Should I transfer for a better engineering school?

Applying to College
1

<p>I am currently a freshman engineering major at Baylor University. I chose Baylor because when I toured, it was told that it had a rich campus life and that there was always something to do on campus. In addition, their engineering college said that I would have no problem getting a job when I graduate. </p>

<p>However, there is NOTHING to do here on the weekends, and the only person that I ever do anything with is my roommate. In addition, all of my friends are music majors or bio majors. I have maybe one engineering friend. I feel mostly alone. Also, now that I am a part of the engineering college, I am getting all of the recruiting emails that are being sent out. None of them are from any big company, completely opposite of what they told me when I applied.</p>

<p>Meanwhile, I was accepted during high school to the University of Texas at Austin School of Engineering, which is #11 nationally ranked with a doctorate program (Baylor is #11 for schools that don’t offer a doctorate). In addition, UT keeps getting grant after grant from large companies and hires x amount of UT grads every year. </p>

<p>Also, my girlfriend of one year goes to UT, but that isn’t the main reason I’m considering transferring. I fear that at Baylor, I won’t be able to find a job that I like. However, I fear that my parents will get upset, and I’m not quite sure how to talk to them about transferring (although I would be saving thousands of dollars a year).</p>

<p>How would I talk to my parents about transferring? Should I transfer?</p>

2

<p>You can certain apply to transfer. I don’t see why your parents would object if it were just on cost and school reputation (UT Austin has both a lower cost from what you said and better reputation for engineering). But is there any other reason that they would rather have you attend Baylor (they are obviously willing to pay more for a lower reputation in engineering), such as Baptist affiliation?</p>

<p>However, if you do not transfer (or if you do), you can easily apply to big companies, since you know who they are. It is the small ones that you do not know about which are the ones that the school’s career center attractiveness helps you apply to. Of course, UT Austin’s career center may attract more of them, if there are more in Austin than Waco, or they travel to UT Austin but not Baylor.</p>