I'm unhappy with my school, but is it too late to escape?

Transfer Students
1

<p>Hi, everyone. Sorry for this long message, but I have a somewhat complicated dilemma and I was hoping to get some advice.</p>

<p>I'm a first-year student Georgia Tech, and I'm very unhappy so far--academically, at least. It turns out I don't have much of an interest in engineering, plus the school has everything I'd wished to avoid: poor teaching, an extremely competitive academic environment, arbitrarily difficult work, a bureaucratic administration, and students who don't care about learning and are constantly complaining. And the school actually upholds all these things under the pretense that it facilitates "faster learning" in the workplace. It's just a bad match for me.</p>

<p>I was already considering transferring, but now I've made up my mind. I'm looking at a long list of selective schools, mostly on the liberal arts side. I know I'm the caliber of student they'd want, but I'll be the first to admit I've done nothing since high school to show it. During my first semester at GT, I became depressed and apathetic about my schoolwork, so my grades are nowhere near what they "should" be, and although I had a short career as a varsity athlete that took up most of my time, I haven't gotten involved in many extracurricular activities since then.</p>

<p>I'd like to avoid sending my college transcripts at all. I don't feel that I've learned anything of value in college (other than math), and I don't intend to seek transfer credit. But since that's the case, will I even be allowed to apply for transfer? I'd be no different than a freshman. (I do have a lot of AP credits, if that helps.) </p>

<p>My current plan is to apply for transfer to a whole bunch of schools for the Fall 2010 term and hope that at least some of them can understand my situation. I don't want to have any kind of safety school; I'd just end up unhappy somewhere else. I'll finish out next semester at GT as nicely as I can and try to find something to round out my activities. I've also been wanting to travel and do charity work overseas for a while, and this summer seems like the appropriate time to do so.</p>

<p>Regardless of the outcome of my applications, I don't intend to return to Georgia Tech next year; if I'm not accepted anywhere, I'll take a year off and continue to travel abroad and study independently, then apply as a freshman in 2011 with a much better resume.</p>

<p>I'm planning to email admissions departments at my top choices and see what they advise, but I wanted to get some general feedback first. Will some of the more open-minded colleges be willing to turn a blind eye to my college GPA, or will they insist that I improve my resume? I just can't help but feel that my window for attending a better school has closed.</p>

<p>Any advice is appreciated.</p>

2

<p>Just so you know, you will not be able to apply as a freshman in 2011. You will have to apply as a transfer, as you will have completed some college-level coursework by the time you apply.</p>

<p>You can of course pretend that you never went to college, which would be fraudulent on your part, and may get you in a lot of trouble if schools find out.</p>

3

<p>You will have to disclose this semester’s transcript to where ever you apply next. If you are really miserable at GT why are you going back for spring semester? If you are on the engineering track, your engineering courses may not transfer to liberal arts schools. You might have better luck taking classes that will actually transfer at a community college. If you are determined to finish out the year, have you considered transferring out of the college of engineering?</p>

4

<p>As a current student of Georgia Tech, I’d encourage you to stay.</p>

<p>I’m a math major here, which is relatively uncommon. I think if you stay clear of the engineering majors, you escape many of the problems you listed in your post, especially if you get up into the higher-level courses. There are a lot of people who are interested in learning for learning’s sake in some of the less common majors. There are a lot of committed professors who take a personal stake and a genuine interest in your learning in the math department (and in many of the other departments, I’d imagine).</p>

<p>I hope you reconsider staying at Tech. Most people end up liking it here. Really.</p>

<p>At any rate, if you do end up transferring to another college or taking a year off, I don’t think you’d be able to avoid sending your freshman grades, so the best course of action would be to tighten the belt for the rest of this year to try to make up for first semester.</p>

5

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<p>It’s good to hear that, because if I stayed, I’d probably be changing to math (I’m trying to do 2406 and 2411 this semester). But I also want to study literature, which Tech isn’t too strong in…</p>

<p>In my introduction post I was focused on the academics here, but socially I’ve been very happy; if my academic experience improves (a lot), I’d consider staying.</p>

6

<p>If you only have one more semester at Tech and want to get a taste of what the academic experience is going to be like later on, try to take as many advanced-level classes as you are able. 2406 and 2411 are a great start. As a general rule, the higher up you go, the better the classes get and the better the teachers get.</p>