<p>I'm sorry! I don't have any real answers - but sometimes it takes kids a whole year to find a "place" in a school, and the dissatisfaction at winter holidays is replaced by "school is my home" by the end of second semester. Your instinct is that there is something else going on, and you may very well be right. I would not make any moves other than to listen hard, and be supportive. See if you can get him to expand on what it is he hopes to find at these other schools. Have him talk through what it'll be like arriving on campus, living and going to school at his new school. If he does so he should end up being able to verbalize potential drawbacks of these other schools, too. (You just have to ask the leading questions like, "So you'll be comfortable and engaged in the back of the English lecture as one of 500 students at your new school?" :) ) Keep him talking, and maybe you'll get to the real issues. If he wants to transfer, fine. Just leave all the application work to him, and make sure he understands the financial, academic and social consequences for doing so. HTHs!</p>