A Ball State University student gives an inside look at what happens when your dream school doesn’t work out.
Graduation is an exciting time. Finally moving on from high school to the next chapter of life. Then comes the question, what’s next? For some students, college is next on their list. But that decision comes with a whole other list of choices that need to be made. Which college? Private or public? In state or out of state? Some have their sights set on a perfect dream school that is typically far, far away from home. But what happens when that dream school isn’t as perfect as they thought it to be?
A study from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center found that roughly 37% of college students transferred at least once within six years from 2008 to 2014.
Among one of those transfers is Richard Bowman. a Ball State University junior. Richard transferred from Bradley University, a private school in Peoria, Illinois with only 5,400 students, to Ball State, a public school with roughly 22,000 students in his sophomore year.
Richard is from Indianapolis, Indiana, so choosing to go to Bradley his freshman year was about a 4-hour move from his hometown.
Amy Moudy, a Ball State assistant lecturer of accounting, says she believes students, along with their families, consider more than just the “sticker price” when they select a college. The sticker price of a college is the cost of tuition and fees before financial aid.
She says other factors that could lead to out-of-state college attendance are location, degrees offered, class sizes, scholarship/financial aid packages, program rankings, and placement rates for jobs and advanced degree programs.
A survey by U.S. News found tuition at an in-state public college, on average, costs almost two-thirds less than the average sticker price of a private college.
Richard originally chose to go to Bradley for the extracurriculars. Bradley has the No.1 speech team in the nation, along with the most speech titles of any other program. Richard had the opportunity to meet a number of the speech team members before he even went there and they welcomed him with open arms and nothing but kind words. He also received a $12,000 scholarship to be on the team, so that was a huge motivation for him to go as well.
Moudy says that the cost of education is specifically important because it more than likely impacts more than just the student attending college. It impacts the student’s family and sometimes even future children because debt can carry over to the next generation.
For example, she says a good amount of Gen Z students have parents who are still paying off their own student loans, making them less able to help or reluctant to encourage their students to make the same choices about financing education with debt.
A report compiled by Student Loan Hero states that the class of 2018 graduated with an average debt of $29,800, in both federal and private debt, and 69% took out student loans. Their parents followed suit, with 14% of them taking out an average of $35,600 in federal Parent PLUS loans.
“A lot of things went into it. Mental health, academics, the overall feel of the campus. I love Bradley. It was a great school, but it just didn’t feel like it was right for me and when things started really getting tough,” Richard says.
Richard then returned home for a break and spent some quality time with his family and friends. It was then that he realized he wanted to go to a school that was closer to home.
“One thing I will say though, a very positive difference between the two, is Bradley had this big bubble. When you’re in Bradley you’re in Peoria, Illinois, and you don’t really leave to do anything. You are just kind of stuck in the Bradley bubble. But here, what’s nice is it’s close-ish to Indianapolis and other places. You can leave. You can go places, there’s nice things close by,” Richard says.
Disillusionment is feeling disappointed after figuring out that something is not as good as one believed it to be.
Richard says that the media can give incoming college students misinformed ideas about what college is actually like.
“Everyone in T.V. and movies have these intricate social lives and things going on and all these balances. When in reality, in college, we don’t really have much time for that,” he says. “I think that’s where people can get tripped up is because they think they will have more time and energy to do these things when they just don’t. It’s very rare.”
Richard’s advice to incoming students who are transferring is to get involved on campus. Look into something, like an extracurricular or a club, to associate with. This will help students spark and develop immediate connections with people that can then help them connect with the rest of campus.
“It’s really easy to lose yourself initially when you transfer. It’s really easy to miss out on things, because as a transfer you don’t get that welcome week experience like the freshman do. You don’t get exposed to as many things as freshman do,” Richard says.
Moudy says that if anything, she wants students to be intentional in the decisions they make. Given, poverty and lack of resources can make that very challenging to do, but she advises being proactive instead of reactive as much as possible.
