I’m a current sophomore at Temple University majoring in Sociology, with minors in Math and Statistics. I want to transfer for a couple reasons:
Commuter Heavy/Lack of Community - Most people I know are from Philadelphia or surrounding counties and go straight home after class. Campus is very empty on weekends and after around 5 PM. I’m in around ~5 different clubs at the moment and most of them have barely any other students other than me. When I was a freshman I also dormed, and my brother told me that there was a major lack of community/socialization compared to when he was in college.
Too Many People - I’m very introverted, so because of Temple’s size its been really hard to make intimate relationships with people, especially given the general culture of Temple. Beyond that, at certain times the campus gets very overwhelming and busy during certain times of day.
Programs aren’t the best - A lot of the Sociology courses I’ve taken are electives or ‘selective topic’ courses without a lot of focus and felt like it didn’t really dive into Sociological theory that much. I haven’t really felt challenged by a lot of my coursework either.
Can’t Dual Major - I was originally a dual major in Sociology and Statistics, but had to drop my Statistics major and switch to a Sociology major with minors in Math and Stats or else I wouldn’t graduate on time. Additonally, the Statstics program at Temple is very business focused, while I’m interested in getting more into Social Science statistics or healthcare.
What I want from a transfer college:
Small to Medium Sized college (15-16k students max)
Near/In a city OR in a nice college town
Good sense of community (like a tight knit student body, not super sports focused or anything like that)
Somewhere I can dual major
Ethnic diversity (I’m POC so I want to be able to not be the only non-white person in my classes if possible)
Preferably on the East Coast, but I’m fine with colleges in the South or the West Coast as well. (NO MIDWEST)
I already have American University, George Washington University and Binghamton University on my list.
Your budget has everything to do with transferring.
If you were looking for financial aid, you might get lucky, but most of the time, you’ll be on your own for the majority of the educational costs.
The public universities are obligated to their in-state taxpaying parents. So if you’re not a resident of a particular state, then you’ll be paying nonresident fees which are expensive.
If you’re looking at privates, you need to investigate their transfer funding.
If you consider yourself introverted, going to a smaller school isn’t going to help. You need to put yourself out there, and step out of your comfort zone especially because of your major.
I considered myself introverted, and I initially started at a smaller university-and made some friends-but transferred to a larger university where I made tons of friends because there was just so much to do.
Figure out your budget and use that to plan where you’ll be transferring.
I don’t have a specific budget but I’d prefer around ~20k/semester or less if possible. I have a 3.95 GPA. I don’t have LORs right now, but I can ask some professors to reuse their LORs that I had asked them for an internship application.
I have to add that I’m specifically looking for merit aid. I don’t expect to get a lot of financial aid, my parents are upper-middle class. I’m a New Jersey resident.
American and GWU won’t get close to that. Bing OOS COA is in the mid-50’s, not sure how much merit OOS transfer students can get.
You could look at Susquehanna, Quinnipiac, and your NJ in-state schools.
I agree with tsbna that double majoring and getting out in 2 years will be tough. Hard to know ahead of time at most schools too. All you can do right now is contact the transfer admissions people and start the process. Good luck.
I’ve been thinking about going to an in-state college, but I have some remission about it. I won’t get too personal, but I have some family issues at home that make it hard for me to want to stay. Also, while I haven’t really enjoyed my time at Temple, being in a large city like Philadelphia was something I really enjoyed. I’m OOS at Temple and only pay around ~10k per semester, and the OOS tution for Temple before aid is ~37.5k per semester, which is why I’m not too worried about aid.
You may want to check out whether there’s an Applied Statistics or Data Science major with a Sociology (demographics, survey/politics?) orientation.
The 3.95 is going to be a big plus.
The 40k price tag is going to be a big limit.
Typically transfers get way less, if any, merit aid so you should apply to Rutgers and probably TCNJ/NJIT if you really want to transfer since these would meet your budget.
Obviously you can start by checking out colleges within Philly and hope for some merit: Drexel, St Joe’s, perhaps Bryn Mawr if you’re a woman (they have some merit but not sure whether it’s available for transfers).
Seconding Fordham, UScranton, Kalamazoo.
Look into U Cincinnati, U Louisville, U South Carolina Columbia, SUNY Geneseo, SUNY New Paltz?
That’s because you were accepted as a freshman, that’s where most of the merit gods , not to transfers. My NJ daughter was offered good merit from Temple, Bing, UMASS, UCONN, plus others as an incoming freshman, but I wouldn’t expect the same numbers as a transfer.
Love the Louisville suggestion. With $12k off being a transfer from NJ, it brings to under $40k. The school is just a few miles from downtown. Lville is a great city.
UT Chattanooga is another that will hit that’s urban. It’s a short bridge walk from an amazing city.
Tennessee State, a public HBCU, will work. It’s in Nashville, so quite urban.
What about staying at Temple and doing junior year abroad (or at a partner domestic school)? Then you will just have senior year to finish up at Temple. Sounds like it is great on budget and you enjoy Phila.
Main thing is the abillity to dual major. I want to be able to dual major in Sociology and Statistics because I am interetsed in both fields, and for the possibility to pivot in one direction or the other if I decide to. Additionally, niether the Sociology department nor the Statistics department are as well developed course wise or opportunities wise compared to other colleges I’ve looked at. Beyond that, I’m genuinely not having a good time at Temple, and really want to go anywhere else.
Temple’s website says you can dual major. Is the problem that statistics is in the b-school? If so, you may have a similar issue elsewhere.
Regardless, if you want to transfer the first step is to seek out affordable options. Merit aid is much harder to come by as a transfer student. While you said being in NJ isn’t ideal, your in-state options are a good starting point.
I know the names I put forth before are urban with assured merit to hit your price point ($40k all in). Check the academic side of each. Some will have stats in the math major.
Are you restricted to a certain part of the country. ? Is urban required?
If you’re willing to go further, UNM is urban and will be well below $40k. And very diverse.
UNL, less diverse, but still in the city - also will work.
I can but I won’t graduate on time. Another thing is the statistics probram at Temple is heavily Business focused, so theres a lot of accounting, finance, etc. classes. I’m interested in going into social research, GIS, and epidemiology / healthcare research, so the focus on business analytics really isn’t helpful for me.
I do want to look at NJ schools, but besides Rutgers most of the other colleges seem to be commuter based schools. I have issues with Rutgers for multiple reasons (not just seeing people from high school, the campus is incredibly spaced out, the bus system is confusing, there’s too many people, etc.). Obviously there’s Princeton but that’s unrealistic.
It doesn’t necessarily have to be in the city, if there’s a nice college town with a good sense of community I’ll take that as well (one example I’ve heard about is UMD). Fordhman and SUNY universities I am interested in. I’d prefer colleges on the East Coast, certain southern states (Georgia, Texas are fine, others I’m not too sure on), as well as the West Coast. I am not interested in going to the Midwest.