Help choosing colleges to transfer to

Transfer Students
1

Hi everyone, I’m at first year at UC Davis and I absolutely cannot stand it here so I’m starting to research schools where I can transfer to for my second year. When I applied to schools, I was one of those people who mostly cared about ranking and didn’t really see which schools would be the right fit for my personality, but now I regret that. So please recommend schools that you think I should check out! Any advice for transferring is welcome too!!

Things I don’t like about UC Davis:
It’s HUGE
My smallest class is 250 people (discussion sections are pointless)
No sense of community (because it’s huge)
Too impersonal and can’t make connections with anyone-- can’t seem to find my niche of people around here
Haven’t spoken to a single one of my professors – even office hours are generally packed
Impossible to talk to advisors
Location is boring

More about me:
Major: Biology
SAT: 1370
High school GPA: 4.1
College GPA: looks like its gonna be around a 3.7-8
Haven’t done any college ECs, but in high school did a lot of environmental/sustainability stuff
Also potentially interested in pursuing vet school, love animals a lot
Not a fan of big cities or super rural areas, city outskirts or suburbs are good

*Also i know it’s a little early to be thinking about transferring, but I just want to start checking out my options early

Oh, i should also mention I have a guaranteed transfer to Cornell, but I’m worried about not liking it there either.

2

You might like a school like Haverford (or Bryn Mawr if you are female). Will you need FA?

3

@gardenstategal i am female, so I’ll check out bryn mawr. I won’t be needing FA

4

It may sound odd and very out of the box for you but look at Kansas State. It is 23,000 students but my son’s largest class is 150 and the rest MUCH smaller. His English class (honors) only has about 25. He knows all his professors, is getting a research job at the vet school and loves it. It has a small city around it (doesn’t feel rural) and is fun. He came from a large OOS city and is having a blast there. His gf is a pre-med biology major and he is pre-vet. It is worth a look. I was impressed that everyone says hello, including professors, and everyone seems happy there. Lots of opportunities for a pre-vet.

5

Mt. Holyoke is also pleasant and the campus is gorgeous. The academics are excellent and it’s part of the 5-college consortium, so you’d be able to take classes at Amherst, UMass Amherst, Hampshire, and Smith. Free buses run to all colleges. Mt. H has wonderful programs to help women become leaders in their fields. I was very impressed.

If you like a more competitive atmosphere in a small town, you may want to consider Smith. I’d suggest Wellesley but it’s transfer-in rate has been close to zero for awhile.

Another women’s college, closer to home for you, is Mills. It’s a quieter campus, with cross reg at UC Berkeley, in the San Francisco area, also very pretty. I’ve known people who have chosen Mills over higher ranked colleges and they thrived there.

Agnes Scott has excellent academics and cross reg at Emory. Like Mt. H it has opportunities to foster leadership skills in women.

For co-ed schools, you may want to look at Earlham. It has a great reputation for the sciences, 800 acre campus, egalitarian and community-oriented values. Also if you’re interested in human anatomy, it’s one of a handful of schools that offer a cadaver class in undergrad. I think St. Mary’s of CA also offers such a class, and maybe some art schools and one or two others.

Also Muhlenberg–arty, small, has a football team, happy students and good sciences

St. Olaf’s is a wonderful school, too. Well-known for its choir, it also offers great academics in a nurturing atmosphere

Have you looked at Santa Clara? Some people like that school for its values and relatively laid-back atmosphere, and it’s a little bigger, if that suits you.

Vassar has great sciences, non-competitive atmosphere, a gorgeous new science facility, is arty, on the commuter train line to NYC, and for transfer students, likes to take people who have a solid academic record.

Bard welcomes science-oriented students as its often considered a arts-oriented school. The campus is laid out in a large swath of woods, many architecturally stunning modern buildings. Students are a little more overtly arty there, which may appeal (oh boy I found my people!) to you or may turn you off (too pretentious), depending on your POV.

6

If you were interested in Cornell, have you considered U of Rochester? It’s an excellent school academically, a nice overlay of music and art, smaller and has no core curriculum.

https://www.rochester.edu/aboutus/

7

I would avoid NYU as it’s sprawling and doesn’t have a sense of community, IMHO.

But you may want to consider Barnard. It’s a small college that’s one of the four colleges of Columbia University. It lies literally across the street from CU’s main campus. Barnard is a full college on its own. You could spend your entire undergrad career there. Or, you could use it for a sense of community and then branch out into both CU and NYC as a whole.

Barnard has about a 24% admission rate for transfers.

8

I’d second the recommendation to look at University of Rochester—sounds like it fits your needs very well on just about every point. Strong in biology, rigorous academics but a collegial rather than competitive atmosphere, lots of opportunity for undergrad research. It was not on D’s radar at the beginning of her college search, but became her first choice after an unplanned visit to the school.

9

Cornell could work for you. Read through the course offerings in Hum Ec and Ag and Life Sciences in addition to whatever is available in Arts and Sciences. You might find good options for yourself there. Yes Ithaca is not suburban, but it isn’t completely rural either. There is a lot going on in that city.