Make sure you “like” the target school before make the changes. My friend’s D went there, even she was in political science. she still landed a job at Apple. Switching around similar schools won’t make you happier.
No one has mentioned Hampshire, so I will. No sports, liberal, artsy/quirky students who seem to do quite interesting things after graduation.
“Wesleyan is the least jock-ey of the NESCAC schools. I’d be surprised if 25% of the student body participates in varsity sports (as opposed to, 40 to 50% at Amherst and Williams.)”
That’s really just a reflection of the size of the enrollment.
And the number at Amherst is 32%, and a good number of them were not recruited.
@morandi Could you elaborate more about Hampshire? I haven’t heard much about it in all honesty.
“That’s really just a reflection of the size of the enrollment.”
This doesn’t make the core assertion of your quoted comment false.
It sounds like based on your description that you would love vassar. I would highly recommend a visit
I’m going to chime in with the people who are suggesting being really clear on what you want to be different in a new school.
You say in this post that
but in another post you say
Being really clear about what you want, and about why you are unhappy where you are is essential if you aren’t going to just take your unhappiness with you to another college.
You were unhappy with Wes from September - is it possible that in your heart you haven’t given it a fair chance? you may be perfectly right, that it’s not the place for you, but I think that swapping it out for another similar school is not likely to fix whatever is wrong.
At 44%, her head would explode at Williams:
http://communications.williams.edu/media-relations/fast-facts/
@collegemom3717 Oof, really dug into the archives there. Oberlin was my original dream school and I looked at Brown bc my Ivy League alumni parents encouraged me to. Unfortunately I was lured in by the prestige and my parents’ ideas of academic superiority. It’s hard to say why exactly I’m unhappy at Wesleyan. Some concrete things include the Greek life-driven social scene, lack of a folk music scene, no environmental studies major, and general feeling of disdain towards activism. A lot of people say that some of my complaints may go against what you’ve heard about Wes, and believe me, I feel the same. Wesleyan is not the school I was expecting. Maybe I haven’t been associating with the right people but I feel like at the right school for me, the right people wouldn’t be difficult to find.
I know it seems like all of these schools are very similar, and they probably are. Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I’m also trying to be more open to non-LAC schools bc I’ve been criticized for only looking at small schools but they’re really the only schools I know anything about… so if anyone has ideas for liberal, artsy non-LACs with an environmental studies major and no Greek life, let me know.
"… if anyone has ideas for liberal, artsy non-LACs with an environmental studies major and no Greek life, let me know. "
Maybe there are some, but IMO that’s really not the proper lens to look at a larger school through. You’re trying to apply an LAC standard, where the student body is more or less homogeneous, to a large school where students may be coming there for a wider variety of majors and a wider variety of goals. the best strategy for a large school is not “we are all the same”. it is :“divide and conquer”. Find the people who you like, and hang with them.Clearly you will not find a major university consisting of 5,000 artsy undergraduates, You might possibly find some with enough artsy undergraduates for you to hang out with and be quite happy there though.
It’s not such a problem if people are different if you don’t have to interact with the people you don’t like all the time, which may be easier to arrange at a large school.
But really, you are describing Oberlin, very explicitly and deliberately, and I don’t think there is anyplace else exactly like it.
True. There hasn’t been much of a folk scene at Wesleyan since The Highwaymen (the original boy group, not the Vegas act of the same name) graduated in 1962:
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=-xh-_54Gh5c
Although, Dar Williams does occasionally return to campus:
http://wesleying.org/2012/08/11/dar-williams-89-to-teach-cspl-course-in-the-fall/
From what I can gather, Wesleyan on the whole is more into hip hop and indie rock.
Brandeis?
I advise you to stick with the devil you know (especially if Wesleyan is giving you financial aid).
No other college can guarantee a significant improvement in all the areas you want (while still being just as good in all the things that made you choose Wesleyan). You might get a better folk music scene, or a little more activism … but then, you’re likely to discover a few things are significantly worse at your new school (maybe things you’re not even thinking about now). So try harder. For example, if you want more folk music, get involved with the organization that plans campus music events.
@mollielie, thanks for such a constructive response 
Building on what others have said: are you looking to stay in a nest or spread your wings? as several people have said or implied, you are no longer an 18 year old high school student. You have finished a year of college, and if you transfer you will do so as an incoming junior. It may sound all mom-ish, but there is a pretty big maturity jump in there somewhere.
A big part of transferring is writing a strong ‘on mature reflection, I realize that your college has this key thing X that is not available where I am, which is why I want to come’ essay. If you are serious about environmental studies, that might be the way to focus your search. For example, here is a list of “top 10” environmental studies majors in the US:
You might use the summer to check out some enviro sci programs, looking at the details of the major. When you see a program that gets you excited then back out and look at the rest of the college. Remember that as a rising junior (which is what the colleges will be evaluating you as) you are meant to have developed some focus on (and understanding of) your field of study. And as a junior you will spend more of your time with other people in your major, as you move into the upper level classes, which are typically smaller and only open to your fellow majors. Colleges such as Cornell and Duke (which I’m guessing seem way out of your comfort zone now) can become bite-size as you get into your major. Again, repeating another poster, at bigger schools people find their own cohort- and it is easier to live and let live in a bigger pond.
Oberlin is a special place. If it is calling you - why not go? It is similar to Wesleyan in many ways, but it is different too. Son chose it over Wesleyan, and we came to agree with him. Kids there will be just as smart both creatively and intellectually. The Con adds a wonderful dimension to life at Oberlin. Social justice and activism are a big part of the Oberlin experience. Lots of Obies are from the east coast (and everywhere else). You would not be out of place; you may come to like the non-pretentious quality of a midwestern school. Son entered as a transfer and received more merit aid from Oberlin than from Wesleyan.
For an absolute safety school, albeit one that is academically weaker than Wesleyan and not particularly activist, consider Evergreen State College. If you need financial aid, it is likely to be unaffordable.
I question whether you’ll still think Wes is too Greek next year. In my experience open frat parties are dominated by freshmen since they have a much harder time finding out about apartment parties and obtaining alcohol.
I was hoping someone else would raise that point. With one exception, there is no sorting hat at Wesleyan; everyone is jammed into a first-year dorm and that is probably the last time the OP will be around that many people who are different than she. The dorm units and houses get progressively smaller as one gains seniority. In the mean time (and, until you get admitted somewhere else), have you been following the Wesleyan student-run blog? It leans pretty heavily to the left:
If you start with Wesleyan, throw out the Greek life and the athletics (and sprinkle in a few more students and a pinch of grad programs) you get Brandeis.
I’d suggest you take a good look at it.
When people pick a university like my alma mater they should expect to be among all sorts in the freshman dorms and need to seek out their own people from there.
That’s not what they’re expecting to need to happen when they select an LAC though. They specifically select the school itself based in good part on their perception of a prevailing campus culture. Then if they show up and it is not quite like that, or they misread things, it can be more disappointing than if the same thing happened at the larger school where no such immediate match with everyone around you should necessarily have been expected. My D1 struggled with something like this too, at her (different) LAC.