I’ve completed my first year at my university and I’m not happy there at all. My parents told me to give it one more semester and if I still don’t like it I can transfer. I have no clue what schools I should even start looking at, so I was hoping someone here could help me and point me to some schools. My stats college GPA 3.73, I’m in the Italian club, I’m in a fraternity, I’m on the debate team, I’ve had a job at target since Feb, I have 75+ hours of community service, my HS GPA was 3.71, I got a 31 on the ACT and I’m a political science major . What I’m looking for a school no more then 6 hours from my home in NJ, I don’t want it to be a party school and I’d prefer to go to a private school.
To enable suggestions, what don’t you like about your school?
3.71 weighted or unweighted in HS?
Which city in NJ are you using for your 6 hour metric? 6 hours is a different circle depending on what area in NJ you’re in.
I don’t feel like I fit into my school. I don’t drink or do drugs and to have a social life everyone does on or the others. I believe the GPA was unweighted but I’m not sure and I live in East Rutherford.
Being straight edge in college is always going to be a problem no matter where you go. Are you religious? You could join religious clubs to try to find like-minded friends.
I’m not religious at all.
Well all I can suggest is deciding what your other favorite interests are whether it’s a sport, or cooking, or whatever it may be. Then join clubs so you can find things to do with people that are not partying.
With your VERY specific institution criteria, and your reasoning behind why you don’t fit, it might be better to simply stay. Every school is a party school, no matter the rank, or location.
The partying culture can be completely avoided. The college experience is what you make of it. You mentioned you were in a fraternity. Why exactly are you involved in a fraternity if you don’t want to be involved with the partying culture?
That’s true lol. You’re literally surrounding yourself with party people by being in a fraternity.
What schools did you look at as a high school senior? And why did you discount them? What are you hoping to major in? Do you want schools with an Italian club and Debate team? Do you want a school that has your fraternity?
There are a bizilion smallish liberal arts colleges in PA. Some are religious, some are not.
The only reason I’m in a fraternity is it was the one my father was in and he pushed me to join it and I gave it a try. The schools I considered in high school were Rutgers, St. John’s, University of Delaware, Siena and Drexel. I didn’t get into Rutgers but got into the others. I want a school with a debate team, and I want to major in political science still. My friend from high school is currently attending northeastern and he loves it, would that be a viable option?
The thing that concerns me about transferring is that I don’t understand why the place that you transfer to would be any better than where you are now. There are certainly parties at Northeastern.
“I don’t drink or do drugs and to have a social life everyone does one or the other.”
Well, to have a social life you have to do something. It doesn’t have to be drinking or drugs. I am also thinking that debate team might not be the right way to meet people (how many people can be on a debate team, and how many of them are argumentative?). Also, if you don’t want to drink, then a fraternity does not sound right. It also sounds like what you might need is a girlfriend (or boyfriend), and if you are a quiet thoughtful person then fraternity parties might not be the right place to look.
I am wondering if you need a better living arrangement in your current school, and also need to be involved in clubs that imply a social life without drinking. One option might be to join an outing club. Think about housing options, and look at the list of clubs that exist in your school and see if anything jumps out as interesting.
It does frequently take quiet thoughtful non-drinkers more than a year to settle in to a new place.
I don’t care if there are parties, I just care that are more like minded people. People who are more studious, the school I’m at is a complete party school and I didn’t know that at the time because I wasn’t mature enough go fully research the school and weigh all my options. I do have a girlfriend and she is transferring to UC Berkeley. So before at least I had her but now I have no one.
Is there an option to live off campus? If so, you might want to look for a house that is shared between multiple studious quiet students. Sometimes houses will advertise with this in mind.
Is there an honors program and if so can you get into it? Some schools have honors dorms where at least you know that the other students will be taking their studies seriously.
It must be a bummer having your girlfriend transfer to UC Berkekey.
If you want to transfer to a more academically-centered school, work hard to keep your GPA up and think carefully about alternatives. You might want to visit places over the summer when you are not in university.
Good luck with this.
Why not revisit some of those other schools that accepted you…Sienna in particular if they meet your requirements…have you looked at Mount St Mary in Newburgh NY?
There are studious people at every college. What about joining the honors program and living in honors housing? If your college offers that.
While people are offering you great potential solutions to your problem, transferring to another institution will definitely NOT solve your problem.
The first thing you should do before ANYTHING else is LEAVE YOUR FRATERNITY.