Trans­fer­ring schools can be a chal­leng­ing task. Most likely, you are not feel­ing con­tent with your orig­i­nal selec­tion. Many rea­sons include the cost, loca­tion, ath­let­ics, and the desired cur­ricu­lum. No mat­ter why you have made the choice to trans­fer, it is usu­ally a quick deci­sion. You become dis­con­tent and you want a change. Now, while you are in the midst of mak­ing your deci­sion, you have the painstak­ing process of find­ing another school, in addi­tion to your homework.

Here are some of the key things to address when you are trans­fer­ring schools so that you do not risk being unhappy with your deci­sion. While con­sid­er­ing a new school, it is essen­tial to con­sider, why would I like to go there? If you are unhappy with the weather in upstate New York it would not ben­e­fit you to trans­fer to a school in Maine, right? Then, once you make up your mind on your school, you need to ask your­selves these questions:

Am I going to change my major?

If the answer is yes then you need to pre­pare for your new major ahead of time. Find out what classes are nec­es­sary for meet­ing the major require­ments and take the pre­req­ui­sites first to allow for more flex­i­bil­ity in sched­ul­ing dur­ing later semes­ters. Now, if the answer is no, it becomes less chal­leng­ing. In this case, you will usu­ally be able to trans­fer many of your cred­its over to your new school and things will run smoothly.

How­ever, did you check the gen­eral edu­ca­tional requirements?

Gen­eral edu­ca­tional require­ments can get tricky. For exam­ple, you take the exact same class at your first insti­tu­tion, it trans­fers, but does not count towards your gen­eral edu­ca­tion cred­its and it should, what can you do? It is as sim­ple as obtain­ing the syl­labus from your first school and fil­ing a form with the reg­is­trar. That small task allows you to save money, time, and the headache of sit­ting through the same class again. Also, con­sider the empha­sis on For­eign Lan­guages and Tech­nol­ogy classes at cer­tain colleges.

What hap­pened to my finan­cial aid?

There are two com­mon sce­nar­ios with finan­cial aid. First, every­thing goes splen­didly, and you have the same amount as before. Alter­na­tively, for some sea­son you are not eli­gi­ble for the same finan­cial aid as before. Each school has dif­fer­ent cri­te­ria to deter­mine the amount of finan­cial aid given. For instance, both of your schools are sim­i­lar in price. You were eli­gi­ble for a Fed­eral Pell Grant at your first school, but at the sec­ond school, you are not able to receive that same Pell Grant. Now, a siz­able piece of your col­lege fund is miss­ing. Make sure that you check with your new finan­cial aid office before­hand to elim­i­nate this conflict.

How many of my cred­its will transfer?

This is hard to deter­mine. Most schools give you this infor­ma­tion after accep­tance, so give your­self ample time to make your deci­sion. It could cost you an extra year of tuition. Make sure you com­pare schools and it is ben­e­fi­cial to apply after fall semes­ter. Once again, allow­ing ample time to make an intel­li­gent and well-informed decision.

Upon the arrival of your new school, you should take the time to accli­mate your­self to your new sur­round­ings and peers. Get involved with activ­ity and clubs. Find new friends and most impor­tantly make your­self com­fort­able. Trans­fer­ring can be a sticky process, but with ade­quate research, it can be a com­fort­able tran­si­tion. Give your­self time to make your deci­sion and erad­i­cate future con­flicts by doing your research.

Good luck!