I regret choosing Quinnipiac University. I’m an incoming freshman and I know people are going to say “try a semester first” kind of thing, but you have to hear me out. Out of all he schools I visited, Quinnipiac was the one I hated the least. I know it’s horrible to choose a school that way but I had no choice. Every time I’m on that campus, it doesn’t feel like a place I’d like to call home for four years. Being from a small, cold town in New Jersey, the idea of a school in Cali or Florida was too good to be true. I know this because my parents told me that buying plane tickets every time I come home was too much money, which I understand. I have orientation next week and I don’t want to go. I watched videos online and I just start to cry knowig this is where I’m headed. I know I could always transfer after a semester of a year, but those months are going to go by so slowly. I’m aware I have a bad attitude about it ad might even like it once I get there, but for now, I’m headed to a school I don’t wan’t to go to. Any tips or advice? Much appreciated
So where will you apply instead if you take a gap year?
I don’t know and I’m not even sure if my parents will allow me to take a gap year
If you haven’t already, talk to your parents right away and be honest about how you feel. If they think plane tickets are expensive, I bet they would hate paying tuition for a place at which you are miserable.
Knowing nothing about the rest of your situation (grades, other schools you got into, financial aid, etc.) it’s hard to give you too much advice. But trust that things will work out somehow. Good luck.
I would go to the orientation next week and then re-evaluate whether you want to go there.
Sometimes life kind of sucks, but you get through it so you can make more opportunities for yourself. Right now, that college is your only real opportunity.
Use it to get where you want to go.
You don’t have to love it, you just have to make it work for you.
I know a kid who just graduated college a year early because she wanted to be done with it and out in the world doing what she wanted to do. Maybe that’s how you need to frame it to be successful there. Find a way to frame it better than what you are doing now, because your attitude will sink you anywhere you go if it’s that negative. You’re not in charge of where you’re going, but you are in charge of your attitude towards it.
@legacy123 hey OP! I guess I can sorta relate to your story. I’m from New Jersey like you, and I also got accepted to Quinnipiac (last year) with a decent scholarship. However, I chose to attend a different school and have not looked back since. Quinnipiac ended up as my second choice.
My advice to you would be to at least try it out for a semester. If you hate it that much, you can try to transfer after your first semester. If you decide to ride out the year and you still don’t like it, then you can transfer.
That school is insanely expensive, and I hope you got some scholarships and grants to defray the costs. If you were to end up transferring, where would you want to go? I see that you lamented not being able to go to California or Florida…what about another warmer state, like Virginia or North Carolina?
@legacy123 Why did you originally apply to Quinnipiac?
Because it was a good distance from home and it seemed nice at the time.
What are your stats ?
If you enroll you lose benefit of freshman status so if you could get merit scholarships you’d lose that opportunity by enrolling.
What’s your budget and your efc ?
There may be other schools on the nacac list, and you don’t need to go as far as Florida to have good weather, Virginia or North Carolina would be fine.
Well then what has changed? Why doesn’t it seem nice anymore?
This post focuses on travel issues and the difference between college and summer camp.
I never considered travel when discussing colleges with kids. But as things turned out, I am very glad that planes are not involved. When you are considering something for the future, you focus on the big picture items because the smaller factors just seem like details that will all work themselves out. But when you have to live those details, things are different. Having to fly to college imposes all kinds of problems that even a 4 hour drive does not. Even flying home for longer holidays can’t be counted on. Half your break can be spent in transit. You can’t come home for 3 day weekend if you are not willing to take chances on delays and other problems. Wait until you are faced with making arrangements to get back and forth. Do you make all the arrangements? Hopefully regardless of how it is accomplished, you’re the one doing the planning and buying the tickets. Consider the hassle factor of traveling at the same time every other student is doing the same thing. Now imagine an impending snowstorm. People imagine the best case scenarios for the things they can’t have and the worse case scenarios for the things they are able to access. Cognition is a jester. Turn it around.
You have not clearly articulated your reasons for not liking the school you are planning to attend. In fact, you imply you disliked all you visited. Who chose the schools to visit and apply to? I assume you selected schools you thought you’d like but you ended up not liking them. Is that only because they were not in warm climates? Did your parents restrict you do schools within a certain distance. Places like Virginia and Maryland have much more moderate climates than Ct. Did they restrict you to New England?
Another possibility is that you generated a list of colleges you thought you’d like but ended up not liking them. If so, it is likely that the same thing could have happened had you selected schools in California or Florida too. Do you tend to view things from a negative perspective? Have you spent a good deal of time in California and Florida and prefer it? Or do you simply imagine you would?
What would you like posters on this site to suggest? That your parents were incorrect in limiting you in any way? A gap year? What do you think would help you make the most of next year? There are many students who would love to take your place at that college. I doubt your parents would be willing to pay for them but they would be very appreciative if your parents would. Many students will be living at home, working part time and attending community college for their first year of college. And many of those feel lucky to be able to do that because their families struggle financially. You don’t feel that way. How can you change things for next year so that you are grateful for opportunities that you have?
A large part of satisfaction with college and an even larger part of achievement while in college rides on the student’s ability to make the most of the college experience. College isn’t summer camp. That is a concept many students and a lot of parents don’t seem to understand. I think college should be reserved for those who consider academics over everything else when it comes to evaluating a college. That is not the usual mentality for parents and students these days. They seem to approach college as if they were evaluating a summer camp. I think that is a shame. If the accouterments at a summer camp are not to your liking it makes sense to find another with a bigger pool, better boating, better weather, prettier dorms, nicer bathrooms. But selecting a college should weight the academics more than most other factors. And, I include the academic climate that is impacted by the type of students attracted to and selected by the school among the important factors. But the glitz of the student centers, or the poshness of the dorms. or the weather…nope. I don’t think they should factor in very much at all. It seems like the OP is over valuing factors that would be important for the recreational activities of summer camp. But to scholarship?
I understand that most students are not scholars. It is my opinion that many now at college should be at summer camp instead. But it is important to distinguish the two enterprises.
Legacy 123, put aside the specifics about college and make a list of the goals you have for yourself at college. In 4 years, what would you like to accomplish. Now go back and look at the college that is holding a spot for you. Can you accomplish those things at that college? If not, or if you think you will get in your own way because you will be mourning what you don’t have, then as others have suggested, take a gap year. But if you are really considering sulking instead of attending the orientation because the college isn’t perfect for you, then you may need a gap year just to catch up.
Just to clarify, the nacac list is a list of schools that are still accepting applications.
Also consider the impact of what some posters call “buyer’s remorse”. Buyer’s remorse is another example of cognition playing tricks. Some people use the expression “the grasss is always greeener…” and it is close to Groucho Marx’s quote" I sent the club a wire stating, “PLEASE ACCEPT MY RESIGNATION. I DON’T WANT TO BELONG TO ANY CLUB THAT WILL ACCEPT PEOPLE LIKE ME AS A MEMBER”.
Things we can’t have seem a lot better to us than those we can. Had you been rejected by Quinnipiac University you’d probably rate it higher than you would now. The further (to a point) out of reach, the more we want it .
Also right now any college seems scary because you don’t know it, you don’t know any people, you don’t know where you will be living…
My daughter just finished her first year of college…she was within driving distance so she could come home for fall break, thanksgiving, spring break, mother’s day, etc. No worrying about flights/weather, etc.
But really…why doesn’t it seem like a good idea? It doesn’t have warm weather?
It is the weather that you are used to.
If your goal in life is to live in a warm place, then do well at Quinnipiac for 2 years. Work over the summers and save and save. Find a good college in FL that is as much as Q is. Tell your parents you will fly yourself home.
@lostaccount You know I think you’re brilliant. normally I agree with you 100%. However, I think it is important to note that if no one cared about the weather/location of a college/university, then virtually everyone would either attend school in the NY/NJ/New England area or attend school close to home. If I didn’t consider venturing out to live in a completely new and virtually foreign state, I would be going into my second year at my safety school right now. Now I agree with you that academic strength/fit is the most important reason to choose a college - it certainly was for me. But I think that attending a college where you’ll be at least content to call home for four years, no matter the weather, is also very important as well.
@legacy123 like I said, you seriously don’t want or need to go to CA or FL for your undergrad or even grad school years just to obtain warm weather. If your happiness in college is strictly determined by whether or not you were in either one of those two states, then to put it bluntly you did a very, very poor job of searching for suitable colleges during the admissions process. There are plenty of amazing schools in VA and NC as well. Should you not like QU and decide to transfer down the line (assuming you get good grades despite your discontent), I think you should explore these options:
University of Richmond
James Madison
Christopher Newport (close to some nice river/lake beaches)
George Mason
VCU
Old Dominion
UNC Wilmington (10 minutes from Wrightsville Beach)
Elon
UNC Charlotte (if you want a large city)
But for now, just focus on your upcoming orientation. Try to make new friends in your orientation group. Talk to people in other groups during your lunch break. If you’re staying in the dorms, try to talk to people in nearby rooms. If you still don’t like it after orientation, then try to have a positive mindset going into August. If it doesn’t improve by December, then explore at least some of the options I listed for transferring a semester or two down the road.
FWIW here’s a list of schools that still have open application dates–
What is it that you do not like about Quinnipiac besides the weather?
“College isn’t summer camp” is correct, and is something that a lot of people forget.
@legacy123 can you state a few things that you like about the school? What I hear you say is that you dream of going to college in California or Florida, but you do not say why other than the weather.
My daughter is at an 'airplane school" (we sometimes drive) and the commute is very easy when she flies. There are many flights each day, the flights are reasonable, and she is 20 minutes from a major airport. There are school run shuttle buses taking students back and forth from the airport. Sometimes going to college where airplanes are necessary is not so bad.
My advice is to focus on the school for at least one semester- the academics, the clubs, the students who attend, etc. If you are miserable when you come home for the holidays then you can speak to your parents. I think if you open your mind you may be pleasantly surprised. One last thing- it is not unusual to think you made a mistake in your choice- this is very common and usually goes away.
^ it depends in how much the student has to pay for Quinipiac (they don’t meet need) and what their stats are (a good sat/act score can yield scholarship money that is unavailable once the student has enrolled somewhere.)
Giving it a try can be a very expensive proposition.
OP needs to specify efc, cost for Quinipiac BEFORE any loans are subtracted (and how much in loans they’d have to take on), and stats.