What should I do as a guaranteed transfer (Fall 2023)?Answered
I was accepted to Boston U as a part of their guaranteed transfer program for fall 2023. I really want to go there, but according to my letter, I have to attend another school for a year and build up credits. Is it a bad idea to possibly do classes at my local community college (maybe online?) and also do some kind of major/career-related gap year type of experience?
My major is Environmental Policy and Analysis. What are some general public policy or environmental related experience ideas?
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2 answers
This is a really difficult question to answer on this blog post. My recommendation to you is to fully research what the BU graduation requirements are for the Environmental Policy degree.
I know you need like 128 credits to graduate which is 32 courses (4 credit).
The degree requirements are here:
And it seems you are going to have to take a compulsory Writing course and fulfill a language requirement.
https://www.bu.edu/academics/cas/programs/degree-overview/
And here's a link to the core curriculum for CAS students:
https://www.bu.edu/academics/cas/programs/core-curriculum/
And here is a chart which shows how BU treats AP credits:
https://www.bu.edu/admissions/files/2018/06/Advanced-Credit-Guide.pdf
Here are your contracts for the Environmental major:
Contact: Professor James Lawford Anderson, Director of Undergraduate Studies, lawford@bu.edu
Sayaka Yamaki, Undergraduate Program Coordinator, syamaki@bu.edu
For BA/MA students: Senior Lecturer James Baldwin, Director of Master’s Programs, jbaldwin@bu.edu
Before you enroll in an college for next year, you should find out the following:
-How many AP credits you are getting counted toward your degree at BU. What the BU CAS course equivalents are and how they are tagged as BU Hub units.
-What the your core curriculum course and mandatory classes are that have nothing to do with your major. Make a list of those. If you get stuck get on reddit, college Confidential or quora and ask a BU Env.Science major what they took for Freshman year and write down the course numbers.
-Make a list of 10-12 courses and then try to find the least expensive alternative to taking those classes. It very well may be your local community college or a state college with rolling admissions or an online college. I say up to 12 course because you might not find a perfect fit. Maybe you will find a college that will have 8 (32 credits worth) and that perfectly okay.
The bottom line is that you want to take as many non-major core classes as you possibly can next year so you don't have pay the $60,000 tuition for those non-major classes. Also be flexible because you might find a school that summer classes as well. Where you can split up your year a 3/3/3 or 9 classes and to your internship or research stuff as well.
Good luck.
I think that it would be a good idea to take classes at a community college while you gain professional experience. Online classes will be just as beneficial to you as in person classes - the important thing is that you choose a program that will give you the credits you need.
As for your gap year experience, this blog post has some recommendations for the environmental science side of your major interest. Hope this helps!
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