“If you don’t like your college, you can always transfer.” How many times have you heard that? You must admit, it seems to take the pressure off of finding the right college. You choose a college, and if it doesn’t work out, you transfer. Sounds easy enough, right?
But before you make a decision just to end the tiresome college research, let’s look at the implications of transferring:
• Time. In college, the academic challenges will likely be greater than high school, and you won’t have as many papers and tests that count toward your final grade. The majority of your time will be spent studying; you’ll have few opportunities to research, visit, and apply to other colleges.
• Costs. Next, there are the applications costs. (Remember those?) Then, there may be costs to re-take courses at your new school—with new books—because course credits do not always transfer from one school to another. Finally, re-taking courses and meeting new graduation requirements may mean it could take five or six years to earn a degree, adding more to your overall cost of tuition.
• Freshman, again. Remember, when you transfer, you will be starting all over again making new friends. Only now you’ll be doing it as a sophomore—alongside sophomores who started their freshmen year together and have “settled in” with their own niche of friends. Bottom line: it could take more effort on your part to make new friends.
Still want to push aside your college research? Consider this statistic: students who transfer after their first year of college, less than 40% stay on track to finish their bachelor’s degree. Less than 40%!
College research may be a great stress now, but take your time while you’re still in high school and find the colleges that fit all of you: your personality, interests, preferences, learning style, as well as your grades. Time spend now can result in a rewarding college experience, and a degree later.
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Planning for college can definitely be intimidating. After all, there are THOUSANDS of colleges out there, each with beautiful web sites and brochures of students studying on the “quad” or bicycling through the fall leaves. It’s enough to make you think that no matter where you go, you will have a wonderful college experience. You just need to focus on your SAT, GPA, and essays to submit strong college applications.
Right?
But don’t be fooled, because reality can strike hard. That college that you never visited but really meant to—can quickly turn into a big regret. Perhaps you thrive in a competitive academic environment and find the students in your classes to be apathetic. Or maybe the campus doesn’t offer the activities you love to do in your free time. College acceptance doesn’t necessarily mean college satisfaction.
The WiseChoice survey of over 800 current college freshmen all across the U.S. found that 1/3 are already thinking about transferring, and it’s only November. What’s surprising is that many of the reasons cited for transferring—campus setting, nothing in common with other students, too conservative/liberal—could easily have been addressed if only these students had done more research in advance on their selected school.
So, take a breather and start thinking about what is really important to you in a college. Visit colleges and talk to the students on campus. (You can count on the students to give you the real scoop!) What is the “vibe” on the campus? Ask, “Do I belong here?” Don’t make any rush decisions. Remember, this is about finding a college that is right for you and not based on where your friends or parents want you to go.
By finding a college that fits your personality, learning style, personal preferences, and your budget, you have a much greater chance of being satisfied and successful with your college of choice, with many new friends to hang out with instead of filling out new applications to transfer. So, take your time now, do your research, and skip the transfer later!
WiseChoice has released the results of its latest survey of over 800 college freshmen nationwide. The results are eye-opening: One-third of current college freshmen are thinking about transferring. (One-third!) And more believe that there must be a better school for them than their current one. Some of the reasons cited are:
-Nothing in common with other students
-Lack of campus and student diversity
-Unhelpful faculty
-Not offering their major of choice
The survey reinforces the idea that investing the time upfront on a thorough college search could prevent students the trouble of transferring. Instead, they could thrive and be happy succeeding at the right college from the start. Plus, transferring schools can be an expensive proposition (think: another round of application fees, possible lost credits, and so on).
Read more about the results of the freshmen college survey in our latest WiseChoice Press Release.
Application deadlines are drawing close and if you’re like many students, you’re finding the essay to be the most daunting aspect of the college application process. But don’t be intimidated! Look at the essay as an opportunity for your voice to be heard in the admissions office. (Wouldn’t it be great if you could accompany your application right to the Dean’s desk?)
Here are some essay tips to help you conquer that blank page:
Remember your goal: You want to show the reader who you are, what makes you special, and why you’re a great fit for their college.
Choose a topic: Pick one of the college’s essay prompts which sparks an emotional reaction. Make sure that you’re answering the question.
Narrow your focus: Avoid writing a general essay by asking yourself why/what/where/when/how until you can pinpoint your focus.
Catch their attention: Grab the reader’s attention with a short anecdote, a quotation, or an unusual but interesting statement. Make sure your essay reveals your energy, commitment, and positive attitude. But most importantly, be yourself.
Get started: There’s no time like the present. Write that first draft and then come back to it later to evaluate what you’ve written. Is it clear and organized? Is it interesting? Does your unique personality shine through?
Rewrite: Make changes, check your spelling, grammar and sentence structure. Show your paper to someone who knows you well and get feedback.
Don’t forget that who you are is much more than the compilation of your G.P.A. and your standardized test scores. Use your essay to show the reader just how unique you are. Have fun with it!
Now is the time—if you haven’t already done so—to ask your teachers for letters of recommendation. (Asking for recommendations the day before Thanksgiving will not win you any points from a teacher who would rather be enjoying holiday turkey with family and friends!)
The teacher recommendation plays a significant role in admissions decisions, particularly at selective colleges. Be sure to choose your recommender wisely:
- Select a teacher who knows you well. Although the colleges will see your grades for each class, they don’t know what you actually experienced in that class and how you handled any challenges that arose. Even if you struggled for a B, the letter can be a powerful statement of your commitment to succeed and your work ethic.
- Was there one class where you regularly joined in the discussions? Then that’s the teacher to consider, because he or she will know you well and will have an easier time writing a good letter of recommendation.
- If possible, choose a teacher whose subject aligns closely with your college major. If you’re thinking of going into engineering, your math teacher is a perfect choice. If you’re like most students and have no idea which major you are interested in, don’t worry. If you are applying “undeclared,” consider your English teacher (who is likely to be a good writer!).
Some private schools will accept an additional letter of recommendation. However, only request such a letter from a person who can add a different perspective to your application. An employer or a coach could be a good choice, but be sure they write about your unique accomplishments and not just about your academic capabilities.
So don’t wait until you smell the turkey roasting in the oven. Get those recommendation forms out today!
Hello, I’m Toby Waldorf and I’ve been an educational consultant for 20 years, working with high school studentsand helping them make good college choices. I’ve traveled the country visiting campuses big and small, urban and rural, highly competitive and a little less selective. Surprisingly, in all these years I’ve never been on a campus that I didn’t like! Truth be told, every college has something appealing about it. Put a lot of 18-22 year olds together and there’s a certain magic that happens.
So how do you decide which of the schools is the best of the best? Good news! It’s only November and you don’t have to make that decision for another six months! (Unless you applied Early Decision in which case you’ve already made that choice.) If you’re going the “Regular” Decision route, your focus for now is on applying, not accepting. Put all of your energy into creating the best possible application that you can. Then, when they’re all sent in, take a deep breath and give yourself a well-deserved pat on the back.
In the coming months you’ll hear from each of the colleges you applied to. That’s when you’ll begin to analyze which schools are the best match for you academically, socially, and financially. For now….just focus on the task at hand. GOOD LUCK with those applications and let me know if you have any questions. I’ll be on the WiseChoice Community Forum during our special November Experts Month, answering your questions.
Just the other day I learned that colleges and universities like to see prospective students actively demonstrating interest in their school. Attending a college fair or fairs is one of the early steps in demonstrating that yes, you really are interested in a particular school and this makes the inevitable decision process of “which college do I attend” that much easier on you.
Think of it this way: let’s say that you attend a college fair at the end of your sophomore year of high school. You will already have an idea of the type(s) of school(s) you would like to apply to, thus giving you an opportunity to see whether or not a school might be the right fit for you.
I never attended a college fair. There is no reason why I skipped out on that part of the process. I remember there being a few in the Albany area (where I’m from) but the featured schools were only Albany area schools. I had long before decided that I didn’t want to attend a school close to home and that any school I applied to had to have a strong political science program. In my experience, I didn’t find the college fairs that were offered up- to-par. This of course will be different for you since college fairs are a) NOT few and far between and b) they are often set up so that schools of similar size or geographic area are at the same fair. It is far easier to walk between booths of small size private schools or a group of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) all at once. So find the next college fair in your area and attend. Then come back here and tell me all about it.
I should probably add that I wasn’t all that traumatized by applying Early Decision. Once it was over and done with, and I was safely at school and settled in, things were fine. The point is that this decision of where to go and how to apply is a big one, and I want you to feel that you are able to make the best decision for you. There’s a lot of responsibility wrapped up in that last sentence but if you are reading this, you are probably more than aware of how this decision will impact your life. Good on you.
Now let’s say that you aren’t like me. You have some idea of schools that you feel are your best fit, but there isn’t one that really stands out from the rest. That is fine as well. Not everyone will follow the same path to college. But if you are in that position, there are other ways to apply so that it doesn’t feel like you have to make The Decision right then and there. You can pick a different early application/acceptance program so that you can spend the rest of high school making detailed charts and graphs and packing lists.
There are four early notification programs:
1) Early Decision: We have discussed this – possibly too much – but remember that it is a fully binding commitment. If you are accepted, guess what? You are attending. You are still able to apply to other schools under regular admission or early action (see below) but you can only apply to one school under Early Decision. Your guidance counselor can only sign off on one early decision application and if you are lucky enough to be accepted (yay, you!) you must withdraw all other applications. Since Early Decision does not allow you to compare other financial aid packages be sure you know how you will cover college costs if you don’t receive the amount of aid you were expecting. Applying Early Decision is like saying “You are my one and only. Let’s do this thing!” and then you spend four years together on a unicorn.
2) Early Action: Under this program you submit your application early and you will receive notification usually within 4-6 weeks. It is not a binding program, therefore it allows you to apply to other colleges through regular admission and apply to additional colleges under the Early Action program. You may even apply to one college under the Early Decision program. This plan allows you to either accept immediately or see which other colleges accept you and compare financial aid packages.
3) Rolling Admission: The colleges that have a rolling admission program review the applications as soon as they receive them, usually providing a response within 4-6 weeks. If you wait too long to apply to a college with rolling admission, there is a chance the college may have already filled its freshman class and/or already disbursed all of its financial awards.
4) Single Choice-Early Action: This is also NOT a binding program; however, you may NOT apply to other colleges under Early Action or Early Decision programs. Like Early Action, if you are accepted, you can commit immediately or wait until the regular decision deadline after you have heard back from all the other colleges and compared financial aid packages.
Yes, a lot of this decision will include money as a huge factor which is really unfortunate. But other things count too like test scores, grades, extracurricular activities; all the things that would factor in deciding on where to apply in the first place. It’s just that this is the time of year for you high school seniors to decide whether or not First Choice School is your absolute first choice no matter what, or if you have a few options. Either is fine. Some people are THIS! THIS IS IT! people and others are “I like to look around” people. I am the former and I’m still confident in you if you are the latter. You should be confident in you, too.
So you want to apply early to college? That’s fantastic. I did. It was a good time. While many of my friends spent the winter gnawing on their cuticles waiting for their Dream School to accept them, I spent the winter being lackadaisical about pretty much everything. It was lovely and my only worry was my AP test(s) at the end of the year. I’m sounding like some sort Class A overachiever, and believe me I was not, but I knew in my heart of hearts that American University was the school that I wanted to attend. Applying early decision just meant knowing earlier rather than perpetuating a cycle of anxiety.
I was the type of person for whom the Early Decision option was made for. I had spent years thinking about college; specifically how far I could get away from Upstate NY without ending up at the University of Fiji. There were spreadsheets made with pros vs. cons. I am freely admitting to the world that I would spend night after night researching my top choices and practicing essays, and wondering if I could grow to love Ithaca (I applied to Cornell) even in February. The answer was a resounding no, I could not.
Early Decision is for those of you who are like me, you are planner and once you set your mind on something that you want, you are apt to go for it. You’ve already looked at all of the similar choices out there. For example; once I knew that I wanted to go to school in Washington, DC, (I knew that I wanted to go into politics and by being in DC, I could be surrounded by all of the ’stars’ of C-SPAN 24/7), I approached the idea of four years in our nation’s capitol with unbridled enthusiasm and gusto. ‘Love at first sight’ is how you should feel about the place that you will potentially spend four years of your life at after applying Early Decision. I knew that my parents were going to be very (very, very, very) generous with paying for whatever school that I attended and I knew that I could get into American even with a questionable academic record (I am much better at social sciences than at biology. It showed). I applied and knew that if I got in that I would have to go.
I’m going to digress to say that there is a little bit of panic that sets in when you are going to drop off your Early Decision application to a school. That panic is a mix of “What if I don’t get in and I spend the rest of my life living in my parent’s basement for the free cable?” and “There is no turning back! If I get into this school that’s it!” And then you might proceed to pry open a U.S. Postal Service mailbox with your bare hands. Early Decision is kind of permanent. Applying to college will be one of the first ‘I hope you read the fine print’ moments of your life. Treasure it and read the fine print; because right there in the fine print it will say that you must attend this college no matter what. So remember that.
Tomorrow: So, You Want to Apply Early Decision: Part II. We will go over other, not quite permanent options and review the importance of reading the fine print. Seriously. Read it.
Let’s face it; applying to college can be tedious, boring and one giant labyrinth of tests and paperwork. Toiling over college websites, school essays and writing the pros vs. cons of each institution can feel like a lonely place. It seems that there is nowhere to go to find the answers to all of your burning, college-related questions and no community to fall back on when deciding on these next big steps in your life.
Of course, all of that nonsense was way back when and now you have WiseChoice. And aren’t you lucky. WiseChoice—along with the WiseChoice blog—is the preeminent one- stop shop for finding the information you need, brought to you by individuals who have been there, done that and want you to find your perfect match when it comes to post-secondary education.
Here at WiseChoice, we want you to enjoy the college-finding experience whether you want to stay at home or move 3,000 miles away and whether you want to major in Kinesiology or Political Science. Either way we want to get you there intact. With guidance on financial aid and the differences between universities in Washington State and Washington, DC, we are here to provide you with the ultimate experience in planning this next step of your future.
So sit back and relax. Welcome to the WiseChoice blog.
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