Need a new list of colleges

College Search & Selection
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<p>I'm currently enrolled at Trinity College and it's honestly miserable here. I'm trying to do everything I can to get into a new school as a transfer, but I'm not sure where I can actually get in as a transfer. I made a thread in the transfer section, but I know I never looked at the transfer sections when I wasn't transferring so I thought I would get a "second" opinion here.</p>

<p>I'm really looking for a college that's liberal and has an intellectual vibe. I originally wanted to go to Wesleyan, but I was rejected from there and Trinity was the best option for me financially. I was accepted to Macalester and rejected them (a decision I regret thoroughly). I realise as a transfer I can't actually be too picky and now that I know I'm not going to be home sick, I'm really willing to go anywhere in the country although I strongly prefer the northeast.</p>

<p>From high school I graduated with a 94 isn average, but held a 98-102 the last 3 years with one quarter being a 92. My freshman year was terrible. I've a 2100 on my SATs, I can retake if anyone thinks I should/am allowed. I really hate standardised testing and I think that's why my SATs were so low, I didn't put much effort in. I worked with a judge at the local country supreme court, I volunteered at a hospital and I had a few very meaningful clubs in which I help two officer positions. I plan to join the AMSA, Habit for humanity, Chemistry society, and the German club here.</p>

<p>Overall I just want a place I can be happy and find engaging academics. I'm mainly interested in physics and philosophy, but I'd like to go to med school eventually. I'm very liberal, leaning on socialism so I don't really want conservative schools. I thought that here there would be a bit of everything, despite the preppy bias, but it's just spoiled brats. Schools I'm considering right now: Wesleyan, Brown, Macalester, Columbia, NYU, Upenn, Cornell, Boston University, Brandeis, Colgate(too sporty)? Oberlin. </p>

<p>I realise this is a bit eclectic and not well organised, but I'm really at a loss for what to do. I can't even begin to describe how unhappy I am here, but I don't want to complain. I want to work to fix it.</p>

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<p>You’re not going to want to hear this, but you need to be patient with Trinity. Somehow it made it onto your list and you chose it over macalester. Almost all freshmen are freaked out this time of year. It goes with the territory. You’re lonely. Your room-mate is a git. You’re homesick. The food is disgusting. The professors are clueless.</p>

<p>Write down all the reasons you wanted to go to Trinity. Unless you want me to think a good deal less of you, don’t ask me to believe there were none. :-j Are those reasons no longer the case? Did Trinity change? </p>

<p>Do the very best you can this semester because if you want to leave you’ll have to have high grades. Talk to your guidance counselor about where you might go. Realize that you’re unlikely to have the same FA if you leave Trinity; most aid goes to incoming freshmen, not transfers. And give yourself some time to adjust. College is not thirteenth grade, so there’s going to be a lot about it that seems unfamiliar and just wrong! Keep breathing, go to class, study when you’re not in class, and try to find some people who also are unhappy at Trinity. </p>

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<p>Thank you for your post Jkeil, and I appreciate it, but it’s not the typical freshmen shocker. I wanted to go to trinity originally because it was in the area I like, it was close to home, it had a nice campus, and I figured there would be a little bit of everything here. I actually don’t have a roommate, and I’m not homesick. I actually realise that because I won’t be home sick, I’m more willing to get out of the northeast. The food is actually decent, and I love my classes. It’s out of the classes that I can’t stand.
I also chose trinity over Macalester because I like the northeast, and it was 3k cheaper/year so I figured saving 12k over 4 years would be terrible because I thought they compared academically. </p>

<p>The reasons I don’t like it here: There is an insane amount of drinking, I can’t walk in the bathroom from friday-sunday without puke. The kids are, I don’t want to say dimwitted, but they’re not bright and it feels worse than high school. Many of my friends went to decent universities, like University of Chicago, cornell, Georgia Tech, and they’re all intelligent and engaging. I come from a diverse area and though I myself am white and not directly affected by it, I cannot stand the racism I hear about and see. It’s disgusting. The kids here act entitled to things and are disinterested in classes, and lack intellectual ambition. </p>

<p>I don’t want mean to bash the kids here, they’re just different and that’s fine, but they’re not the type of kids that I want to be with for the next four years or even next week. I also, don’t want to make it seem like I’m depressed. I love going to class, and I study most of the day. I’ve begun doing the multivariable calculus course on the MIT ocw and reading the feynman lectures in my spare time. </p>

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<p>quite an indictment, OP. call Macalester and ask for the admissions person who handles transfers. ask him or her what can be done and how soon if at all. ask him or her about costs. Do the same for some of the other schools to which you were admitted and where you would consider going. Talk to their financial aid offices.</p>

<p>ain’t Feynman great? </p>

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<p>His art for clarity is astounding, I’ve never read something so complicated in such a clear and interesting manner. He certainly was an interesting character and I think I’d like to read his books too. Thank you for the advice, I really hope they can do something. In the case that I can’t, how likely is it that I can get into schools like the ones I listed above? I know that’s up to a large amount of factors, but I’m so clueless to the whole transfer things. </p>

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<p>hard to say. schools have a number that they like to have in a class, and if they’re at quota then it will take students leaving to open a space for which you can compete with all the other students who want to transfer to that school that year. the schools with the highest first-year retention will be hard to transfer into. You can pretty much forget the ivies because not only do few students not return but there are more transfer apps there. You’re almost always better off making Trinity work. There are other students at Trinity who feel the way you do–go seek them out and see if you can find some friends among them.</p>

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<p>I suppose I’ll have to see how it goes. I still would like any recommendations or advice for other people reading this thread</p>

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<p>I forget where I read this so PLEASE don’t accept this advice without verifying but I believe that if you withdraw early enough in a term, you can then enroll somewhere else as a freshman again without qualifying as a transfer. I don’t know if Macalester lets people start in the winter term but you could look into it. I also don’t know if you would get any money back from Trinity.</p>

<p>I honestly think your best bet is transferring to Macalester or sticking it out at Trinity. I could see you having issues with a number of the other schools on your list. If you don’t like preppy, getting out of the east coast is a good idea. The entire mindset in the midwest tends to be much more laid-back and unpretentious. Some of your other options may be liberal enough for you, but they may also be full of the “spoiled brats” you find annoying now. (Schools like NYU that are terrible with financial aid are not going to have a lot of socioeconomic diversity. Of course, some of the other schools on your list have deeper pockets and may do better in this regard.)</p>

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<p>I feel like when my D2 turned down Macalester two years ago, they made a point to leave to door open for her to transfer pretty easily the next year if she wasn’t happy where she went. I don’t have the letter any more, but I am pretty sure it said she could re-activate her application again without going through much additional process. I am sure they would want a transcript, though, so focus your attention hard on getting great grades this year so you are well positioned to transfer. And I don’t know if the FA offer would have stayed the same… and don’t recall that a mid-year transfer was mentioned as an option.</p>

<p>I do think you want to be a bit circumspect when you talk to colleges about transferring. Just say you don’t feel that the fit is there at Trinity, and you feel like a more challenging environment academically is what you are looking for. (I think that is true, since you feel like your fellow students aren’t at the level you would hope for, but I wouldn’t really say that). I do know a student who turned down Mac for another LAC a few years ago, then went to Mac for her sophomore year. And… wasn’t happy at Mac and transferred again. But I think this is a student who wouldn’t be happy anywhere… </p>

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<p>If you MUST get out of Trinity, there is the option of doing it now without costing you a lot of money. Each school has a deadline by which you can effect a full withdrawal and still get a high percentage of your money back. I don’t know if that’s passed for Trinity. However, it would be nice if you had somewhere to go, if not this semester then in January. OR you could withdraw and then work on getting into Macalester either right away or in January. Worse comes to worst, you can take a year off and re-apply. This I think should be your last option unless you feel you are not safe there, and I’m not hearing that.</p>

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<p>It’s not that I’m in an unsafe environment, but more so that I’m painfully unhappy. I thought about doing what you said, but the time already passed for trinity. I think I’m pretty set on staying here for the year and transferring for next fall. I really just need ideas of what schools I can get into. I agree that the ivies are pretty much no chance, but I think I’ll apply to brown and Cornell. They’re my two favourite behind Columbia and I know their acceptance rates are a little higher. I would like to apply to 6-10 schools.</p>

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<p>This seems a more reasonable path. I’d still reach out to macalester right now and try to get out there to visit. Again, no detrimental comments about Trinity; emphasize why Macalester is right for you.</p>