Your dream college may not have been what you imagined. Maybe you find yourself too homesick to concentrate on school, too out of your element to focus, or your financial situation changed, forcing you to reconsider your university options. For whatever reason, sometimes your initial university choice does not work out the way you plan and you find yourself looking into transferring universities. Here are 5 things to consider before making the move.
1. Research the university you want to transfer to. If the university you are attending now has disenchanted you, find out why you are unhappy with the experience. Make a list of the things you would like to change to make your college life more enjoyable, and make sure your next university choice meets those requirements. You do not want to move universities just to find yourself in the same predicament you are in now.
2. Visit your next university’s campus. University layouts can differ radically, which may or may not be to your liking. Do you like sprawling campuses, or tight, close-knit ones? Do you like to be in a bustling city or small town? Visit your next university’s campus and surrounding city to see if you can envision yourself living and studying there for the next few years.
3. Reconfigure your graduation schedule. The hard truth about transferring is that it can mess up your graduation plans. Credits can be difficult to transfer, and you will likely find yourself needing to take summer courses or overloading during the semester in order to catch up and graduate on time. Generally, transferring within the same state is the easiest, especially if you are transferring from a public university to another because they are on the same basic curriculum.
4. Get your transcripts and course descriptions ready. To make sure you can transfer as many credits as possible, you will need to provide course descriptions for all your classes. These can be found in the guidebook you used when you registered for your classes or on your school’s website.
5. Plan to attend a transfer student orientation session before classes begin. The orientation session will help you jump right into your new college’s life, and is a good opportunity to meet other transfer students. Some universities also use transfer student orientation sessions to take care of university-specific assessment testing, so be sure to call the school for details.
This post was contributed by Amber Hensley, who writes about the online college classes. She welcomes your feedback at AmberHensley1980@ yahoo.com
