I’m a 22 year old at a very big, urban, research university-ish (trying to maintain my anonymity here but feel free to PM).
I’m applying for transfer admissions for Fall 2019 as an incoming junior.
I am in search of a school that is small and personal, a place to build intimate relationships, a place where students are supported and faculty truly care. I want deep discussions and a place where one cannot just ‘disappear’ the way one can in a huge impersonal school.
However, I find myself not fitting in well at many LAC’s because every student on campus is 18-22, no graduate students, and since I will be 23-24 (with a lot of diverse life experience) I just don’t connect that well to younger students.
Additionally, some LAC’s I visited have a very laid-back feel. I want a kinder and less cutthroat community, but I am also a very intense and focused person. Students (and some faculty) at these small colleges seem very chill and relaxed, which isn’t a great fit for me (who talks a mile-a-minute, does ADHD-spewing-of-ideas at people, and throws themself into everything 110%).
Now I’m thoroughly confused about where I should be applying. I want the community and closeness of a small college, but I also want older/grad students, and a place where people have that ‘fire in their belly’. What schools would satisfy these criteria – where should I be looking?
My D2 attended a campus centered university which had a lot of grad students, and where many upperclassmen and graduate students lived off-campus. Many rented apartments in larger houses. At least one apartment in her house was rented to graduate students, and they socialized freely with the undergrads in the other apartments in her house. That house became the center of her social life there.
Even there though, there may be some barriers to the extent to which grad students will mix with undergrads, mostly psychological on the part of the grad students who are at a slightly different place in their lives.
That school would meet your intensity desires, but not necessarily your desire for personal attention.
Unless: your curricular desires matched the curriculum of one of its smaller colleges or departments. In that case it is possible you might receive sufficient personal attention. But if you are interested in one of the majors of higher enrollment, quite possibly not.
so I guess my point is: based on your interests, you can see if someplace has a carve-out school or specific program you can shoot for that might make the large U effectively smaller. With housing situation as I described, and not in an urban environment which will lead to less personal interactions.
You might like Notre Dame. It’s a religious school and so has a strong sense of community, but you don’t need to be Catholic to fit in. Also has a strong presence of both undergrads and grad students.
Depending on your major, USoCal. Yes, it’s big but within your department major, it’s much smaller and you can find “your tribe.” They have a lot of undergrads and grad students of various ages. It IS expensive though, so hopefully you have your finances available.
Wouldn’t your major courses get smaller at the junior and senior levels at your current school?
Of course, if your major is a very popular one, smaller may not necessarily be small. But first two years at a big university to transfer to a small LAC for the last two years seems to minimize the advantages of each and maximize the disadvantages of each.
Can you talk a bit about your major and your rough stats? Are you competitive for top-end schools? Just thinking that actually mid-size private (like around 5000-8000 undergrad) might be right up your alley. If your stats are more competitive I’m thinking places like Wash U… that level. Not sure who takes a lot of transfers.
@LogicNerd96 Maybe take a look at Clark University? It has a total student population of about 3,000, 1,000 of them being grad students. Well known for psych. There are generous merit scholarships for incoming freshmen but I don’t know about transfer students. Case Western might also be another good option for a mid-sized school that is strong in health fields but offers a diverse array of liberal arts courses as well. Has both grads and undergrads and the students are serious. It’s larger but still manageable - about 11K in all.
yeah, not small, but upper division classes are small. Plus, it has plenty of grad students, so if you take a grad seminar or two, you’ll find your kind of intense peeps.
Disagree with 'SC and ND. Greek system at at the former and D1 sports emphasis on both is the antithesis of LAC-like intensity (which sounds like Reed & Swat to me). OP is already at large urban Uni, so moving to 'SC is more of the same.
On a significantly different take, look at Stanford. They take few transfers, but the ones that they do take tend to be non-trads. The plus with Stanford is that taking grad seminars as an undergrad is quite common. And its top-ranked in Psych, (but not clinical.) But The Farm may have too much of entrepreneurial culture as opposed to intellectual philosophizing.