Graduate in Five Years Instead of Four? Forum

SubOneFifty · Post by **SubOneFifty** » Sun May 18, 2014 9:48 pm

Greetings TLS, longtime lurker but first time poster here! I have a slight predicament I would like an opinion on.

I currently attend a private university where I compete at the NCAA Division 1 level. I have calculated my projected GPA upon graduating in 4 years and I will be at about a 3.4. The problem is, I have found out that it will take me an extra semester to graduate which means I would have to pay a lot of money for an additional semester at this private university.

I have the opportunity to transfer to another D1 university in which they are much more competitive in my sport and it is a public university which essentially means the tuition for attending this university for an additional semester is abysmal and I wouldn't mind actually attending for a full year to help boost my gpa and compete in my sport. Would it be a benefit to transfer to this public university and delay graduation a year to use up my remaining NCAA eligibility (1 year), take additional units to boost my gpa, and compete at a higher level? Depending on how well I do during this additional year, the potential of graduating with a 3.6 is probable. Obviously the goal is to increase my gpa to improve my law school prospects but there are also several other benefits unless I am missing something.

Edit: (Just some extra info)
-The school I am transferring to is lower ranked than my current university
-URM
-PTing in 166-168 range (included to create a better picture of what I could be working with upon graduation paired with "3.4-3.6" GPA)

ManoftheHour · Post by **ManoftheHour** » Sun May 18, 2014 9:52 pm

Lol, ranking don't matter.

Enjoy competing in sports and college parties for one more year. Take a bunch of easy classes to bring up that GPA.

mt2165 · Post by **mt2165** » Sun May 18, 2014 9:55 pm

SubOneFifty wrote:Greetings TLS, longtime lurker but first time poster here! I have a slight predicament I would like an opinion on.

I currently attend a private university where I compete at the NCAA Division 1 level. I have calculated my projected GPA upon graduating in 4 years and I will be at about a 3.4. The problem is, I have found out that it will take me an extra semester to graduate which means I would have to pay a lot of money for an additional semester at this private university.

I have the opportunity to transfer to another D1 university in which they are much more competitive in my sport and it is a public university which essentially means the tuition for attending this university for an additional semester is abysmal and I wouldn't mind actually attending for a full year to help boost my gpa and compete in my sport. Would it be a benefit to transfer to this public university and delay graduation a year to use up my remaining NCAA eligibility (1 year), take additional units to boost my gpa, and compete at a higher level? Obviously the goal is to increase my gpa to improve my law school prospects but there are also several other benefits unless I am missing something.

Edit: The school I am transferring to is lower ranked than my current university

So I am also a D1 athlete. I don't think it would be detrimental to go for five years especially if it meant a higher GPA and you used that time wisely, since you're still be K-JD. But at the same time, a more competitive program likely means more time for practice/treatment/traveling/etc so I wouldn't assume you're grades will automatically get better though you have the capacity to do so. Also I think D1 athlete is a relatively significant soft that you can play up pretty well, esp in your PS. I wish I would've done a better job in that regard. Best of luck and represent for us athletes.

ManoftheHour · Post by **ManoftheHour** » Sun May 18, 2014 9:58 pm

I'm sorry if I didn't make it clear enough.

Your plan is good to go. Raise that GPA. Your GPA gets locked in as soon as you get your first bachelor's.

kartelite · Post by **kartelite** » Sun May 18, 2014 11:00 pm

I assume you are aware of the NCAA regulations if your intention is to transfer and to begin immediately competing for the new institution. If not, I advise you take a look at them.

mt2165 · Post by **mt2165** » Sun May 18, 2014 11:09 pm

kartelite wrote:I assume you are aware of the NCAA regulations if your intention is to transfer and to begin immediately competing for the new institution. If not, I advise you take a look at them.

Yeah you have to take a year off

sundontshine · Post by **sundontshine** » Sun May 18, 2014 11:14 pm

mt2165 wrote:
kartelite wrote:I assume you are aware of the NCAA regulations if your intention is to transfer and to begin immediately competing for the new institution. If not, I advise you take a look at them.
Yeah you have to take a year off

Please do not give "advice" about things you are unfamiliar with. It doesn't help anyone.

Sitting out a year is not required for any sport other than football, basketball, and men's hockey. And, I would assume that the OP, being a scholarship athlete who has clearly put time and thought into considering the transfer, would be aware of any restrictions. He obviously doesn't play one of those three sports, and is fine.

SubOneFifty · Post by **SubOneFifty** » Sun May 18, 2014 11:14 pm

Edit: this @ above haha.

mt2165 · Post by **mt2165** » Sun May 18, 2014 11:20 pm

sundontshine wrote:
mt2165 wrote:
kartelite wrote:I assume you are aware of the NCAA regulations if your intention is to transfer and to begin immediately competing for the new institution. If not, I advise you take a look at them.
Yeah you have to take a year off
Please do not give "advice" about things you are unfamiliar with. It doesn't help anyone.

Sitting out a year is not required for any sport other than football, basketball, and men's hockey. And, I would assume that the OP, being a scholarship athlete who has clearly put time and thought into considering the transfer, would be aware of any restrictions. He obviously doesn't play one of those three sports, and is fine.

Lol, well I wouldn't say I'm completely unfamiliar, I am a D1 athlete myself, it was my understanding that that rule applied across the board but I'm sure you're right, I apologize. But I also wouldn't assume that the OP knows better, I considered transferring at one point and didn't know a lot of the NCAA compliance and regulations issues.

kartelite · Post by **kartelite** » Mon May 19, 2014 11:33 am

sundontshine wrote:
mt2165 wrote:
kartelite wrote:I assume you are aware of the NCAA regulations if your intention is to transfer and to begin immediately competing for the new institution. If not, I advise you take a look at them.
Yeah you have to take a year off
Please do not give "advice" about things you are unfamiliar with. It doesn't help anyone.

Sitting out a year is not required for any sport other than football, basketball, and men's hockey. And, I would assume that the OP, being a scholarship athlete who has clearly put time and thought into considering the transfer, would be aware of any restrictions. He obviously doesn't play one of those three sports, and is fine.

Is that a new rule? I was an NCAA athlete who transferred schools in 2003, and I'm pretty sure there weren't any exceptions for certain sports; if you got a waiver from your school's athletic department you wouldn't have to sit out.

sundontshine · Post by **sundontshine** » Mon May 19, 2014 12:48 pm

kartelite wrote:Is that a new rule? I was an NCAA athlete who transferred schools in 2003, and I'm pretty sure there weren't any exceptions for certain sports; if you got a waiver from your school's athletic department you wouldn't have to sit out.

The rule is still largely as you describe it, though I'm not sure if anything has actually changed since 2003. You still need the waiver from your school if you want to transfer and not sit out a year. The three sports come into play in that even with a school waiver you still have to sit out a year in basketball, football, and men's hockey. It takes extenuating circumstances (ill family member so you want to be closer to home, etc.) to transfer in those sports and play right away.

I'm not really aware of schools withholding consent for a player to transfer, even to rivals, which is why I made it seem more automatic than I suppose it actually is.

iamgeorgebush · Post by **iamgeorgebush** » Mon May 19, 2014 1:26 pm

you want to transfer to a worse school for ONE semester...you do realize that the institution that confers your degree will be the last institution you attend, right? and that will stay with you for the rest of your life?

sundontshine · Post by **sundontshine** » Mon May 19, 2014 1:32 pm

iamgeorgebush wrote:you want to transfer to a worse school for ONE semester...you do realize that the institution that confers your degree will be the last institution you attend, right? and that will stay with you for the rest of your life?

We'd need to know more about the disparity in rankings between the schools before criticizing that. If he's transferring from Harvard to Podunk State U, then yeah. But if he's transferring between two schools in the middle of the pack without national reputations, with the one he's heading to being just a little bit lower regarded than the original school, it might not be as big of a deal.

iamgeorgebush · Post by **iamgeorgebush** » Mon May 19, 2014 4:02 pm

sundontshine wrote:
iamgeorgebush wrote:you want to transfer to a worse school for ONE semester...you do realize that the institution that confers your degree will be the last institution you attend, right? and that will stay with you for the rest of your life?
We'd need to know more about the disparity in rankings between the schools before criticizing that. If he's transferring from Harvard to Podunk State U, then yeah. But if he's transferring between two schools in the middle of the pack without national reputations, with the one he's heading to being just a little bit lower regarded than the original school, it might not be as big of a deal.

well i didn't say that he shouldn't transfer. i just wanted him to realize the implications of doing so.

SubOneFifty · Post by **SubOneFifty** » Tue May 20, 2014 2:03 am

Yes, I do understand that the last institution I attend would be the institution that grants my final degree (should be obvious?). And I wouldn't be transferring for one semester, it would be for a full YEAR since it is a public university with cheap tuition. The situation is if it would be to my benefit in doing so to potentially increase my gpa maximum to 3.6 while minimizing debt significantly and competing for an additional year.

Further explained:

Current Situation:
-Stay at private university
-Graduate a semester late (high tuition)
-Potential final GPA of 3.4

Proposed Solution:
-Transfer to a public university (will be degree granting university)
-Instead of graduating a semester late, graduate a YEAR late (since tuition is dirt cheap, classes are easy af and why not?)
-Potential final GPA of 3.6
-Use up my remaining year of NCAA eligibility (due to redshirting a year previously)

jdmonkey · Post by **jdmonkey** » Tue May 20, 2014 3:03 am

Transfer and enjoy your last year of eligibility. Law schools care about what your GPA is not where you earned it. It would be better to have a 3.8 from UMass than a 3.3 from Harvard, assuming the same LSAT. While this seems absurd, this is what US News incentives the law schools to do. I spoke with an admissions officer from a T-14 about this and he was joking that a higher GPA from an online school would be regarded with higher esteem than a GPA from MIT, which is why he says he hates US News.

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