Transferring Grad Schools??

[MeanMrMustard]

So I will keep this short. I got accepted to DU (University of Denver) for the winter,2014 quarter. They are offering my 10k plus a Peace Corps fellowship. This is big for me with out a doubt. The problem is that I have not had a chance to hear back from my"dream schools" of American and GW and will not until March/April, well after the start of the winter quarter at DU. Sooo I was wondering, other than possiblitiy of loosing out on 13 k for a wasted quarter, what are the downsides to transferring after my first quarter if I got accepted to GW or American? Will GW or American care that I took a quarter somewhere else? Just trying to figure this all out. Thanks!

[Lisa44201]

Other than the whole losing $13k thing, it makes you look like flaky professionally. You commit to one school, you attend classes (someone else loses a spot because you took it?), then you leave because you didn't really want to go there in the first place.

[juilletmercredi]

GWU and American may care, since you applied as a regular entrance applicant and not a transfer applicant.  And as said above, it will look strange that you spent a semester somewhere else, although I suppose that you don’t really have to report that on your resume.

 

I think you have to make the decision about whether you want to go to DU independent of whether you get into American or GWU.

[RoaringMice]

It will be an issue with the other schools. As others have said, you'll be turning yourself into a transfer student, but you'd applied regular admissions - that's an issue.

 

Know that most grad programs in most fields accept limited, if any, transfer credits. And some grad programs don't accept transfer students at all. You need to find out if your dream schools accept transfer students to the grad program you want, and how many (if any) transfer credits they will let you bring over. And you will need to somehow ask them if your going to another grad program for a term will impact your application to their program (it will, but how - that's what you need to find out.)

 

You could ask DU if you can defer your admissions *and the financial support* for a term. All they can say is no.

Edited November 6, 2013 by RoaringMice

[pearspears]

I have done this, and I will say: you are not obligated to report that you were EVER a student at UD. In fact, unless you tell American, they won't ever know. I attended a low-tier school as a sort of last minute post bac, and have now been accepted to a school I really want to go to with the work I produced there. Don't listen to everyone on here- everyone has a different path and people on here can be really negative. And you might not be accepted at either and REALLY like UD. So I say go.