Growing up I would think about what it would be like to go to college. I always figured I would get into a good school, have a degree in four years, and live happily ever after.
I wasn’t too far off the mark. I got into a good school. Then another. And another. In fact, within the seven years it’s taken me to get my degree, I have transferred schools five times for various reasons. Now that I’ve ended strong at the University of Utah, I figure my experience may be able to help someone who is thinking of or in the process of transferring universities. Here are six tips to consider when transferring that you may not have considered before.
1. Keep your syllabi. All of them.
If you’re like me, you may enjoy tossing out your old syllabi at the end of the semester as a way of looking forward to the next semester. However, if you are even thinking about transferring, I beg of you, don’t toss them out yet!
Sometimes in the process of transferring, your courses may not be accepted at the next university the way you wanted. Your Math 2010 course may count as a math requirement at your current school but the next one turns it into a dreaded elective, meaning you must retake your math. (This actually happened to me coming to the University of Utah.)
Thankfully most schools have an appeals process where you can argue that your class should be accepted differently. However, I can promise you almost all of them (if not absolutely all of them) require seeing your old syllabus. Taking the math example above, I did not keep a copy of my syllabus but could fortunately contact my old math professor and get a copy. I have seen others who were not so lucky. You might forget a professor’s name, or they retire and you cannot get ahold of them.
2. Try and get a C- grade minimum.
Most colleges will accept a D as a passing grade, especially if it’s a lower-level course. However, jumping to another college does not mean they are so lenient.
When transferring I took courses in four different states: Utah, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Wisconsin. All four had the same requirement- to accept a course coming in from another school, it had to have a grade of C- or better. I can almost promise that this is the same for nearly every university. Even if the grade is a D and it counts right now, the next school may not accept it whatsoever, which means you have lost time and money. Going back to that math class, I barely got a C- grade. While a D would have let me graduate with my associate’s anyway, the C- allowed me to send it to the University of Utah and (eventually) let it count for a math requirement.
3. Contact the other school’s advisors for all transfer requirements. As in both advisors.
It is worth contacting the general advisors in the Admissions department at whatever school you are attending. They can tell you about any extra transfer requirements, such as GPA requirements, that you might need to consider.
If you know what kind of degree or program you want to do, then I highly suggest contacting that department’s advisor as well. They will be infinitely more helpful in determining what courses may apply to their specific degree requirements, though they cannot promise anything until you are officially in. It also gives you a feel for what the department will be like.
4. Try and get your associate’s degree.
Some schools like the University of Utah don’t offer associate’s degrees, but for those that do, I encourage you to try and get yours. For one thing, it means already having a degree under your belt, which can help you keep a disciplined mind for a longer 4-year program. For another, it can make transfers so much easier. As an example, coming to the University of Utah with your associate’s means two awesome advantages: they will consider practically all of your general education courses covered, and the GPA requirement for entry goes from a 2.6 to a 2.3.
5. Update your FAFSA.
If you feel at least 45% confident you might attend a certain school in the future, add it to your FAFSA. It costs nothing and if you don’t end up going, no harm is done. If you have been accepted for a transfer, remember to add it to your FAFSA if you didn’t before! It’s potential free money you’re throwing away otherwise.
6. Really consider why you are transferring and consider what you’d lose.
Transferring can be a really tempting and exciting idea for so many reasons. Maybe you need a change of scenery, or another school has a program you so desperately want to try. Maybe it’s closer to home, or further away from it. Maybe it costs less or has more prestige. Sometimes transferring has to happen, like it did for me a few times. Maybe your school only offers two-year degrees and you want to advance, or you’re set on learning a subject your school doesn’t have.
My coming to the University of Utah was partly out of necessity. I was at a two-year program school and wanted to get my bachelors. Staying within the state would have been cheaper and transferring would have been much easier, but I also had a dangerous family member trying to find me and cause further harm. Literally the day after I graduated with my associate’s I packed up everything and fled the state. The University of Utah became my new school, and eventually my new home too. I gained more than I lost by coming here, but not everyone will.
Therefore I urge you to consider what you are giving up. Do you have a good scholarship, friends/family support, familiarity with the area? Are you close to graduating, have a good bond with your professors, feel comfortable knowing where your classes are at the start of every semester? Is what you have worth giving up for whatever is on the other side? My first transfer meant losing a huge scholarship, an awesome bond with my professors, and my first home away from home. It also meant trying to find safety and saving money. Nowadays the only thing I don’t like about my transfer history is how much it costs when every graduate program needs an official copy of every transcript (and I don’t need that math class I took to tell me that seven transcripts times almost twenty bucks a transcript is a lot of dollars).
The point is, transferring can be a fair amount of work, with a lot of risk-cost analysis. It can put you through a whirlwind of emotions even if you never change your school. Talk with people you trust, consider the tips I’ve provided, ask advisors, and then take a day to breathe before making any big jumps. At the end of the day, it’s what makes you happy that matters, not whose stage you’ll be walking over in a cap and gown.
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