Should I transfer after this first semester?

Transfer Students
1

I would like to begin by apologizing for the incredibly long story, but it’s all relevant to understanding where I’m coming from, and what I’ve been experiencing.

I am a freshman at Eckerd College, just out of St.Petersburg, Florida. It is a tiny liberal arts school with 2,000 students and looks like paradise from an outside viewer. I fell in love with the lack of red brick buildings, the on-campus beach, the fact that I could bring my cat, and the party culture of the school. If you search “Eckerd College Parties” on youtube, you’ll see exactly what I mean by party culture. When I was deciding my colleges, there was a lot of family drama going on in my life, and I decided that I wanted to go to a school insanely far away. I didn’t even look at a single school in my state, which is insane because I live right outside of Chicago. I didn’t even look at schools that were in cities, I just looked for far away and paradise-looking. Because of this, I’ve found in my first 10 weeks of school that I chose the wrong college for myself. I’ve made a large effort to immerse myself into the campus life, and that has just made me more miserable. I’ve joined 8 different clubs, just to see if I can find people with the same interests as me and become active on campus, and even when I come from my Pet Council meeting and feel great, I still wish I was somewhere else. The campus is really shut off from the world, and there isn’t much around if you get off campus. To get to the nearest small city, you have to drive 20 minutes. I don’t have a car, so that means paying for an Uber, which I can’t afford to do every single weekend. There are parties every single night, because there isn’t anything else to do on campus, and a vast majority of the school drinks and does various drugs. There are 5-6 ambulances on campus every night because people OD or get alcohol poisoning. I don’t drink because alcoholism runs in my family, and it’s really hard to enjoy parties when everyone else is black out drunk. I’ve also really been struggling academically. Because the school is so small, the classrooms are really out-of-date. Most of my professors still use over head projectors and chalkboards. To add to that, one of the reasons I chose this school was because my parents wanted me to go into the natural sciences, which Eckerd is known for. But I changed my major the second I got on campus and have fallen in love with psychology. Not only does Eckerd not have a great psychology department, but there is never any research going on because all of the funding goes to the science professors, as that’s what most students are into. I’m getting easy A’s and not even trying, and I’m in two 200 level courses. To add onto the social and academic problems, I also really, really miss being in a city with so much diversity and culture. My school is 80% white conservative people that are all pretty ignorant. Usually I’m really open to other people’s views, as I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, but I can’t stand listening to people that base their opinions off their wealth and have no knowledge of politics other than what their parents told them.

I’m really thinking of transferring at the end of this semester. DePaul University in Chicago seems to be the perfect college that I never checked out, and they accept transfers for both their Winter and Spring quarters at the end of November. The school is in the city that I love, it’s a large enough population that there is a ton of diversity, and they even have a Psychology program where you can graduate with your Bachelors and Masters in 5 years. I scheduled an appointment with a transfer counselor at the school while I’m visiting in October, but my parents are totally against it. They think I’m not trying hard enough and that I should stay for the year. But, I’m paying so much to go to this school that I feel like it isn’t worth it to stay another semester when I could transfer. I feel so depressed and isolated right now, and I feel that way even when I’m having fun or coming from an activity I should enjoy. Should I transfer at the semester or just stick it out through the year? And does anyone have any advice on DePaul or schools in Chicago that are good for transfer students? Thank you so much!

2

Since you have never even visited DePaul, I think your parents are right. Visit it over Winter Break when you are home and see if it makes sense. If so, fill out a transfer app for next fall. Meanwhile, keep up your grades so it is easy to transfer.

And 8 clubs – to me it sounds like you are spread so thin that you can’t spend enough time to get to know people. Find a few more time consuming activities that interact with people. Cut back on superficial commitments. You may find your tribe or you may not. But a knee jerk transfer to a school you haven’t even visited is a mistake.

3

So do mine, at a school with 46,000 students.

4

@intparent I’ve done a campus tour at DePaul. When I said I never checked it out, I mean I didn’t apply to it because it was too close to home (and I was, mistakenly, trying to escape). I loved the campus when I went, but I didn’t apply or even consider it as a choice because of the location.

For the clubs, my school has very low club activity. So, I’m in 8 clubs, but only 4 of them really meet on a regular basis. The other four meet once a month, or so.

I really appreciate your advice, my goal is to not make a decision purely off emotions or a “knee jerk transfer” which is why I’m, at least, waiting until the semester is over to make my decision.

5

Did you visit classes at DePaul? You may very well find overheads and chalk boards there, too. That does not mean that professors aren’t knowledgeable or doing a good job. We see lots of students out here who are unhappy in their first couple months on campus. By spring break, a lot of them have changed their minds (and their majors more than once). That is why I’d suggest that you stick out the full year.

6

I did visit classes at DePaul, and they had projectors and white boards. I was actually able to participate in a lab with an Environmental Studies class, and I absolutely loved it. However, I also realize that the worth of a professor is not defined by the classroom they teach in. At this point, I think I’m going to wait until November and then consider the transfer question again. My academic mentor at my current school pointed out that if I still feel as depressed and unhappy in November, or if it gets worse, then it probably won’t improve and I’m better off transferring. My only worry about sticking it out for the full year is that Eckerd is a liberal arts school with many b.s. required classes that won’t count for credit if I were to transfer. I’d be scared of being more behind if I transfer after the year and only have 4 classes that will be accepted for credit at any school I apply to.

7

Hey…I’m a freshman at Eckerd too. I’m kind of in the same boat as you right now, hence why im here and came across your post. Message me if you wanna get together sometime and talk about it!