Long story short, Amherst College is draining the life out of me. I feel like the expectations of me are crushing me because this is such a top LA and being a poor student I have to prove myself even more. I’m not fitting in well and my depression has gotten worse. I’m not sure if it’s just general freshman difficulties in settling in or really not fitting in on campus, but if this continues I’m considering transferring out.
The problem is I’m not sure what colleges I could transfer to because most require gen ed reqs (I’m from California and was looking at UCs and CSUs and they all require you to have finished some type of gen ed) and clearly I don’t have those. Do colleges have rules for transfers from schools without gen ed requirements? What can I do?
Get help at Amherst. Talk to a dean, an advisor, a counselor, a support group. Amherst has endless support resources that exist for you and your classmates. Use them!
They will help you. They want all students to succeed. It makes them look good if you do well, too.
Your depression is more likely to lift if you get help. Transferring may just relocate your problems to a different place. We make a large part of our own happiness, wherever we go.
Did you have depression issues before you were living in the NE? When I lived in the PNW, I was surprised to learn from a physician friend that it wasn’t uncommon for individuals who moved from locations that have significantly more days of sunshine (e.g. California) than Seattle to develop, to varying degrees, Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/seasonal-affective-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20364651
Remember that Amherst accepted you because they believed that you would be successful and an asset to the college. They weren’t wrong!
following the former posts, if you do receive counseling and find that you do indeed still want to transfer, look into some other schools that have open curriculums/little to no requirements. grinnell, hamilton, brown, uofrochester, and vassar are just some of the options from which you can choose if you feel like you still want that open curriculum/flexibility you have at amherst. best of luck to you.