Hi! I am a freshman at a small liberal arts school. I am considering transferring mainly for social reasons. The school is only about 3500 undergrads in a small town which feels very small to me considering I grew up in NYC my entire life. Due to the small size, it feels a lot like high school where popularity matters and there are distinct social circles or cliques. Everything feels very slow paced and while I don’t necessarily want a cut throat environment, I do think I need things to be at a more competitive / faster pace just for personal motivation purposes. I understand that my discontent with my college experience so far is partly my fault. I am not involved on campus at all. I have gone to club meetings in the beginning but nothing seems to really click with me. On top of it, none of my friends are involved either which makes it even harder. I just feel like I’m not a part of this college community. I don’t want to look back at my college experience and just say i went there for the degree, It should be so much more than that. At the same time, I’ve come to terms with it that I won’t love it here but I am doing okay. I’m doing well in my classes and it is a fairly prestigious college and I have a great scholarship. I’ve made two really close friends that I can fully open up to.
Sorry for the long description. I’d really appreciate it if you guys could give me some advice. Do you think I should stay or transfer? And if I stay, do you have any suggestions for getting more involved and widening my social circle? If I transfer, are there any schools that you would recommend? I was thinking about Cornell but I am open to any schools in the northeast area really.
Thanks so much!