10 Reasons To Transfer Colleges

There's a lot of reasons to transfer, and a lot of questions to ask yourself before you decide to transfer. If you are still questioning whether or not you should transfer consider these 10 reasons to transfer colleges.

Transferring is hard. There are lots of reasons not to transfer: bad roommates, bad food, one bad class, or one thing that didn’t go right that you are convinced you can never come back from. The thing with transferring is that there is no set reason to transfer, because everyone’s experience in college differs. I didn’t fall in love with my first school, but two of my suite mates did. Transferring is something that people do, but usually there is a pretty bad connotation associated with it. Transferring isn’t something you should be ashamed of, and I do not regret my decision to transfer. There’s a lot of reasons to transfer, and a lot of questions to ask yourself before you decide to transfer. If you are still questioning whether or not you should transfer consider these 10 reasons to transfer colleges.

1. Your mental health.

There is nothing more important than your mental health. Mental health controls everything. Your mental health controls your physical health, your motivation and your desire to wake up in the morning. Your brain is your most important organ, and your soul is who you are. If your school is sucking away at your soul and you spend all day sleeping because you don’t have the energy to get out of bed, you need to transfer. Or if you are depressed, you need to transfer schools. You’re important and so is your mental health. You need to do what is best for you, and transferring may be the best option for you. If the school you are at is causing negative impacts on your mental health, you are at the wrong school and you should transfer. Find a school that lifts your spirit and you can easily fall in love with.

This is definitely number one on the list of 10 reasons to transfer colleges.

2. Your physical health.

Your physical health is important as well. You need sleep, you need food, and you need time to relax. R&R is really good for you. If you are stressed out all the time, stressing about classes, financial aid and about when you are going to eat and sleep, your physical health is going to dwindle. You need to put your health first. And if your mental health is falling apart, your physical health is soon to follow. Focus on you, and get out of unhealthy situations. Think of college as a significant other. You would tell any of your friends to get out of unhealthy relationships. This is me, as your friend, telling you to get out of an unhealthy relationship with your college. You matter. Make time to figure out what is best for you. Focus on being your best you.

3. You hate the school you are at.

If you hate something, why keep doing it? I know as my suite mate reads this she’s thinking why did you eat salad and carrots everyday when you hate them, and then you are telling other people to stop doing things they hate. I hated my diet of salad and carrots but I honestly had very little options otherwise, but you have other options, you can leave this school and go somewhere else. You can get out. You can succeed. The decision to transfer comes solely down to you, and if you hate your school, I can guarantee there is another school somewhere that you will love. There are over 5,000 colleges in the United States, and I am absolutely 100% positive that you will love one of them. Take your pick, make your move, choose a new school, and fall in love with a new college.

4. Your future is at risk.

Your future is important. You have goals. You want to do something with your life. But, you want to avoid any obstacles that may present themselves on the way to achieving your goals. You don’t want to deal with a school that was supposed to be a stepping stone to achieving your goal that prevents you from succeeding. But you know that there are going to be obstacles. If the school you are at is the obstacle, you need to transfer. The job market already makes it difficult to find a job in this day and age, especially one that uses your degree, but if you are going to spend money on something, you don’t want to end up wasting your degree on a minimum wage job because your degree carries no weight.

If you are trying to go to graduate school and not a single adviser is actually telling you the correct classes to take to get to graduate school, you need to leave. This is part of the reason I had to transfer. I wanted to go to medical school, and my adviser wasn’t even making it so I could get into that university’s medical school, which didn’t seem that difficult to get into anyways.

5. You have lost motivation.

Motivation is the key to success. If you aren’t motivated, you are not going to succeed. I know for a fact that every single person in this world is motivated to do something. If your school is limiting your motivation so much that you aren’t even motivated to get out of bed, then you need to transfer. Everyone who cares about you wants you to succeed. They want you to reach your highest potential, and want you to be in a place where you can succeed. You need to do more than be motivated to get out of bed, and need to be in a place that will motivate you to reach your goals. You are in school for something. Reach that goal in whatever means necessary. Find a school that will help you reach your goals and will motivate you to succeed.

6. You would literally rather be anywhere else.

College is supposed to be like your home away from home. That’s what everyone tells you. College is supposed to be the rainbow at the end of the storm that is high school. High school is terrible and college is supposed to be fun. But if you are at a college that has you wishing you were struggling through awkward middle school phases again, consider transferring. You are supposed to be in a place that makes you happy. If you don’t want to be in that place, you need to consider transferring. You need to be in a place that you look forward to waking up to. This should be top on your reasons to transfer colleges list.

7. The advisers, professors, and administration.

If the school you are at is filled with administration that doesn’t help you succeed. Don’t settle for less because transferring is scary or because transferring has such a bad reputation. School is important and you need to surround yourself with professors, advisers, and administration that can help you succeed. Professors should teach you and help you succeed. Professors should tell you the information that will help you reach your goals and to help you pass classes. Advisers should tell you to take the classes you need to take to get a degree or to go to graduate school. And administration shouldn’t leave you wanting more. These people have one job. Help their students succeed. They have to help you or they aren’t doing their job. If they aren’t doing their job, you need to transfer.

8. Your parents and family think that transferring is what’s best for you.

Listen to your family. Your family knows you. They see things from a different side, they see things from an outside view. They see things from the point of view that your point of view just can’t expand to. Your family knows more about what changes you are making because you are in school. It’s possible you are in denial of how bad things really are because you are afraid to transfer. Your family can see that you aren’t in a good place. They know whether or not there is a reason to keep staying at the college you are at. Listen to your family. Trust their opinion.

9. The highlight of your time at college is when you go home for a break and you don’t miss school.

You shouldn’t want to go home every second of every day. And you should want to spend time at college, want to be with your friends. You should want to be in a place where you can wake up to best friends right down the hall, and where you can choose your own classes and your own hours and your own food. College should be another home, where you aren’t homesick 24/7. Maybe for the first couple weeks you are pretty homesick, but once midterms roll around, college should start feeling a little bit like home. This is another key one to add to your reasons to transfer colleges list.

10. You have fallen in love with another college and it has everything you want.

If you have found a new home, live in it. Move on. Finding the right place for you is the perfect reason to take that jump and transfer.