I’m currently a first year Biomedical Engineering student at UC Davis, and long story short, I want to transfer out.
The thing is, I don’t hate UC Davis by any means—the people here are very nice, and the professors are wonderful.
However, the biggest thing that I’ve realized is that the environment really does not match me. I recently discovered that I thrive in the hustle, more “city-like” feel, and Davis is very much the opposite.
At the beginning of the quarter, I really thought that I could make myself like Davis, but recently, I’ve been feeling increasingly unhappy and unmotivated here.
I know the safe option is to just stick it out for the next few years, but for some reason I have a gut feeling telling me to transfer.
I just have no clue how the whole transfer process works, or how to approach how I’m feeling.
I would love any advice, and I apologize for the long post.
UCs and CSUs mostly prefer junior level transfers, considering only your college record.
Other schools may admit sophomore level transfers, where both your high school and college records matter, or junior level transfers, where your college record is most important and your high school record may or may not be considered.
Some students dissatisfied with their frosh year college but want to transfer to a UC or CSU do their sophomore year at a community college.
Some transfer students are delayed in graduation due to mismatch of courses for transfer subject credit, or requirements at the new school that they were not aware of before transferring.
Financial aid will be redetermined at the new school, and may be better or worse than at the old school. Merit scholarships are less common for transfers than frosh.
The grass isn’t always greener if you were to transfer.
Is there a counselor, or a Student Affairs office, to talk with someone about ways to mitigate your disappointment about the social or out of classroom experience?
You may want to meet with a counselor to discuss your feelings and also a medical professional to see if there is anything biological going on that might be affecting you.
How did you discover this? Have you ever lived in a more hustle, city-like place, or did this come from, perhaps, visiting a place on vacation?
For transfers who have only done one year of college, other colleges will generally look closely at your high school record as well as your college record. Additionally, many schools have less financial aid (including merit aid) for transfer students than they do for incoming freshmen, so that is something to be aware of.
If you would like suggestions of possible transfer options, please let us know more about your academic background (HS & college), what your annual budget is for college, and any other preferences beyond biomedical engineering in a city/hustle-feeling location.
Budget is going to be an issue because transfers generally get less financial aid, unless you go the UCD->CC-> UC/CSU transfer route (in that case, same rules as for UCD apply).
I grew up in a very small town(which is why I applied to Davis), but I’ve always visited the city and I spent the entirety of last summer in urban areas, and I loved it.
My weighted HS GPA was 4.21, with an SAT of 1460. I faced some personal family circumstances that affected my academic performance and extracurriculars, but I still had a good amount of activities.
My current UC Davis GPA IS 3.925.
My budget is something that I can talk about with my parents—I am very privileged to have them cover my tuition cost as long as they think the university that I am at is good for me.
When thinking of a school that I would like to transfer into, I mainly think about a diverse student population, and a place that’ll expose me to different careers, cultures, etc. For me, I’ve noticed a lot of that in the city, for example, when I visited my friend who goes to NYU. I also generally find myself a lot more inspired and motivated in a busy urban area. UC Davis has almost felt too “laid-back” for me, and I feel like it is definitely a more “practical” school.
I’m actually thinking about changing my major to neuro here at Davis so biomed engineering isn’t a “need” at a potential transfer school either.
I sincerely appreciate all of your advice, thank you so much.
I think this is why I’m hesitant about transferring. Because I’m not having an absolutely horrible experience at UC Davis, I don’t wan to transfer and then regret it later. But for some reason I have a strong gut feeling that I’ll be a lot happier elsewhere…
I think the biggest part for me specifically is the location and campus culture. I have friends at Davis, and I’m not particularly struggling with my social life. I just find myself uninspired and unmotivated here. At first, I assumed everybody felt that way because it’s my first year and all, but pretty much everyone around me absolutely loves Davis and that’s just not how I’m feeling.
Consider this. College is temporary. It’s a stop along the way to the rest of your life. Like high school. It’s a means to an end. And you only have 3 years left, not 4.
Don’t worry about being uninspired and unmotivated. Be inspired by the major you choose to study. Be motivated by the thought of how you’re going to get to the rest of your life that awaits you after graduation.
What was your high school’s unweighted GPA?
Some schools you may want to investigate (that all include biomedical engineering, even though it’s not a current must) that are sorted by my guesses about admission include:
Likelier than Not
- Seattle U. (WA)
- U. of Cincinnati (OH)
- Drexel (PA ) in Philadelphia
- U. of Pittsburgh (PA )
- Marquette (WI) in Milwaukee
- U. of Minnesota - Twin Cities
- Saint Louis (MO)
- Temple (PA ) in Philadelphia
- U. of Utah in Salt Lake City
Toss-Up
- George Washington (D.C.)
Not Likely
- Case Western (OH) in Cleveland
- Boston U. (MA)
- Northeastern (MA) in Boston
You have captured the essence of UC-Davis. You may be giving up a lot with respect to low COA and school quality to transfer to an unknown (unknown or else you would have listed specific schools).
FWIW There will be a lifetime consisting of many decades in which to experience city life after college. But, I am biased as I love UC-Davis.
Have you checked into the possibility of studying as a visiting student for a semester/quarter or for a year, thus leaving open the possibility of returning to UC-Davis while also testing out another school in an urban location ?
Are you able to get to Sacramento on occasion? It’s no NYC of course but it is a more urban environment. Maybe an internship in Sac would give you the best of both worlds by giving you some city time during the week? What about study abroad? Could you do your junior year abroad in a capital city somewhere exciting to you? How about a summer internship in San Francisco or a regular volunteer gig in SF on the weekends? Heck, I’m in the East Bay and my friend’s daughter actually lives here (Berkeley area) and commutes to Davis by Amtrak to attend classes - so there are definitely reasonable transit connections to/from Davis to cities here. Just trying to think of what options might exist to make things more workable where you are.
However, if you are certain that you can’t be happy there, then there’s no harm in throwing out some transfer apps. I wouldn’t make any rash decisions about this, though, as sometimes such feelings can change over time as you lay down new and deeper roots where you are. Also, as stated above, the grass isn’t always greener somewhere else. But I am also a pretty firm believer in following your heart, so if your heart isn’t there and never will be, then transferring may be in your best interest.
Bottom line: if you were my kid, I’d advise you to stick it out through the end of sophomore year, then try to do a junior year transfer IF you decide you just can’t find happiness where you are AND you have thoroughly researched your options and have found a place that truly checks all your boxes (including affordability).
Visiting a city like NYC or SF is much different than living there.
I knew an executive who loved NYC. The theaters, museums, restaurants were all wonderful, so he took a job there. Turns out what he loved was NYC on an expense account. Once he had to foot the bill he couldn’t go out every night, couldn’t eat in fancy restaurants all the time. And he was making a lot of money! It just costs a lot to live there.
It’s not like Davis is a small town. A university makes a city in itself, with Starbucks and concerts and theater productions. There are libraries and museums. There are sporting events.
My suggestion would be to go for a campus visit at University of San Francisco. It’s close enough to UC Davis that you could just head over there for a campus visit and spend the day thinking about things. They have lots of Saturday visit dates in Feb and March.
USF has an awesome urban location (which also happens to be near health centers and UCSF), and is ranked #1 (in a 4-way tie) in campus diversity by US News.
I don’t know whether USF would have majors that interest you, but my D26 thought it would have plenty of opportunities for her… she’s also interested in neuroscience and biomedical engineering. I also don’t know whether the financial side would work for you (it is an expensive private university). If you were interested in actually exploring that, you could meet with a counselor as part of a visit.
USF may not be the perfect place for you… I see lots of other good suggestions above. And you might just decide to stick it out at Davis (which is a great school). But since USF does check your urban and diversity boxes, and it’s only a relatively short trip away for you, it might be worth a visit, as part of your thought process.
@worriedmomucb also had some great suggestions about how to add more urban flavor to your time at Davis. 
Many students out there don’t experience that feeling of LOVE for their university, but still get a great education, make life long friends, and end up well prepared and launched into a satisfying future career and life.
And if I recall correctly, has either no or extremely limited financial aid for transfer students, so it will depend what OP’s family can afford. It will definitely come with a big price tag.
But I also think very highly of USF - it’s a great school with some of the supportive, laid back attitudes of UC Davis, while being located in the heart of San Francisco (right by Golden Gate Park). It’s also very diverse - as is the surrounding city, of course. Worth a trip to see what life might look like somewhere else. It may make you even more convinced that you want to transfer, or it might make you realize that you can indeed make Davis work with a little tweaking. An easy way to get a glimpse into other possibilities.
Yea, that’s what I’m most worried about. I know transfer options such as UC to CC back to UC/CSU exists, but if transferring out of Davis means transferring to a school with less “prestige,” academic rigor, and school quality, then I guess I would rather stay at Davis.
I think you’ve gotten a lot of good suggestions - including several on how to make your experience more urban without transferring. Although I generally wouldn’t recommend this, it might be worth trying to see if you can graduate early. Aiming to do that will probably rule out transferring - you’ll have too many credits to go somewhere else - but if your goal is to get to a city (v. wanting to go to college in a city), it might make some sense. I see value in spending 4 years in college, learning a variety of things, having college experiences, etc., but personal situations (and budgets) can outweigh that.
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