Sometimes, circumstances may arise such that you will have to transfer college where you started your studies to another one.
Such a decision may be the only way out for those confused in the admissions race but retain the desire to learn.
The transfer process to college is a difficult task that needs consideration. You have to compare the pros and cons that can be derived from this action.
It is worth remembering that transferring is not always realistic. You may encounter a refusal from the college of choice when transferring to the same specialty but another reputed college.
However, transferring to college also has numerous pros, such as choosing what college you want to enter, choosing the faculty you like, and starting all over again.
This article will weigh all the pros and cons of transferring to a college that will help you make the most important decision of your academic life.
Table of Contents
Pros of Transferring to college
There is a trend of college students transferring from a two-year college to a four-year college. Let’s first start with the pros of transferring to college:
1. Start of a new college
If you carry out your idea of changing college, you will find yourself in a new class, new environment, and new college experience.
You will have to start over, learn about the most exciting subjects, and see which is the most demanding academic advisor in the race.
During the few initial days, you will feel like starting over, as if you were entering college for the first time.
The feeling will overwhelm you with new enthusiasm, new energy, and new prospects that can be pretty exciting.
2. Acquire interpersonal skills
Transferring will definitely improve your interpersonal skills. To make friends at the new college, you will learn important things in life, such as matching with others and appealing to yourself.
3. Become strong
You will not be bound by one value by touching various values and seeing different scenery.
At the college you transferred to, you can have more experiences than other students, such as having lessons you have never experienced before and meeting unique teachers.
Also, you have an internet environment these days, so you can quickly connect with faraway friends.
It will be a great benefit if you double your school friends from the old and new colleges.
4. Don’t lose a year (or more)
If the programs of the old and new colleges coincide entirely or almost completely, then you can transfer to the same course in the current school as the previous school.
5. Opportunity for personal development
As important as the learning you will acquire from a college education, the personal growth provided by the experience of moving to another college is unique.
It will be necessary to face new situations, overcome difficulties, plan and organize your life, learn to have autonomy, and truly understand what change is.
Dealing with loneliness and missing friends from original institution will be inevitable, and you will need to learn to manage these feelings.
It is also very usual for students to choose to live in dormitories to reduce financial costs. It makes it necessary to learn to share spaces, comply with rules and respect the space of the other.
6. No Waste of Time
It was common for students to spend 3, 4, and 5 years trying to pass college entrance exams such as medicine for a long time.
But now, students can try to get into any college in the country according to their grades.
It is an excellent advantage for those who don’t want to waste time. After all, you can enter college much faster, as you don’t have to be restricted to exams near you.
7. Time to catch up
A college change in the middle of the academic period can, without a doubt, represent a delay.
You must meet particular requirements to qualify for a given course, and the one you have initially been taking may have nothing to do with the one you want to take now.
Yet that’s why summer school and transfer credits are present. A good option is to enroll in a community college to take the necessary classes and transfer those credits to your institution.
This will cost you much less than taking summer classes at the same university or doing an extra regular semester.
8. You will feel happier
You may wish to pursue a different degree or change your study regimen. Perhaps your values have changed, or you have discovered that your personality does not fit the literary program in which you are currently enrolled.
Trying to figure out what to do with your life can be stressful, and you can lose control combined with pressure from teachers, parents, and even yourself.
So if you’ve already decided to start a new project, don’t look back and start with momentum. The happiness and relief you will feel are priceless.
9. Equipment
You may not have all the required facilities and equipment you want to experiment with within the old college.
Transfer of college can allow you to analyze the facilities and equipment available in the new college.
Excellent equipment and facility mean not only the availability of modern technology.
These are also various workshops (chemical laboratories, computer classes, photo and film studios, film sets), sports complexes, rich libraries, and sometimes wholly unique objects – such as, for example, a nuclear reactor at the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne.
10. High-Level Education
Undoubtedly, high-level education is one of the principal reasons to transfer to a new college. You have the freedom to select from the top lines of all rankings.
You can enroll in colleges that are distinguished by a high level of education, providing:
- All the resources are necessary for studying.
- The latest laboratories and libraries.
- Internships in serious companies.
- Practicing teachers with vast practical experience and not only theory is loaded (as is customary in local universities and colleges).
11. Access to new forms of teaching
You can plausibly join the new college with curricular programs and practices that are different from your old college. You get acquainted with a new way of learning.
At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, you can complete a course that would generally last four years in up to 2 years.
12. Exchange of experiences
Meeting people with different cultural backgrounds and traditions brings an important intellectual opening that can be positive.
13. Make the most of opportunities that come your way
Successful people from all walks of life say the key to success is making the most of opportunities that come your way throughout your life – including early in life.
You can’t just sit back and wait for good things to happen to you if you want to have a fulfilling life.
If changing college is crucial to you, take any opportunity you find to do so. You never know what kind of door will open.
May be you will get work-study opportunities or scholarship money or become a not bad ice hockey player.
14. Upgrade your college application or resume
Many colleges and potential employers want to see a sense of initiative and the ability to think independently in their candidates. They also like to notice life experience beyond good grades.
Transferring to a new college and experiencing new events in student life helps develop these things and can distinguish you from other applicants who have never left their comfort zone.
15. Shape your worldview
Considering the possibility of changing college requires you to think about complex issues, you will gain a lot from experience.
Younger minds are impressive, and if you fill them with interesting, challenging, and surprising experiences, you will see results for years to come.
Long after the emotion (or fear) of the experience wears off, the lessons you learn will be noticeable in the way you see and interact with the world.
Cons of Transferring College
Change and relocation to a new environment can seem exciting, but transferring to college can have numerous drawbacks that you should be aware of, including:
1. Time cost
The first is, of course, the time cost. After all, the transfer is not possible without losing the course in all cases. Thus, the price of the decision is a whole year taken away from a future career.
2. Risk of changing mind
There is nothing more permanent than temporary. This well-known proverb warns us about the second disadvantage – the risk of changing your mind.
After studying for a whole year in one group, it is hard to part with it. Anchors can be relationships with classmates and teachers and a sense of unity with the institute.
This inevitably arises in a person who has undergone the initiation ritual into students and academic achievements.
If you are going to transfer in the future, you are making a long-term plan. It involves maintaining motivation and the will to fulfill it throughout the year- unfortunately, this is not available to everyone.
It will help if you are prepared that deciding to repeat the entire progressive epic may not be easy.
3. The same specialty
For the transfer to occur, the subjects studied at the original college must match the program at the current college. It is often possible if the specialties in the old and new colleges are the same.
Otherwise, you will have to take a lot of subjects, and the new college may refuse to transfer you.
There is also the chance of low acceptance rate as admissions officers might not find your degree requirements adequate.
4. Missing out on an opportunity
Another downside to transferring colleges is the possibility of missing out on scholarships and financial aid.
Some transfer students are indebted to their previous institution for scholarships they received before deciding to transfer to another college or university.
The school students might miss out on job opportunities promoted by the previous college.
5. Payment of extra tuition
Your new classes may cost more than those already in the previous course. And since you as the transfer student have to catch up, you may have to pay for additional classes (perhaps a couple of semesters), which you wouldn’t have to take if you stay in your original degree.
It is essential to find out the new costs, to see if you can afford the change financially.
6. May not graduate on time
Changing college will likely prevent you from earning your degree with the old peer you started college with since there are course-specific requirements that you must meet before completion.
It will most likely take an extra semester to finish the new one. However, remember that choosing what you like will give you more excellent prospects for the future.
7. May not feel happier
Like many things in life, changing college is a risk. And if you do not like it? What if you realize that the first option was the best?
Those questions will always arise, and you should remember that the college selected does not define how successful you will be but how you approach and react to situations in the labor market.
The new academic program may not be as spectacular as you expected, and you may even consider it worse than the previous one, so think things through before changing your college.
The academic advisors, school friends, and school seniors all might not be an ideal social scene for you.
8. Admission rates vary a lot
Sometimes, it is more difficult to enter college when you come from another institution. But that can vary significantly from place to place, depending on the available space.
Also, many colleges save places, especially for transfer students. As you might expect, getting into the most selective and top-scoring institutions is often more complex.
It is because the students usually stay there; that is to say, quotas are not released.
Generally, the most important factors would be the GPA at the home institution and the GPA in classes with transferable credits. Less relevant, however, would be the grades from high school and standardized tests (such as the SAT).
9. High Tuition Fees
Not everyone can manage to study at prestigious colleges; even if the student receives a scholarship that partially covers the cost of studying, there are no less outstanding fees for accommodation, food, transport, and so on.
Transferring to another college can be expensive if you opt for one of the reputed ones. You may have to look for additional income to at least cover your personal expenses since parents usually only have the opportunity to pay for your studies.
And even with a great desire of the student not to “hang around the neck” of his parents and pay for his studies and accommodation himself, it is almost impossible to do this.
In addition, it is tough to combine work and study; this can affect the quality of education and grades and lead to poor progress, leading to an even more extensive list of problems and even more expenses.
Quick Summary (Pros and Cons of Transferring College)
| Pros |
|---|
| Get to learn new culture and make new friends |
| Enroll in a college and faculty of your choice |
| Overall new experience; starting all over again |
| Study conditions may be better |
| Possibility to attend some of the most prestigious educational establishments. |
| Personal Enrichment |
| Research at the beginning allows you to explore your horizon. |
| Cons |
|---|
| Old social contact may suffer. |
| Chance of refusal and problems in documentation and entrance exam |
| Stressful to start all over again as a new student |
| Expectations may not meet reality |
| Difficulty in integrating and getting used to a different teaching model |
| Communication difficulties (at least in the first phase) |
| Sometimes, studies are not validated and homologated carried out in the new college; therefore, seeking all possible information from the beginning becomes an indispensable requirement |
Summing up, transferring to a college has a vast number of advantages. But, when deciding to study in another college, you must take off your rose-colored glasses and be mentally prepared for many difficulties and trials.
Having overcome all these difficulties, a person receives not only a high level of education, but, more importantly, the student grows up, learns to cope with his problems, and adapt to any situation.
If you are thinking of transferring to community college for four-year university, here is the pros and cons article, you ought to read.
(Last Updated on August 22, 2022)
