Hi guys,
I am currently a sophomore at a medium sized private college located right in the middle of a large city. The college is not highly ranked, but it has a good enough network in this particular city for myself to get a job after I graduate. Anyways, maybe due to a lack of social life or a lack of fit, through the past year, I was never happy. I always had the mentality that I could knock it off and just force my way through the next 2 years of school, but last week I just broke down crying. There was no particular reason as to why I cried except for the fact that I was just pissed off at everything around me. I decided to get some help and it turned out that I was indeed depressed. After talking and weighing my options with my parents, I came to the conclusion that it is a good idea to try and transfer schools.
In my current school I did try my best to get out there, join clubs and socialize with people. I pledged at a business fraternity which is apparently a big deal in my school and I am doing community service which surprisingly has a really low participation rate. But it just seemed hard for me to hit it off with people. It just seems to a lot of people work or commute or already have their own group of friends already. Note that I’m not the most outgoing person but I am not socially inept. I just believe in finding a true friend versus having constant superficial conversations with people.
So I went through a list of colleges I could transfer to. I have a pretty high GPA of 3.85 and I have a decent amount of extra curricular activities. However, most of the colleges have a deadline to submit applications on March 15th and there was no way I could get my application in on time. Luckily, there are two colleges that I like (Wake Forest and Willam and Mary) which have a deadline at April 1st where I can probably get my applications in on time.
So I decided to email a professor of mine who I have a good relationship with to write a recommendation for me. He agreed to write it, but he told me that there might be the option where I could possibly take a half year break at the start of next school year and apply for spring quarter. He told me that I could go back home (I’m an international student) and maybe spend some time with my family, while opening the opportunity to apply for more colleges (he mentioned that the two colleges mentioned above may not be a good fit for me due to my introverted nature).
So my question is, is it possible for me to take a break and then submit applications for a spring quarter transfer in my supposedly junior year? If so, will my chances of transferring be ruined? If not should I just apply for schools that have the April 1st deadline? I would also like some opinions on whether or not transferring is even a good idea? I’ve read many stories that people whose college lives sucked in the first two years managed to turn it around. Please give whatever opinion you have.
Thanks a lot for reading this!