BC and Notre Dame are also schools I am looking at! 
@MYOS1634 Not certain what you mean by not other school not being as good as SFS. By what standard? SFS is famous but is also rather peculiar (in the sense that it is not, properly speaking, a traditional IR department). Columbia and Princeton have brilliant IR departments (Columbia Human Rights program is also world famous) but transferring is almost impossible. Tufts is very good and is probably a more realistic choice.
Hereâs an idea, do you like living in DC? If so, why donât you just transfer to the Elliott School at GW? It may not have the rep of the GU SFS, but it is still a great school. It might be an easier transfer than Tufts plus you get to stay in DC in very interesting times!
Well, thereâs Woodrow Wilson but you canât transfer there. Anyway, the issue isnât just âas good as SFSâ, but âas good as AND more conservative than Gâtown AND less âswampyâ.â
@londondad I have considered that but I feel that going to GW will simply be an extension of Georgetown. What I want is a total and complete course correction.
As far as my grades at Georgetown are concerned, they have been pretty good (A, A-, A+, A, A) for my first semester freshman year. Hopefully that is enough to transfer to another prestigious university.
Transferring to a prestigious university isnât âjustâ a matter of grades. They want to know WHY you want to transfer and in particular how your current institution doesnât meet your academic needs when they could. They want to avoid prestige-hunters and chronically-unsatisfied people. Arguing you need a more conservative, less establishment-conservative program/university/environement, when you apply to most of these, will not really work, since theyâre typically less conservative or as much âestablishmentâ as GâtownâŠ
@MYOS1634 my main argument was that I am looking for more ways to get involved outside the classroom and more opportunities to participate in extra-curricular activities. Georgetown makes it really hard to get involved outside the classroom because you have to âapplyâ to join clubs and it is the most retarded policy on the face of the planet, because it essentially limits students from pursuing their interests. It is this main reason that prompted me to transfer.
I appreciate your focus on the swampy conservative stuff, but I hope you realize that it is not a deal breaker, and I can survive regardless of how liberal/conservative the school is. All I want is to be in a place where I can pursue my interests without rows and rows of unnecessary of red tape to jump over (like at Georgetown) and in a place that is much less stifling and less political in nature.
ok that makes sense then. The point would also go over well. Just be ready for the schools to be as political and more liberal overall (except for Vanderbilt and Duke if you count all types of conservatisms.)
@bsadasiva16 Iâm not sure that GU and GW are that similar. GU has always been more insular, elitist and cliquey.
Given the GW campus set-up, their students tend to be more independent and get off campus to do
their own thing.
@MYOS1634 absolutely. I am fully aware that every college is going to have some kind of liberal slant wherever I go, so that is not the main issue. However, I firmly believe that a college with a better sense of community and more opportunities to get involved outside the classroom (along with a less stifling atmosphere) will be a better fit for me.
If not for the fact that GâTown makes it so hard to join clubs/get involved, I probably wouldnât even have initiated this transfer campaign.
@londondad I see your point, and I believe that if I had joined George Washington at the start of my freshman year I would have done very well there. However, my bad experience at Georgetown has unfortunately made the whole of Washington DC a bad memory for me, and if I were to go to GW (in the same city, albeit a different school), I will have trouble getting past my struggles at Georgetown given that I will still be so close by, and it will forever haunt me even if I do well at GW. What I need is a complete change of setting.
Furthermore, I am thinking that a college that resembles a college town (as supposed to being a college within a city) might be better for me as those places tend to have a better sense of community and more opportunities to get involved in some of the clubs.
Okay, fair enough. In that case, I would look seriously at Tufts. They have a great IR dept, Boston is a very politically active city and we really liked the Somerville neighbourhood near Tufts. Good luck and please let us know what you decide.
@londondad absolutely. The deadline for most of the transfer applications has just passed, and I should know the outcomes in Early May. Northwestern does it on a rolling basis, so I could hear from them as early as mid April! Will keep everyone posted on what my final decision is!
Not sure if deadline for JHU has passed but they, too, have an excellent international relations program.
@RenaissanceMom I sent in an application there too!!
You know, anything is what you make of it. If you transfer, you are not solving the problem. You are in a top program in the field that you are pursuing and unarguably in the best city for politics. The city of Washington D.C. is a city of opportunity and you should build on that. You could get internships to capitalize your time and get a job. Maybe get more involved within the college. Regardless of some of the conflicts that you are running into, it is all what you make of it. You went for a reason. Make it happen that way.
@Ivyleague2 Thanks for the feedback. I defer back to @momoftwins2017âs comment earlier in this thread, in which she mentions that the undergraduate experience has to be fulfilling and satisfying. While I fully appreciate the vast range of attributes Georgetown has to offer, it has become very clear over the past few months that the school is not the right fit for me- it has been almost impossible to get involved outside the classroom and has thus limited my extracurricular involvement, which does not bode well for future jobs. (Jobs nowadays will not only look at what college you graduate from, but they will also take a look at how you were involved at your college, and if I continue to be stuck at Georgetown, where it is impossible to join clubs and participate in extra-curricular activities), things will not look good for me post-graduation.
The social scene at Georgetown is also atrocious, and if you come here, you will see what I am talking about- everyone is constantly running in a million different directions and it has become impossible to get to know people as well. I firmly believe that a change of setting to a better fit, less closed off campus culture and better social scene will allow me to flourish once again.
However, having said that, I will have you know that I have not made any kind of final decision yet. It all comes down to which colleges end up accepting me, along with how my credits from Georgetown end up transferring. Also, I will not commit to anything until I have a thorough and proper visit of my prospective schools. Like you, Georgetownâs location in Washington DC and seemingly fabulous IR program sealed the deal for me, and I committed without visiting, which turned out to be a big, fat, mistake. As always, it is all about doing what is best for my college career- not all colleges are created equal, and it all comes down to finding a good fit so as to make my college experience a positive one.
^ @IvyLeague2 makes a good point. When I was at Catholic U many years ago, there were a number of kids who found the social scene there a bit pedestrian. Rather than transfer out, most of them stayed at CUA but spent most of their free time in DC working on the Hill, interning at the State Dept, working on campaigns etc. Most of these people did quite well, one of them is a current governor, another almost won a Senate seat a couple of years ago. So it is what you make of it.
Leaders of our nation now. Catholic U is probably a good college, but it is not comparable to Georgetown or any of the top 50 schools. So from this, we take that they became the governor of the state and attended a decent college. It is all what you make of it.
@badyork I understand that you have been paid out by the Georgetown GAAP/Tour guides association but there is no need to come on my thread to spew this propaganda at me. It is this exact same propaganda which made me decide to commit to Georgetown in the first place last year, and as you can see, it was a big fat mistake. I appreciate the time you took to write this 477 word post, but I suggest you direct your attention elsewhere and indoctrinate more high school seniors who are trying to decide on a college instead of me, who has already seen the ugly side of Georgetown, and unfortunately cannot unsee it