What are some things colleges do that turn off potential students?
What are some things colleges do that make students transfer out?
Being a state university in New Jersey?
For a motivated student, arriving unexpectedly at a party school may be a reason to transfer out.
No puppies to play with during finals?
Leading families to believe they can afford $100k in loans when they plainly can’t.
Just guessing here, but I would think there are some things that are universal turnoffs and other things that are individual turnoffs. Examples of universal turnoffs: bad location (e.g., high crime area, too rural or difficult to get to airports or public transportation); poor physical condition of the facilities in general including dorms, classrooms, student union, athletic facilities, dining facilities; bad food; difficulty getting desired classes, high cost (including requiring excessive debt), lack of choice of classes, weak professors, poor advising services, etc.
Individual turnoffs could be almost anything where the school basically does not meet individual expectations. Presence or absence of Greek life, for example. Presence or absence of party life. Presence or absence of school spirit, successful team sports, etc. Strength or weakness in a particular academic area of interest to the student. The individual turnoffs could go on and on. Maybe the type of student that predominates: too preppy, too fratty, too many jocks, too many nerds, too many rich snobs, not enough diversity, etc. Too big or too small.
Around here it seems that every year there are some students who go out of state for freshman year then transfer back to the in state university. Basically it seems a combination of homesickness (including missing high school friends) coupled with a realization that the family is paying a lot of money for the OOS school but the student just isn’t happy enough to justify continuing to do that.
Re the NJ public university post, it appears to be a CC insider comment not related to real world statistics. Rutgers-NB, for example, has a higher freshman retention rate than schools such as the University of Vermont, UMass and UC-Santa Cruz.
^^^New Jersey’s biggest export is 18 year old college freshmen.
@merc81 Rutgers NB also has a high yield compared to nearby state flagships:
Rutgers NB 33%
Maryland 31%
Penn State 28%
Delaware 25%
UMass 20%
SUNY SB 20%
Vermont 13%
I don’t think it’s necessarily what the “school did,” but often more likely because of the student and/or parent.
here on CC and in real life we see excited students/parents commit to unaffordable schools, and then the realities play out after a year or two, and the students have to leave after a year or two. Families may find that the “monthly pay plan,” is still more than they can afford, or they may not be able to continue to take out loans.
We’ve seen families that have the budget so tight that any unexpected household expense suddenly makes college unaffordable. I recall the student who posted that his parents had to spend his EFC on a new Heat and AC system. Suddenly, his school wasn’t affordable.
I’ve seen students from divorced homes have to leave because suddenly one parent withdrew his/her commitment to help pay. (Last year, a mom suddenly found herself having to cover her exH’s “promised” contribution so her child could register for the next semester…later the student had to transfer out.)
We’ve seen kids have to leave due to grades. Either parents won’t continue to pay for a child whose grades aren’t at an expected level (some parents want at least a 3.0)…or the student loses FA or merit due to grades.
I’ve seen kids transfer out because of a change in major, and the current school doesn’t have the desired major. I’ve also seen where parents agreed to pay a higher price because a school is known for a particular major, but then the child changes to a more generic major (say, education), and then the parents no longer want to pay big bucks for a degree that can easily be achieved at a much cheaper school.
The ages of 18-20 are the ages that often anxiety and depression issue flare up. When that happens, and it’s severe, the students often transfer back home.
I would say room and board. It could be crummy, it could be too small or restrictive times for food. Or dorms too far from campus hub?
Cliquey vibe.
Schools that bombard you with emails and when told that student will not attend, then proceed to continue sending emails to the parent.
“New Jersey’s biggest export is eighteen year old college freshmen.” (#7)
This isn’t necessarily relevant to NJ’s public universities per se.
I feel schools with low retention and high transfer out rates spiral to more and more kids leaving.
They see their friends gone. Their halls empty. And say why shouldn’t I leave too.
Ugly campuses are a major turnoff. Put out a few strategically placed planters.
A list of universal turn-offs is sort of pointless since individual turn-offs are what matter most anyway.
For me, those turn-offs include:
-Too exclusive/elite
-Weak reputation of majors I am interested in
-Colleges in urban areas
-Ultra liberal student body (moderately liberal is fine)
-Campus vibe doesn’t feel right
-Surrounding area not appealing
-Pretty much any college east of the Rockies, and north of California!
For some kids, if their counselor tells them it is a safety, then it is unpopular.
For the transfer out question,I think a lot of times it comes down to social and major related issues. If a student wants to change majors and feels that the current school is not strong in that major, or if it is hard to get into your major classes, or if the student is disappointed somehow in the department - that can lead to transfers. And for the social aspect - if a student is looking for a close-knit community and the school is lacking or turns out to be a suitcase school, then that can be a transfer out factor as well.
For me:
-Being overpriced
-Being a state school in my state (See above)
-Cold weather
-Rural location
-Extremely preppy
-Extremely liberal
I transferred out of my big, public state university after my freshman year because I got tired of sitting in lecture halls with 400 other students and having teaching assistants who barely spoke English. I transferred to a school with 3000 students, and it was one of the best things I ever did. Biggest class I ever had at the latter school was about 60 people, and most classes (even freshman-level ones) had 25-30 students.
Among the US News T30 national universities, the ones with the largest student bodies include USC, NYU, Berkeley, UCLA, UVa, UNC-CH, and Michigan. These are schools that can afford to be highly selective yet still maintain very large enrollments.
Factors that seem to make these schools popular include excellent academic reputations, desirable locations, and (in some cases) good sports teams. They are very selective but their admit rates are not way down in the single digits. So they make excellent “match” choices for the strongest students, as well as desirable “reach” schools for very many students. Most of them are public (therefore relatively affordable) universities in populous states.