Going to my safety school with intentions of transferring after one year?

College Search & Lists
1

Hi!

So I’m sure many people went through this, but I would still like to read opinions on my individual case. I’m an international student about to finish senior year of HS.
I had moderately high college expectations, and got into 2 selective/prestigious colleges (top 30 ones) that I really liked. As an international student, I didn’t get any financial aid at any of them, and my family isn’t yet prepared to pay almost 70,000$/year for 4 years. We had 1 year to prepare financially. I only decided to apply to US colleges last year. I didn’t expect much financial aid, but I hoped that my family’s finances would turn out all right. But they didn’t, unfortunately.
Anyway, now I will be going to a school that offered me a very good merit scholarship. It is not prestigious and not very selective, but it makes sense financially. It’s a half-tuition scholarship. It’s a huge public school, and not among the best. But it’s decent, I guess. It was one of my safeties.
I’m not very excited about this school and even though I am really grateful for the scholarship I can’t help but to think that I should try to transfer to one of my “dream schools” after a year. Columbia, Northwestern, Georgetown, Emory, Tufts, Wesleyan, and NYU are the ones I’d surely try. So any advice on how I should approach this goal? How should I start working toward it? Specifically for very selective schools like these, how does the transfer application process generally work?
Obviously if I find myself happy and satisfied with my experience at the school I’ll attend this year, or if my family is still not able to afford said colleges, or if I don’t get into one of the schools I mentioned above, I will probably not transfer. But it is something I have to start working on very early on even if I don’t know how things will turn out.
I thought about a gap year. But to be honest, I’d rather start my college career now. I doubt I’ll be motivated enough to do extensive charity work or anything like that. I really want to go to college, even if it isn’t one of my top choices.

Thank you!

2

As a transfer it is harder to get into those schools (except NYU.) Any you aren’t likely going to get any funds. Plus you are only saving one year of half tuition. If you are going to try the transfer strategy, try after 2 years at least to save more. I think it will actually be easier after 2 years because you can show more of a college record and show that you have utilized all the resources and you are in need of stronger academics and opportunities. And you can define a key academic fit for the schools for your major. Also you can have a track record of college community involvement which is an attractive feature for transfers.

At least you are looking forward to your new college so enjoy the moment while you are there, and the new adventure.

3

If you need merit aid, it’s unlikely you’ll get any at the most famous colleges since they don’t have any/much, not just for internationals but for Americans too. If you want merit aid, you need to look at colleges ranked 50-125 or so. It sounds like that’s what you did.
Transferring after one year is hard because you don’t have enough grades and it’ll be hard to get good recommendations. You can always plan to transfer Spring of Sophomore year, when you have 3 semesters’ worth of grades, hopefully lots of on-campus enrollment, etc.

4

You still need to present your high school grades and SAT/ACT scores if you plan to transfer after one year. Transfer admissions are very, very difficult at most of the schools you mentioned, and they rarely accept students they rejected as freshmen unless there is a very compelling situation. NYU is legendarily stingy with financial aid for anyone. They have the highest transfer acceptance rate, but you could not expect them to be affordable. Try to enjoy your college. If you don’t, then look at features other than prestige when trying to transfer (e.g. location, “vibe,” curriculum, etc.).

5

Do you mind sharing with us the name of this “huge public school”? What is your intended major? What was your ACT/SAT scores and your GPA? Do you intend to go on to graduate school shortly after undergraduate? What country are you from? Are you planning on going back to your country after undergrad/grad school?

How do you expect to pay for the “prestigious” University if you are successful in getting in after one or 2 years at your current institution?

6

IMO you should be excited and extremely grateful about getting into a US school with a scholarship that makes it do-able for your family. In my opinion it would be a huge mistake to start off college with the idea of transferring. First, if you have one foot out the door to start with you will never get full invested in the opportunities, classes, friendships, experiences that can be had at that school. Second, it is unlikely that you will get merit aid as a transfer and so the odds of being able to switch schools are low. You didn’t mention the school you would be attending, but I’d start to get excited about being there.

7

You are one of a ton of people who end up at a school for financial reasons. Join the crowd. That doesn’t mean you can’t have a great college experience. I join the others in saying that the odds of transferring will be small and that merit aid is rarely given to transfer students. Embrace the school that gave you a generous aid and embrace he chance you have to go to school in the US – I’m guessing your “safety school” beats options in your home country or you wouldn’t be coming.

8

The true educational difference between the elite schools and the top 100-150 schools is fairly small. It is more about bragging rights than it is about educational opportunity. If you go into the situation to make the best of it, you will often find more opportunity at the ‘lesser’ school. If your resume is that much better than your peers, you should have more chances at research and the like. Think big fish in a small pond. If you go into it expecting to transfer, you are headed for many potential heartaches. You will definitely be unhappy for a year because while you are dating one girl, you are pining after another (never a good thing). There is also no guarantee that the girl you want will want you a year from now.

9

Can you give the name of the college? The situatuon’s different if you’re talking william patterson or tcnj- even if you aimed for Princeton, these two colleges aren’t the same academically at all. Having an idea of what you were aiming for and where you’re going would help us see of there’s a potential problem or not.

10

Was OP looking in NJ? If so, I missed it somewhere in the discussion. @noidea96 If you mean Rutgers, then you have nothing to look down on. Any public flagship is a good school where you can get a solid education.

11

No, i juste gave an example from a random state. I Could have Said Radford and jmu, or fgcu vs. USF. :slight_smile:

12

Hi! Thanks for all the replies
I didn’t want to name the colleges. It’s Temple vs Georgetown.
I applied for financial-aid at Georgetown but didn’t get anything.
As I said in my initial post, I do know a lot of people go through this and I’m not whining or anything. I admit I’m a little disappointed that I can’t go to my dream school because of finances, but in the end I know it’s the right thing to do right now and I still feel lucky that I can go to Temple.
My family isn’t rich, but we live… comfortably (which is probably why I didn’t get anything from Georgetown). We do have a little more than 1 year COA of Georgetown saved specifically for college, but right now it would still be a great risk (it’s four years) and I don’t want to put my family through that. As much as I want to go to Georgetown I don’t want my family to be constantly worried about paying for it or take loans. However, I’m also confident that if we continue saving money, we will be able to afford one of the more expensive colleges even without aid next year.
I was denied from Swarthmore, Chicago, Upenn, Carnegie Mellon and JHU. Accepted at Georgetown, Bowdoin, Tufts, BU, Pitt, and Temple. Didn’t get anything from Pitt (or the others), so it’s still 50,000$/year. Temple is 30,000$.
My stats are 2030 SAT (single sitting), 3.8 UW GPA, 780 Math II and 760 Biology SAT II.
I know I still have to send SAT scores and grades. My SAT Score isn’t good enough for those colleges and I will probably take it again.

13

Temple is honestly a really great school! I know how it is to look down on a school that is in your state because everyone knows about it and a lot of people are going there, however just know that the grass is always greener on the other side. I know plenty of people from NJ who are very impressed with/would love Temple!

14

So do I understand this correctly?
[ul]
[] You got into a few of your “dream schools”
[] You did not get need based aid, but got merit aid at a couple of your safeties
[] You don’t think that your family can afford the COA at Georgetown without taking out loans, which you do not want
[] You do not want to take out loans
[] Your family has around $60K saved for college
[] Your family can save up enough in one year to make Georgetown affordable for years 2-4 (with continued saving i assume)
[li] You have decided to go to Temple for one year and then transfer out, which would save you $30K due to merit aid[/li][/ul]

I know it’s a little late, but I’m not sure you made the right decision here.

Have you researched Georgetown transfer stats? The acceptance rate is lower than first-year admissions, as it is at most other elite schools. Depending on size of school, they may only take around 50 or 100 students. Georgetown and Tufts will take more like 150-200, but they still take a lower percentage than in first-year admissions. I bet Bowdoin lets in less than 50 and probably more like 20-25.

You got into some amazing schools, and getting back in may not be as easy.

If I understand your financial math, it sounds like your family could afford full tuition if they had a couple years to save for it prior to your deciding to go to school in the US. So why wouldn’t they take out a short term loan and pay it off over the 2-3 years after you graduate? Why wouldn’t you take out a loan to help bridge that gap?

Short-term loans are not evil; they are a common way to fund expansion of a business, which in turn brings in higher revenues in the future to help pay off the loan. It sounds like your family has a cash flow problem, and this is what loans are for. There’s really no difference between your family saving $60K/yr, and taking a loan to cover COA while they save to pay it off- Georgetown is still getting your family’s money, you just covered a short-term gap between savings and cost with a loan.

I have nothing against Temple; I’m sure it’s a fine school, and $30K/yr is a great option, and frankly you will probably really enjoy it and end up staying. But going in to college planning on transferring to a school you already got in to because of a short term cash flow issue is not smart. To put it another way- if Temple were only $7.5K/yr less than Georgetown, what would your decision be? Because that’s what you are saving if you transfer after freshman year.

If I were you I would discuss this with your parents and if loans are possible, talk to Georgetown. I don’t even know if it’s possible at this point, but all this trouble is not worth $30K IMHO.

15

Some schools do not consider SATs you take after you start college so you need to check on that. The SATs are meant to be a college entrance exam not an exam for students already in college. And it highly unlikely you would get the aid you need as a transfer student to attend a different school. I would put all of your efforts into doing well and having a great experience at Temple.

16

I don’t know of ANY schools that accept SATs taken during college.

17

@happy1 @Erin’s Dad Where did you get that information from? About SAT/ACT taken during college not being valid or considered for transfers. I can’t find it anywhere.

Thanks everyone for your advice.

18

I said that you “need to check on that”. Contact schools you are interested in and ask if they would accept SAT/ACT taken while you are in college. Call SAT/ACT and see if you are eligible to take the exam as a college student. I never claimed to have the answers but brought it up as something to be considered. It seems to me to be an unfair advantage to allow college students to take the exam, but I don’t know. for certain what the rules are or if they vary from school to school.

Again, I disagree with your transfer idea and would focus on doing well and enjoying Temple.