Looking for a Change. Suggestions?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>Wow, it's been a while since I've been on these forums. I am 20-years-old, soon to be 21. 3 years ago, as a high school senior, I decided to attend UC Berkeley. Before I started my studies here, I took a gap year and worked full time for an Americorps nonprofit organization as a tutor, mentor, and teacher's aide at a middle school in Washington DC.</p>

<p>This is currently my second year at UC Berkeley. Unfortunately, I decided during my first year that Berkeley was not my place, and had thoughts about transferring. I never went through with it though, thinking that the second year would be a lot better. And it is, but ultimately, I've decided that I want a change, and if it is financially and logistically possible, I want to finish off my college career elsewhere.</p>

<p>What I'm looking for in a school:</p>

<p>-Smaller than Berkeley (<26,000). I know some LACs have like <1000 people. That might be pushing it for me, but I think <10,000 would be ideal.</p>

<p>-Strong sense of closeness and community.</p>

<p>-School pride. The thing about Berkeley is that many people have a sort of self deprecating, sarcastic attitude about Berkeley. I guess I want to be around people who really love their school.</p>

<p>-Socially and extracurricularly active. I'd definitely prefer a school where most people are invested in things outside of school work, be it sports or arts. And yeah, while I'm not going to college to party, I'd want to be at a school where people like to have fun and let loose on the weekends.</p>

<p>-Strong psychology program. I'm a psychology major, and Berkeley has a great psychology program. I'd like to find a school with a comparable psychology program.</p>

<p>-Other academic interests of mine: English, foreign languages (Chinese, Arabic, Korean), Film</p>

<p>Yes, well, I would really, really appreciate any suggestions you may have. Let me know if there is any other information that would help you guys come up with schools. It's been a few years since I've researched different schools, so I've forgotten a lot of what I know, and I'm open to all suggestions. Don't feel compelled to type out a very long response if you don't have the time. If you are busy, please just type out a few suggestions, and you can count on me to research these schools on my own time.</p>

2

<p>Problem is, your wish list is somewhat difficult to fulfill. A strong and deep psychology department, and good offerings in your other areas of interest, are more commonly found in larger schools, but you prefer a smaller school.</p>

<p>Also, doing lower division at a large school and upper division at a small school is more likely to maximize the disadvantages and minimize the advantages of each type of school.</p>

3

<p>Could you consider transferring to UC Merced? I know, I know - CA students seem to dislike it, so it wouldn’t fulfill your “sense of pride” criterion, and going UCB->UC Merced would be, erm, a bold move, but it’s much smaller than UCB (~5,000) and it has a good psychology department with access to professors and research as an undergrad.
Check out Truman State, too, to see if their Psych dept is up to what you want. It’s smaller, close-knit, students are proud of their school. They have Chinese and offer a French immersion camp for intermediate level students but no Korean or Arabic.
(You must realize that finding a psych dept like UCB’s is going to be very difficult anywhere. it will also be difficult to find a small college that offers Korean or even Arabic.)</p>

4

<p>ok…i just replied to your other thread…and I found you in this one now…Now that I know a bit more about your major and background, have you considered [Colleges</a> That Change Lives | Changing Lives. One Student at a Time.<a href=“Colleges%20that%20change%20lives”>/url</a>. Maybe one of those could be a good fit. Again, cost is a definite consideration. [url=&lt;a href=“http://www.ctcl.org/colleges/list]CTCL”&gt;http://www.ctcl.org/colleges/list]CTCL</a> Members | Colleges That Change Lives](<a href=“http://www.ctcl.org/]Colleges”>http://www.ctcl.org/)</p>

5

<p>And these are the key words in your first post.

Can you afford to attend a LAC? Don’t count on any merit $ as a transfer student.</p>

6

<p>I would look at Clark University in Worchester MA - great small Psychology school with a lot of diversity and community involvement. Might be too small but look at it. Great research opportunities</p>

7

<p>tganns, wasn’t Clark where Freud first came to America? and didn’t he and Jung begin there falling out there. yeah, a long history of investment in the psychological at Clark.</p>

<p>I think one piece we don’t have of R&Rs transfer plans is how he did at Berkeley and in psychology in particular. What kind of GPA did you have, R&R?</p>