Transferred and think I got it wrong. What should I do?

I've posted this on r/UniUK as well, but I wanted to hear your thoughts.

I (19M, 1st year) recently transferred from a uni in southern England to a uni in the East Midlands. My first uni was a small campus uni in a small city (~45,000 people), and my new one is a larger city centre uni in a much larger city (~350,000 people). So far, I've found the transition to be the most difficult thing I've ever gone through.

I'm autistic, so I like routine and I'm not the most outgoing person. I have real difficulty adjusting to change as well. So naturally, going from my home in a small town to uni in a city was a bit of a jump, and it threw me. But that's just the beginning.

Although my flatmates were all lovely and my course was okay, I found a few things quite difficult. I found myself to be bored quite often because I wasn't interested in partying, and the city didn't really have anything that interested me. I found the modules on my course to be quite boring too. Also, my girlfriend and I went from living a mile apart to 150 miles apart when she moved to her uni. This made things even worse.

I soon made the decision to transfer up to the Midlands. I guess I thought that I'd prefer living in a big city, on a bigger campus, with a better course and a much more interesting life. Plus, I'd be closer to my girlfriend. God was I wrong.

I'm now three weeks into life at my new uni and things have got worse, not better:

I prefer some of the modules on my course but I feel that my choice of course will be useless when looking for grad jobs

I'm really struggling to make friends outside my flat, and I feel completely alone. I've attended a few societies a couple times, but haven't had much luck

Whereas I had two potential part-time jobs lined up at my first uni, I now keep getting rejected by every place I apply to

I need counselling and careers advice, but all the appointments with the uni are booked up and the on-site surgery are oversubscribed

My new uni doesn't have the best reputation, so I fear I've jeopardised my uni experience and my future job prospects

There's another local campus-based uni (which is rated extremely highly) that I've visited frequently - I really wish I'd applied there now, as I would've certainly made friends earlier, been more employable, received the right support and enjoyed my experience more

Overall I just think I made the wrong call and don't know what to do. There have been times where I've considered dropping out or deferring, but I don't think those options are realistic.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

TL;DR: transferred unis a couple weeks in, as I wasn't happy at my first uni. My new uni may actually be worse in some respects and I'm not sure what to do.

I've posted this on r/UniUK as well, but I wanted to hear your thoughts.

I (19M, 1st year) recently transferred from a uni in southern England to a uni in the East Midlands. My first uni was a small campus uni in a small city (~45,000 people), and my new one is a larger city centre uni in a much larger city (~350,000 people). So far, I've found the transition to be the most difficult thing I've ever gone through.

I'm autistic, so I like routine and I'm not the most outgoing person. I have real difficulty adjusting to change as well. So naturally, going from my home in a small town to uni in a city was a bit of a jump, and it threw me. But that's just the beginning.

Although my flatmates were all lovely and my course was okay, I found a few things quite difficult. I found myself to be bored quite often because I wasn't interested in partying, and the city didn't really have anything that interested me. I found the modules on my course to be quite boring too. Also, my girlfriend and I went from living a mile apart to 150 miles apart when she moved to her uni. This made things even worse.

I soon made the decision to transfer up to the Midlands. I guess I thought that I'd prefer living in a big city, on a bigger campus, with a better course and a much more interesting life. Plus, I'd be closer to my girlfriend. God was I wrong.

I'm now three weeks into life at my new uni and things have got worse, not better:

I prefer some of the modules on my course but I feel that my choice of course will be useless when looking for grad jobs

I'm really struggling to make friends outside my flat, and I feel completely alone. I've attended a few societies a couple times, but haven't had much luck

Whereas I had two potential part-time jobs lined up at my first uni, I now keep getting rejected by every place I apply to

I need counselling and careers advice, but all the appointments with the uni are booked up and the on-site surgery are oversubscribed

My new uni doesn't have the best reputation, so I fear I've jeopardised my uni experience and my future job prospects

There's another local campus-based uni (which is rated extremely highly) that I've visited frequently - I really wish I'd applied there now, as I would've certainly made friends earlier, been more employable, received the right support and enjoyed my experience more

Overall I just think I made the wrong call and don't know what to do. There have been times where I've considered dropping out or deferring, but I don't think those options are realistic.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

TL;DR: transferred unis a couple weeks in, as I wasn't happy at my first uni. My new uni may actually be worse in some respects and I'm not sure what to do.

Hello there,

Sorry to hear you are having such a tough time settling at a university that you feel is right for you.

Unfortunately it is the case that it will be too late to transfer now. You still have some options but they will come with a compromise of sorts:

- Stay at your current university, give it a year and see how it goes, you may find with time this changes and you enjoy it.

- If this is your first year of student finance you may be able to either transfer to another university course joining into the second year or may have to resit a first year elsewhere. You can apply via UCAS now in preparation for next September indicating second year as an entry point.

- Leave university for the year, you will have to repay some of the student finance via a plan however this is workable. After leaving you could reapply via UCAS for next year. This will give you time to really research the university, course and modules.

Regardless of your decision the main thing to take away from this is that you need to spend time in planning for the next year, be sure to attend open days and visit the universities before making a final decision.

Try to not make any rash decisions, take some time to really think about it and meet with your current universities tutors and support staff for guidance.

I hope this helps!

Patrick

So many questions like what course is it, what uni is it, what do your parents think you should do? It would be easier to advise you if we had more details and it is all confidential since we don't know who you are. It sounds like you are on the wrong course for starters but why do you say that dropping out isn't realistic if you're not enjoying your course and don't think it will help with grad jobs?

try not to be so black and white, there's no guarantee anything would be better at the other uni, especially with regards to friends etc

it's also not enough to attend a society twice and expect to have made friends, you need to attend regularly for a few weeks-months and then Youll see change

Thanks for your reply, I hear what you're saying.

With tegards to the other uni (Loughborough), my girlfriend studies there and says her experience has been incredible. The teaching is spot-on, and the Union organise loads of really sick social events throughout the year, especially during Freshers'.

I do, of course, accept that the social events mean nothing if I don't actually GO to them.

Currently a student at DMU. Want to change to Loughborough or - failing that - Leicester.

Okay so I'm studying at Creative Writing at De Montfort. I want to change to an English degree at Loughborough, with Leicester as a backup.

Discussed it with my parents, the conclusion we reached was that I could finish this year at DMU and then start over at whichever uni I move to. That way I'm still in education while I wait to change unis.

About grad jobs - I'd like to teach English, so I feel that a proper English degree from somewhere like Loughborough would be beneficial in a number of ways. My current course itself isn't too bad, save for the short teaching hours.

Hope this helps.

I agree that English at Loughborough/Leicester would look better to employers than Creative Writing at De Montfort but do you have the A level grades for the better unis? You need to email their Admissions to see whether they would consider you transferring there, either straight into Year 2 or if that's not possible, into Year 1 instead. They will probably only let you onto the course if your A level grades are very close to their normal entry requirements.

Loughborough is great but you won't make friends unless you go out and make them! Social events are nice and all but ultimately you just need to talk to people and find people to hang out with.

Studying at DMU won't reduce your job prospects. Being miserable and not taking part in anything from a poor attitude will.

Thanks again for your reply. It's reassuring that someone else agrees about the English degree looking
better to employers. As for the entry grades, I got AAB (including an A in English Language). Lboro wants AAB and Leicester wants ABB, so hopefully that's sufficient.

Thanks again for your reply. It's reassuring that someone else agrees about the English degree looking
better to employers. As for the entry grades, I got AAB (including an A in English Language). Lboro wants AAB and Leicester wants ABB, so hopefully that's sufficient.

In terms of "job prospects", if you want to go into teaching I don't think it will make any difference except in the subject knowledge requirements for teaching secondary education. A creative writing course may not satisfy the usual requirement that at least 50% of your first degree be in your subject area, however for shortage subjects you can do an SKE to bridge the gap, which is also usually funded for you, before continuing to the PGCE. I'm not super familiar with the process of qualifying though so @04MR17 might be able to advise further and/or correct any of this if I'm wrong!

Regarding reapplying again, you meet the entry requirements so that shouldn't be an issue. However if you are going to be starting in year one again (presumably) you come to the problem of SFE funding. You will already have used your "gift year" for the first year of the original course, and then you would have used one year of your entitlement for the current year of your current course. Your SFE entitlement is equal to the length of your current course, plus one year, minus the number of years of prior study.

This means you will be one year short, and you will need to self fund tuition fees for a year (you will still be eligible for a maintenance loan however). Due to how SFE calculate finance (they work backwards from the last year), your self funded year will then be the next year i.e. the first year of the course you will be applying to potentially. As such you need to consider the financial ramifications of this, and whether you can afford to self fund tuition fees for a year. This is I think, going to be the overriding concern for you when considering whether this option is feasible or not.

I took the OP to mean that they switched from one uni to another this academic year and have not already used a year of funding. Please can you clarify @certainlynothj because it has implications for student finance