I'm studying Broadcast Journalism at Temple and am thinking about transferring to the University of Miami. All along, Temple wasn't my first choice. I wanted to go to the University of Southern California. I also wanted to go to the University of Miami. But because I used fee waivers for my college apps, I wound up only being able to apply to so many and chose applying to USC over U of Miami and I didn't get into USC. I'm a freshman now and I'd be entering UM as a spring semester Sophomore. The things that were important to me in a school were a good journalism department, good social scene, urban setting, large school, co-ed, study abroad options. Temple has all those things, as does UM. My main thing is that I haven't really made any friends here. I literally have 2 new friends and I'm not even very close with them. People do not seem very welcoming or they're very flippant with plans, or they're commuters, or they're busy. They are some kids who are very smart but there's a lot of kids who are very low energy. I do multiple extracurriculars, I chat with people in class but it hasn't translated to me making friends. I'll go to a 20 person class with 8 people missing or be assigned group work and neither of the people in my group have read the readings. I think UM is less of a commuter school. And because it's ranked higher, people will be more motivated, competitive students. I talked to my Assistant Department Chair about my concerns, and he said it's common because it's a large school. While UM is big, it has about 11,000 students vs Temple's 30,000+ Temple's also in an impoverished part of the city and UM's campus is in a much nicer area. Campus was half-dead in the winter. Nobody wanted to go out and do anything because of the cold which wouldn't be a problem in Miami.
I think I could get in. I'm not sure if I'll have enough aid to go. But I figure there's no harm in applying. My concern is that I used to think transferring should only be for students who HATE their current school or feel they aren't learning anything, their school doesn't offer their major, etc. That's not my experience with Temple. I like Temple. And Temple's close to my home so that's convenient when it comes to getting things for my dorm, etc. I'm a semester ahead at Temple and if I go to UM, I might be behind and that's not something I want.
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