<p>I'm currently a freshman at University of Alabama. I was accepted to Boston College, UW-Madison, and a few other decent schools, and waitlisted at Emory and WUSTL. I chose UA because of a full scholarship.</p>
<p>I am unhappy here, and I know that this is not the right school for me. I always do a lot better if I'm challenged, which I wasn't here. (eg My grades improved dramatically during high school when I transferred from a public school to a first tier boarding school.)</p>
<p>My goal is to transfer to a school that is much more focused on academics, with an environment more conducive to studying, because I believe that's why my grades are suffering here. Preferably a smaller private school (not too small -- my ideal would be the 3,000 - 6,000 students range).</p>
<p>The problem is that my grades aren't good enough to get into the type of school I want to transfer to. My GPA for first semester should be exactly a 3.0; due to reasons I won't get into, I'm only taking 11 credits. I have a B+ in English 210, A- in French 201, and C in an 100 level science course (science is definitely not my strength). Next semester my grades should be much better; I'm taking English 205, English 206, French 202, Polysci 101, and Art History 252. My major is English.</p>
<p>I'm fairly involved on campus (in the honors college, in a sorority, and have completed about 30 hours of community service first semester). My SAT was a 2260 superscored.</p>
<p>What types of schools should I be looking at that I could realistically get into and that have the academic environment I'm searching for?</p>
<p>Since I’m assuming by challenge, you mean a top notch school, I’ll give you a list of schools where you might have an outside chance (because of your first semester grades).</p>
<p>Rochester
Brandeis
Case Western
Pepperdine
Wake Forest
Lehigh
UMiami
GWU</p>
<p>You will be much better off biting the bullet and staying through soph year. Three good terms and your SAT score will get you into the type of college you want. Applying now with a mediocre first term and a second term not completed probably won’t.</p>
<p>How are you going to handle the finances? There is far less merit money for transfers.</p>
That’s not necessarily what I meant; I don’t really care about prestige or rankings at all, but I care about being an environment where students want to learn and professors want to teach, preferably somewhere where classes are challenging and discussion-based. Thank you so much for the list.</p>
<p>
I agree that this is probably my best option, especially if I can raise my GPA significantly. My only concern is that SAT scores tend to mean less the farther along you are in college, right? If I transferred after sophomore year, colleges wouldn’t really pay attention to it as much as they would if I transferred after freshman year.</p>
<p>As for finances, I should be fine if I’m only paying for two years. My dad retired last year, so I’m hoping for some need-based aid if my family’s income is basically nothing, but I can probably make do without it.</p>