<p>I apologize ahead of time for the length! I’m currently an out-of-state first year student at a public university about five hours away from my hometown (I’m a resident in Oregon and attend school in Washington.) After almost two quarters at my current university, I’m confident this school is not the right fit for me. I have a couple of friends, I’m quite active, I participate in a couple clubs and go to different social events on campus. In short, the social atmosphere isn’t the issue. The academics are not working for me because: A) it is nearly impossible at my current school to explore different academic areas and try to find a true passion (given the way class registration, pre-reqs, and majors work here) and B) there is no program here for a field that my undeclared, undecided self has taken an interest in (nursing or a pre-nursing program.) </p>
<p>When looking at my options for next year, my parents and I have narrowed it down to three options. These are most likely temporary fixes for the next year to save us some money while I try and figure out where my true calling lies, though they would also work for me finishing out my degree if I ended up being happy with them (we’re in kind of a time crunch, hence the lack of choices. The options are as follows:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Suck it up and stay at my current school for another year. I’m currently in an interdisciplinary program with different core requirements than the main university, but if I gave that up, I could get most of my general education requirements done by the end of next year and then transfer out after that. This option would mean no work in terms of transferring but would also leave me at a school with academic options I’m not that fond of, five hours away from home, 3 hours away from my serious boyfriend (who I see every weekend, totaling to ~$50 or $60 every week), and about $14,000 to pay for the whole year. It’s the simplest option because it doesn’t require me to do anything but seems to make the least sense to me financially because it’s the most expensive option and I’m truly not happy with the academics here and feel that money would be wasted on them.</p></li>
<li><p>Transfer to a different university nearby. This is the school my boyfriend and a couple of close friends attend. Given my test scores and grades, I’m considered slightly above average here and would qualify for several scholarships that would leave me to pay in between $12,500 and $10,000 for the whole year, in addition to being able to pay nothing for traveling to/from seeing my boyfriend and less for housing because I could room with friends or my boyfriend. I’d also be a part of the honor’s college there, which is TRULY interdisciplinary (unlike my current program), and closer to home. On the downside, not all of my credits from my current school would transfer and because of this (and the intensity of the honor’s college/possibly the pre-nursing major), I’d likely have to take summer classes to be able to finish in the time I would at my current school. My boyfriend will also graduate at the end of my sophomore year, so that means I’d either be looking into a new school for my third year or he’d have to wait for me to finish. I’d probably be the most happy here, but it only really falls in the middle financially.</p></li>
<li><p>Go home and attend community college. Our local community college is close to my house, meaning I could live at home and save a lot of money, in addition to going to a less expensive school. The CC also has a nursing program that is HIGHLY competitive, but allows straight transfer without additional applications into one of the top ten nursing/medical schools in the country if you’re accepted to the program. Financially, this makes the most sense but I’m not sure whether it’d increase my chances for that particular nursing school over Option 2 and I feel like it’d be hard to transition back from a four year university to a community college and living at home. I’d also be EVEN FURTHER away from the boyfriend (I realize that boys are not an end-all-be-all but we fully intend to marry within the next couple years and are interested in making the distance go away and/or as easy as possible on us.)</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Unfortunately, I don’t have a whole lot of time to figure out what makes the most sense for me next year. If my parents had been open to the idea of a change earlier, I might’ve been able to come up with more options for the next year, but this is how I’m left. I’m wondering if anyone can give me feedback on their thoughts about what makes the most sense or what they’d do if they were in this situation. I know it may be hard to judge without school names (which I’m willing to provide, I just don’t know if anyone knows about the schools) or without immediately assuming I’m just transferring for my boyfriend (I’m not, and I don’t need to justify that to anyone. Assume what you will.), but any opinions would be greatly appreciated.</p>