I need some advice regarding what I should do to finish up my undergraduate education. Some quick background:
I’m from Fargo, North Dakota and last fall began studying at Iowa State University; a school I chose over the U of M in the Twin Cities as well as a couple other Minnesota private universities (Carleton and St. Olaf) that I’d been accepted to. My first semester at ISU was hellacious psychologically (though academically pretty solid), and it was very apparent to me that it was the wrong place to be.
Accordingly I transferred back home to NDSU for the spring semester. I’ve been much happier here, but I have certain doubts about the academic quality of the university.
Having already looked at the university the year before, I applied once again for admission to Carleton this time for the Fall 2001 term. This past week I got a letter in the mail stating I’d been wait-listed and most likely wouldn’t be offered admission. This is quite disappointing; Carleton seemed like it would be a good place for me, so not having that door open to me anymore leaves me a bit lost.
So, the advice I’m seeking is just what should I do now?
Should I drop out and work for a year and start fresh the whole college applications process over again?
Should I stay at NDSU?
If I do stay at NDSU should I still think about transferring? How late is too late to transfer?
Some other random information about me to consider:
-Political Science major
-I intend to attend either law school or graduate school (or both)
Thank you in advance for any help that you guys can provide.
First of all, don’t let anybody tell you that takin a year off is unreasonable, provided that you do something worthwhile with that year. It won’t have any harmful effects on your education in the long-term, but just keep in mind that it does put you a year behind people of your own age.
I’ve known many people who have transferred successfully, including my father and my brother. Most people I know have found that after spending time at one school which they really disliked, they were able to make a better selection the second time.
Finally, in the real world, your law school or graduate school will matter more than your where you do undergraduate studies. Since you seem to have strong academic qualifications, I imagine that you are near the top of your class at NDSU, so you should still be able to get into a decent graduate school or law school even if the university doesn’t have a great reputation.
I was going to say something, but then I realized that ITR champion had said it all
Just a few random ideas on the transferring option:
The thing I would keep in mind when transferring is how much time you can take going through school. If you don’t mind how long it takes, transfer at any time, looking for the place that will stimulate you most intellectually. However, transferring senior year may mean that you have to repeat/redo a lot of coursework due to the way credits transfer between programs. Speaking more specifically of Political Science, in my university that major was within Liberal Arts, which meant that only about 1/3 of our credits as Political Science majors were within the Political Science department. (That may be a worthwhile thing to check out at schools you are interested in; sometimes Political Science is classified as a general Liberal Arts degree, which means that you can focus on taking a general Liberal Arts curriculum for a few years and transfer at pretty much any time, yet at other schools Political Science is part of Public Affairs, a more government/vocationally focused degree, which might be different, I’m thinking it would include more coursework specifically targeted towards the Political Science degree rather than a broad Liberal Arts background.)
On a wee hijack, are there/have there been any Political Science majors who never considered going to law school? (end of wee hijack)
Sorry I didn’t address the other ideas, but what I would have said has been said and said well!
Generally, an undergraduate degree requires 120 credits (more or less, people, let’s not quibble). To my knowledge, most universities/colleges will allow you to transfer in no more than 60 credits (about two year’s work if you take a full course load of 15 credits a term). That is, they want to put a two-year stamp of their own on you before you leave with a diploma with their institution on it.
Transferring is fairly common after the sophomore year, so I don’t think you’re missing a particular window here. You can even transfer later, but it means you’ll be spending an “extra” year at the new school. Whether you take a year off or stay in school for another year, you’re still a good candidate for transfer.
And ITR has a good point–if you do want to go to grad school, low-profile undergrad school isn’t the deal-killer. You can prove your worth as a good candidate by doing well academically and then doing well on your standardized grad school admissions tests. Yes, undergrad reputation counts in the grad school admission equation, but if you can prove you’re qualified, you’re a good candidate regardless of your undergraduate college.
If you end up staying at NDSU, there are other things you can pursue to jazz up your portfolio and feel like you’re not missing out on anything. Try a semester exchange program with another college (it’s less formal than transferring–you remain enrolled at your home college, but spend a term or two elsewhere. American University has a program like this, I think, which accepts students from other colleges for a year of political science or internation-relations study). You might also look into study abroad.
Thank you very much everyone for your help. A lot of good input on some things I’d been wondering about.
This is an especially good point that I’d perhaps not putting adequate emphasis on in my mind. In talking to an admissions person at Carleton he had said that he strongly encouraged not waiting until after my sophomore year to transfer, so I think that because of that I’d stopped considering transferring after my second year.
Lots of stuff to still consider but I think I’m getting a better grasp on my situation here.
