@DadTwoGirls I am for sure giving Colby a chance, but I just have a really, really gut feeling in my heart that no matter how hard I try, I will want to go home very badly. I find that I get seasonal depression when I travel, and I always need to be somewhere where there are a lot of people, entertainment (by this I mean music and art, like how prevalent it is in SoCal) and culture, and I’m not saying that Colby does not have culture at all, but I’m just saying it’s incredibly different, being it in an incredibly rural part of Maine. I know that Colby is a wonderful school, or else I wouldn’t have chosen it in the first place. When I visited, I noticed the students there were extremely bright and well-spoken, but my “freshmen jitters” are more than just coldfeet in my opinion – like I’ve said in another post, I know myself and my mind pretty well, and I just can’t imagine myself there for longer than a year at the very most. Trust me, I am definitely giving it a try, but I just needed to know if I do happen to drop out after a semester or a year, if it’s even probable that I can transfer to a UC by the end of my CC years.
@ericbadmom thank you a lot! that’s really comforting to hear 
@rachelnguyn Colby “advertises” itself as “this amazing liberal arts college” because that’s exactly what it is. You sound as if someone tricked you into choosing it. Btw, I have no personal stake in Colby.
“It took me this summer and a bunch of conversations with others” to realize it wasn’t the place for you. Yeah, that is completely and totally illogical and irrational. If you had said “it took me a year of being on campus” to realize it wasn’t the place for you, that might make sense.
Yes, it’s totally irrational and very nearly completely not sensible to decide BEFORE you’ve even set foot on campus at a wonderful LAC to plan to drop out and transfer to community college so that you can transfer to a more expensive school. Picking and choosing the comments you want to hear kind of defeats the purpose of asking for advice, right?
There is a reason why Colby has a very high freshman retention rate and students from almost every state and 80 countries. People are happy there, and that inlcudes people from cities and from California. Of course, not everyone will stay, but it seems that you did your homework before you even visited. You made a choice based on logic. You obviously didn’t hate it when you visited, or you would never have paid your deposit.
I think you have to let go of your defeatist attitude and stop dwelling on how homesick you will be. EVERY student will be homesick. All these jitters you are talking about are completely normal and common. Read the college life forum, which is filled with those types of posts. The difference between those who successfully transition to college and those who don’t is that students who will fare best are those who give it a chance. You haven’t come close to giving it a chance because you haven’t even arrived on campus yet. If you fail, it will be because you created a self-fulfilling prophecy. I wish you the best of luck, but think hard about all you’ve worked for so far. Sabotaging your happiness is not the best strategy.
You mentioned that finances area consideration. When finances are an issue students don’t have the luxury of picking the best fit. Make sure you have a 4-year plan for paying for college before you drop out of Colby.
I have a 10,000 lux light therapy lamp (~$50 on Amazon) that I find to be enormously helpful for gloomy winters. I can position it so that I can read while it shines on me, so using it doesn’t take any time out of my day.
if it helps, i’m moving halfway across the country to go to school, and i’m devastated to leave my family. i had to leave my mom, and i cried from the time i got to my dad’s until the time i went to sleep, which was about five hours. my heart had never hurt so badly. i’m very much a homebody, and leaving my family—especially my mom—for so long is proving to be very difficult for me, much more difficult than i planned. in fact, i said goodbye to my sister just thirty minutes ago. i cried then too.
but here’s the thing: i know going away for school is something i’ve always wanted, i know it is the best option for me financially, and i know this is the only time i’ll be granted an opportunity like this. take comfort in knowing nearly all of our classmates will be feeling the same exact way we do, whether they choose to openly show it or not.
you will have a support system of teachers, advisors, and other students to help you through your sadness. use that to your advantage. once you get to colby, i think you’ll really enjoy it, but hey, if you don’t, you always have the option to head back home.
if you ever need someone to talk to—who you know will be feeling the same way you do, don’t be afraid to pm me. you got this. we got this. i’m sending good vibes, love, and support your way.
@Lindagaf Not sure who hurt you, but I’m just trying to explain my situation in a civil manner lmao. I know no one tricked me into choosing Colby, trust me. I know I messed up big time and it was completely my fault/choice. Thank you.
I was never “picking and choosing the comments * want to hear”; I’m sorry but I’m just so confused as to where you’re getting these assumptions from lol. Anyways, I visited Colby before committing and absolutely hated it, so I believe my thought-process had some rationale and logic to it. I agree, not completely, as I understand it takes time to get fully adjusted to any new environment whatsoever, but I know my self and my thoughts quite well, so it’s a bit patronizing to read ill-considered conclusions about myself from some person on the internet, who has absolutely no idea who I am or what I’m going through. I apologize if I sound a little bitter, again, I’m just confused as to why a stranger would assume so much about me.
I’m going to reiterate the fact that Colby offered me a lot of financial aid. This is the reason why I chose the school, despite not liking it at all when I visited. There is your logistics. I’m not rich, they had a lot of money to offer, it made sense. Perhaps realize that financial issues are real in this world lmao. The day I committed to the school and paid my deposits I cried, my father did too. They were not out of joy. Again, please don’t automatically assume things about people – I know this discussion thread is for me to receive advice on my college path, but I believe this short piece of advice from me to you will help you immensely in life.
At this point, I don’t even know what to say to your last paragraph. I’ve never seen someone be so narcissistic and prejudice about something that is completely irrelevant to them. If I “fail”, however you define failure, (and here is advice #2 from me:) I assure you there is so much more depth, causation, reason, background, etc. to any and every situation or person ever and it/they can’t be squished under one source or idea, as you are very fond of doing. In this case, my “defeatist” self-fulfilling prophecy. I hope you are able to realize this.
@rachelnguyn: I understand your situation & I understand your thoughts. Colby should be an interesting experience for a year or two, then transfer back home to a UC.
Small rural LACs are tough to deal with for more than two years based on my experience. Many spend their junior year studying abroad.
Also check out whether Colby belongs to an exchange program where you can study at another elite New England LAC for a semester or a year in order to get to see some new faces & new places.
P.S. Small rural LACs are tough if you don’t enjoy getting drunk a few nights a week. Others may try to tell you differently, but that is the reality.
Colby College has a domestic exchange agreement with Pitzer College.
@rachelnguyn are you on campus? Comfortable with ur roommate? Hows it going?