<p>I am now into the second semester of my freshman year of college and I am—quite frankly—miserable. </p>
<p>In the interest of remaining anonymous, I have decided against revealing the name of the college I am currently attending, but I will say that it is a highly regarded private college. I hope refusing to reveal such information will not have me offending anyone—this is not meant to tantalize and I am honestly just seeking your advice. </p>
<p>So here goes:</p>
<p>I was quite convinced that the college I’m currently attending was the best place for me when I was accepted to the school via early admission. I accepted the offer of admission shortly after I received it. Unfortunately, things have not been anything like what I expected they would be. </p>
<p>The personal education that was promised in almost every pamphlet I poured over during high school has in reality been an incredibly impersonal one. Considering that this is a very small campus and low student to faculty ratios are often bragged about, I have found the class size reality to be sort of, well…shocking. For example: There are 25 students in my English course and 30 students in my History course—my high school class sizes were smaller and I went to a very large public school! These sizes are nowhere near what the school advertises, and what makes things worse is that the students in the classes are not nearly as interested in learning as I thought they would be. I’m just really disappointed because I longed all throughout high school to be surrounded by people who were just as passionate about their studies and just as interested in having intellectual discussions as I was, but I have not found that to be the case here. There are a lot of “math geniuses,” but I haven’t found there to be very many people who are genuinely interested in having pure intellectual discussions—especially when a professor isn’t there counting participation points. </p>
<p>Just in terms of the social stuff: I have a close group of friends, but none of us are interested in partying and I am not interested in drinking (which is basically all that there is to the social life here from Wednesday evening through Sunday afternoon). I've tried to branch out a bit and meet new people by attending club meetings, participating in an intramural sport, and even going to one or two parties and just refraining from drinking at them, but nothing has helped me to feel like an accepted member of the community. People are very cliquish and club meetings are not well attended, so making new friends with similar interests is not easy. </p>
<p>Homesickness is also a problem for me at this point. I was born in Oregon and grew up in California and I decided early on in my college process that I wouldn't be applying to schools on the West coast, simply because I was eager for a change and the Northeast had always appealed to me. Of course, now that I've spent a bit over a semester at a school on the East coast, I miss my family and California more than anything. When I went back home during winter break I realized that I'd been taking California for granted all along and now I desperately want to go back. I tried going to the counseling office here a few times, because my parents said that I had to try to stick it out, but that didn't really help. </p>
<p>I have always been interested in Pomona, but because I really wanted a major change in geographic location, I didn’t really think about applying to a school on the West coast. Now, all I want is to return to California and I feel like Pomona has a lot of what I hoped the school I’m currently attending would have. </p>
<p>I know that the applicant pool for Pomona is very strong and I know that it’s extremely difficult to gain admission. I suppose what I’m wondering is: does it seem like Pomona would be a good fit for me (am I a good fit for Pomona)? Your opinions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!</p>