Not fitting in at USF and looking to transfer

I’m originally from NYC and lived in florida for two years before deciding to go to school at USF with my boyfriend. In hindsight not the best decision. I haven’t made any friends and just haven’t really found any compatible people. When I lived in NY it was quite easy for me to make friends or at least find groups I fit in with. I’ve found people at USF a little more close-minded and hate to say it but boring compared to New Yorkers. Don’t mean to be rude.

I’m pretty set on transferring but I know it’s hard to transfer as a freshman.
I was wondering if maybe there were more different(cosmopolitan, open-minded) people at other florida colleges like maybe UF or Umiami?
I was also wondering if there are any colleges that New York kids tend to enjoy?
Unfortunately most of the people I knew from NY went to schools I could never get into.

What do you want to study ?

Also, your stated requirements are too subjective &, possibly, more reflective of your current state of mind due to your personal relationship than due to actual incompatibility with thousands of other students. If correct, than any change of school with a large student population should help.

Hey, thanks for replying. I thought I wanted to study psychology but I found it quite boring and now I’m just trying to stay on a pre-med track while I figure out my major.

I have been getting depressed recently so yes I think my state of mind might skew my opinion a little bit but during the beginning of the year I really put a lot of effort in and started up conversations with strangers and made plans but no one really was compatible and I never really “clicked” with anyone. A lot of people my age seem so much more immature than people my age from NYC. The only people I came close to clicking with were 21 or older.

@Publisher

There are lots of students from New York at the University of Miami, but the tuition is much more than that at USF. Miami’s annual tuition–just tuition–exceeds $50,000 per academic year versus $6,400 for most Florida public universities.

I think that it is important to state whether cost of attendance is a significant factor for you. If so, then you probably need to focus on Florida public universities.

@publisher
Thanks for replying again. Tuition is not really an issue. I’d much rather have huge loans than be depressed and lonely.
Do you think there would be more NY type people at UMiami?

Yes, I think that there are more NYC type students at UMiami than at USF in terms of percentage of students. Miami has 55% non-resident student population while USF main campus only has six (6%) per cent non-Florida resident student enrollment.

Don’t take out large loans to attend Miami as you are likely to regret it after graduation and for many decades thereafter. This can affect eligibility for jobs, purchase of a home & whether or not someone would be willing to enter in a serious long term relationship with one heavily in debt.

The maximum you can take out in student loans without a parent co-signer is: $5500. So unless your parents are willing to pay, you may have to re-think the loan strategy.

Also note that financial aid for transfer students is often far less than for new freshman. So please do keep this in mind.

Thanks for the advice. I think I’m going to apply to a few schools, not just UMiami and see what is possible.
Do any of you have any schools you would suggest? @sgopal2 @publisher
Also do you think University of Florida would be any different? or FSU?
I think the kind of people I’m looking for are more open-minded, cosmopolitan, non-judgemental people. Maybe more intellectual type peers.

Ucf has a very cosmopolitan vibe IMHO. The size of the school and location as part Orlando might make an interesting choice based on what you have discribed.

Sounds like you want a college in an urban area with rigorous academics. Fortunately there are plenty of options: Northeastern, Boston U, NYU, Columbia, Baruch, UChicago, UPenn, Drexel, George Washington, USC, UCBerkeley, UCLA, Rice.

Best of luck

@sgopal: I think that the OP is trying to stay in Florida due to the very, very low resident tuition rates.

If you apply to the state flagship school of your home state you are almost guaranteed to fit in because the school will be filled with people just like you with shared experiences. So if NYC feels like home transfer to one of the NY states, NYU or,my recommendation, Rutgers. I met some one whose daughter went to university of Miami and found the Florida schools to be completely non intellectual and uninteresting and transferred back to NJ to one of the state schools not even Rutgers and found it much more intellectually satisfying. There is also the NY city university system which is excellent and Fordham

If USF is not urban enough for you, I don’t think any of the other schools will be either. Gainesville is a much smaller town than Tampa. Maybe Florida International, which is near Ft Lauderdale and Miami to get your big city vibes.

My daughter went to Florida Tech (private) and I swear every other kid I met was from NY or NJ. I can’t say I found them more intellectual or interesting or cosmopolitian, but they were from NY and NJ. I’m sure you would have found my daughter immature and boring because she was 17 and spent almost all her time studying. I thought she was a typical college freshman.