The arrival of fall and winter every year indicates three things: Thanksgiving, Christmas -- and college applications!
For all current college applicants, you're probably collecting teacher recommendations, sending in SAT and ACT scores, making sure your applications mention every single extracurricular activity that you're involved in, and writing personal statements. That is, when you're not eating turkey and stuffing, decorating the Christmas tree, and shopping for Christmas gifts.
It's a sad, but true fact that a lot of people don't get into their dream school -- the first time around.
Flashback to my senior year of high school: I dreamed of going to the University of Southern California (USC), but when acceptance letters came rolling in for the Class of 2012 the following spring, mine didn't quite make it to my mailbox! I used to think that it got lost in transit and I jokingly convinced myself that the United States Postal Service was partially to blame for me not going to USC. In reality, I just didn't have what USC was looking for. I wasn't meant to be a USC Trojan like the select group of my Fallbrook High School classmates and friends who were accepted.
Flashback to fall 2008: I attended San Francisco State University (SFSU) in lovely San Francisco for my freshman year of college, where I worked really hard because I had already planned to transfer to USC for my sophomore year. That winter, I decided to apply to a second college, New York University (NYU).
Flashback to May 2009: The acceptance letters came rolling in -- again. This time, two letters made it to my mailbox: one for USC and one for NYU. I was accepted into both schools!
My decision was very difficult, but in my mind, USC had their chance -- the first time around. I started at NYU in fall 2009 and I had the wonderful opportunity to spend my first semester as an NYU student, not in New York City, but abroad in Prague in the Czech Republic.
I was a college transfer student and I'll always be proud of it. So, if you end up like me and choose to go down the transfer road in the future, you'll be in great company.
Here's a slideshow of 11 famous college transfer students:
Famous College Transfer Students
Good luck current college applicants! Remember, you can always transfer colleges if you feel like it...