there’s one thing all the people we’ve interviewed have in common: they don’t regret their decision to transfer. We certainly don’t.

Please leave a comment with your input/advice!

(Photo: Tiago Rïbeiro)

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