<p>I'm a freshman in college right now. I wasn't the best student in high school. People knew me for being very passionate in high school, but I was not as good of a student as I could have been. I ended up attending a top 50 LAC and really wanted to fall in love with it and forget about my dream school, an ivy (not hyp if anyone was curious), that rejected me. The resources here are amazing and I'm in love with my classes. The professors are all great at teaching and are among the best in their respective fields. So why am I considering transferring?
1) The atmosphere...the students are very laidback...to me, it seems too laidback really? It seems really common here to care more about doing drugs and partying than learning. I feel like in terms of class discussion I'm often either the most active or among the most active. In high school I was known for being that kid who loved learning, probing and obsessed over stuff in the field I want to go into...I really wanted that to change once I got here; I don't know if this was expecting too much but for some reason expected college to be different? I wanted to be surrounded by other kids who participate actively and are into these topics as much as I am. It's not like I haven't met anyone who doesn't seem passionate, but they seem to be within the minority. I'm still that weird passionate kid who always, or is sometimes the one who participates, and I guess that bothers me more than it should. Am I delusional in thinking this would be different in the schools I'm considering?
2) There's a very specific interdisciplinary field I've been obsessed with since freshman year of high school. I've gotten the privilege to see and study this at a higher level because of certain organizations I've done work for and certain awards I've won; even though switching majors is common I feel confident this is the route I want to go for in college. My LAC does not have this as a major. It does however have majors in fields that are part of the interdisciplinary major I want to go into. I've been told that a relevant undergrad education for this field is not absolutely necessary to go into it later, and by being active I've even managed a research position with one of the few professors at this school who does work in this field...but I really would like to spend my undergrad years going more into this specific field if I can, and I'd like the career opportunities other institutions offer with how they approach the major for this field.
3) There's an uncommon language I want to learn that my LAC does not offer. I do have a personal reason for wanting to learn this, and granted, if I tried really hard, I might be able to teach it to myself without formal classes...</p>
<p>Overall, I'm not miserable here and I do feel very grateful for the opportunities I've gotten...but I still think all the time if I would be happier somewhere else. Maybe I'm still caught up over having been rejected by more prestigious schools. (I know it's a stupid thing to be caught up over and I've been trying my best to get over it). I tried to be really thorough about my thought process here; when I told a couple of my high school friends I'm thinking of transferring they looked at me like I'm crazy and insisted I would fall in love with my school like everyone else in our class year has.</p>
<p>I guess this next thing could be a topic on its own, but I also want to know if it seems like I'd have any shot at all at the two ivy schools I'd apply to if I did decide to do transfer apps. Among other reasons, I chose these two schools because they are amongst very few in the nation that both offer the language I want to learn and have a major in the field I'm interested in. My school never ranked, but my guidance counselor told me I'm among the top 12% that made a weighted gpa over 3.8 (my guess is that I was near the bottom of that, but I'll never know for sure). My uw gpa was a 3.6. I definitely think I can get over 3.9 this year at my current school because I'm a better student now and my high school classes were a bit more difficult than the courses here, including two higher level classes where I'm the only freshman and everyone else is a junior or senior. (Not to say the classes here are a joke or anything; a lot of it is that I'm finding classes easier to do well in because the subject matter of what I'm taking is stuff I'm passionate about). If I'm being overly optimistic, I might even be able to land above a 4.0 since one of my professors has extra credit opportunities for some reason.
My sat was 2300+ and my CR and Math were higher than writing. I had so many B's even quite a few in junior year, but my senior year was all A's despite increasing rigor. I had a lot of leadership in HS, and have gotten into some leadership spots at student organizations in my current institution already.</p>
<p>I've just been feeling lost about all this. Some advice would be appreciated.. Am I just being too picky and expecting too much out of college overall?</p>