Hoping to transfer and need help!

Transfer Students
1

<p>Hey all, I am desperately in need of some advice,</p>

<p>I am looking for any and all recommendations for schools to look at, as I am currently in a panic/am going through a college identity crisis of sorts. The past year I attended a big public SEC school and have come to find that it just is not the place for me. I felt as if I simply blended into the large population there, and I fear that if I try to tough it out and stay there I risk finishing college with few meaningful relationships in an environment where I simply don't fit. It was a rough year in every sense and I want to try to avoid having that experience characterize my entire time at college.</p>

<p>Luckily because of my scores and grades etc. most doors are still open to me (that is with the exception of probably Ivy League and Amherst/Williams etc. which I am not interested in anyway)</p>

<p>SAT: 2300
ACT: 35
College GPA after freshman year: 4.0 </p>

<p>One of the major things that I desire for a transfer school is a school with a strong sense of community. I want to go to school that fosters making friendships easily, where there aren't divisions and separations of students (e.g. frats and sororities) and where it seems as if the students desire to get to know everyone around them. As such I would love to find a school where most of the students live in dorms and where doors are left open (students don't just sit in their rooms, as was my experience at SEC school, but interact with one another). I think school should be a community; I want people on my hall to live in my room as much as their own. I assume that I am more likely to find this atmosphere at a small LAC type school, but I'm open to just about anything at this point.</p>

<p>Another area obviously is academics. Despite having good scores and records, I am not an academic at all by personality. I don't necessarily dislike school, but I am not the super driven SGA type who has endless energy for academic clubs and wants to free Palestine before graduating. I am a pretty chill guy who is definitely more focused on relationships at college than the actual school. That being said, I don't slack off and am not opposed to a more selective school, it's just not a top priority.</p>

<p>Since I am from the south it is hard for me to evaluate most LACs in the North because I have no connections their, and I cannot really grasp their reputation or "feel"/vibe from wikipedia and such.</p>

<p>Some schools that I am considering but don't truly know much about:
Wheaton College
Kenyon
College of Wooster
Connecticut College
Colby College</p>

<p>I am open to literally ALL SUGGESTIONS. I am not even ruling out schools with frats, as long as they have different influence than the general SEC southern frats seem to have.</p>

<p>Most importantly I want to make lasting relationships at school. If I fail out of school but have some great friendships I will fail happily (not really but you get the point)</p>

<p>Thanks,
Will</p>

<p>P.S. I am not a party animal. I don't drink and don't love being around drunk people all the time. That being said, I do realize that this is a big part of college almost everywhere, and I'm sort of used to it, but preferably I could find a school where there are other things to do besides hit the bottle.</p>

2

<p>I’m a little biased, but I would say check out Emory University. They have pretty good financial aid for transfer students if you’re concerned about that. Although I am transferring there this year and they do have frats, people do say that they have a strong sense of community. Plus, they accept 40% of their transfer applicants and they are a top twenty university. Of course, if you’re from the South, you may want to be looking somewhere else. Although I have heard Emory described as a school in the south without the southern characteristics.
I have a friend who goes to Kenyon and really likes it. However, I wouldn’t apply there if I were you. It’s a great school and my friend really likes it but he likes to party, so his description of there being a lot of stuff to do on campus may not be accurate. Plus, Gambier Ohio, where the school is situated, is super super super teeny!! It has barely over a thousand people, and there isn’t even a movie theater in town, if you judge life by such things.
As for partying, you may want to look at schools that are more urban so there is stuff to do off campus. I wouldn’t rule out frats. My experience with frats is, if they are there on smaller campuses (the school that I transferred from had around 1500 kids and was a LAC in a rural area) they can be more noticeable. It’s one if 25% of your student body is in a frat and there are 15,000 kids on campus. That means over ten thousand kids are not associated with Greek life. But if you have 25% of kids in a frat on a teeny campus, that is a lot more noticeable.
Sometimes not having frats at all can actually make things worse. Another friend of mine goes to a campus with no frats on it, but their residential dorm was known as The Tower of Terror because of all of the parties that went on. People may (not always) stay in and drink if there isn’t much to do in the surrounding town.
I would strongly suggest looking at Fiske’s Guide to Colleges or The Hidden Ivies. Fiske’s is particularly useful I found in my college search, because if you found a college description in there that you liked, they had lists of other schools that kids applied to when they applied to that school, so you can find similar ones.
I would advise looking for a midsized school. At a big public university you are going to have 30,000 kids or more, and you may get the rah rah party type of stuff. If you’re on a super small campus, you get individual attention and know everyone on campus, but they may not have the resources to provide a ton of activities, or if kids do party they will be a lot more noticeable on campus. Personally, I would aim for a midsized university (5,000 to 10,000 undergraduates) in a suburban or urban location.
Once again, this is just my personal opinion. PM me if you need help with your search! I just did all of this transfer stuff because of what I went through and may be able to give you more suggestions. (I also felt uncomfortable on my campus, related to partying). Your stats are awesome by the way, so you should be able to get into some super good schools.</p>

3

<p>Do you know what percentage of upperclassmen live on campus? Thanks so much for the info by the way</p>

4

<p>At Kenyon, you are required to live on campus all four years.
At Emory, you are required to live on campus for your first year, and it is optional after that. As a transfer student, if you come in as a junior after they have looked at your credits, you aren’t guaranteed housing (I’m going to be a sophomore, so I have guaranteed housing). I believe around 65% of the undergraduates live on campus for Emory, although there is a Clairmont campus where a lot of upperclassmen live that may or may not be included in that statistic.</p>

5

<p>Check out Brown University, which has strong academics but is very laid back and not competitive at all. Most people live in dorms and the frat scene is very weak. People are also very friendly.</p>

<p>Some drawbacks is there is plenty of drinking, and it is very selective.</p>