Should I transfer? And if so, to where?

Transfer Students
1

After stalking on this forum for about half a month, I finally decided that I should start preparing for my transfer application, if that is something truly worthwhile to consider.

Since my senior year of high school, I have been really into the idea of an open curriculum. At that time, I didn’t know what I want to do in college although I really liked biology and did some research during high school. Therefore, the idea of choosing whatever classes you want to take sounded extremely intriguing. I applied ED to Brown and got deferred, and finally rejected. After all my school decisions came out, my parents nudged me to choose a big university with a prestigious name. As an international student who wishes to come back home after finishing my education, I know that although prestige cannot prove anything, it is an important factor considered by HR if I want to find a decent job at my country. However, I believed that I still needed a college experience that is similar to what I would have had at Brown, so I ended up choosing a LAC that has very similar offerings.

However, after I committed to this school, several things had made me question if I had made the most informed decision. I was waitlisted by Barnard, and my counselor suggested that I should do a bit more research and write a letter of continued interest. Researching Barnard made me realize that as someone who grew up in a city, maybe I would want to position myself in a city environment. And that did become a minor thing that bothers me from time to time in my fall semester in college. My school is in a pretty lovely small town, but there is virtually nothing alive after it turns dark. Even during the weekends, there are only a few people on the street. Since I don’t have a car, I will have to walk twenty minutes to the nearest store to get groceries. Overall, it has been a bit boring to me, since I am really used to the convenient public transportation and fast-paced life back home.

Besides the geological location, another reason that made me consider transferring is the social one. I have had major struggles dealing with my identity as an international student throughout the semester. A really bad interview experience made me first realize maybe some people don’t want me to be on this campus: the interviewer refused to let me explain myself and literally said into my face that I should be grateful that I am allowed to study here due to the courtesy of the US government and the school, so I should not expect to have any equal opportunities as other domestic students do, and I should not expect to receive a green card after graduate (I didn’t even mention anything related to immigration to her). This incident made me realize that I should take a step back and re-examine my identity as an international student, and I came to the conclusion that my national identity and my culture matters a lot fo me. However, like many other international students I talked to, I didn’t feel like cultural diversity and the sense of global citizen matters at my school.

Other aspects of campus life also made me question how much will I learn from the on-campus activism atmosphere. From my personal experience, my school is fairly close to the left end of the political spectrum. I consider myself as a liberal individual as well, but I still feel worried because for most issues that are debated among the students, other opinions aren’t as pronounced as the liberal side. Although I don’t think that anyone has attempted to silence another individual with a different opinion, somehow I still feel like the fact that the student body is very much agreeing with itself is quite dangerous. I am aware that although my school is to some extent racially more diverse than its equals, students are not as diverse in terms of their educational background (a lot of them come from private high schools) and their socioeconomic status, therefore most people are very similar in terms of their political opinions. As one of the majority, I always wonder if I have enjoyed too much privilege of only hearing from people who basically agree with me all the time and missed the other side of the picture.

One last thing that made me seriously consider transferring is realizing that I might not be able to pursue my academic passions here. During this winter break (which I am still in now), I am participating in a research project that studies urbanization and population migration. This experience made me realize that I might want to pursue a major in urban studies, and after looking into some urban studies program, I feel pretty positive to say that this might be the most ideal major for me at this point. I took intro to sociology in fall and really enjoyed the course, but I don’t want to spend a lot of time learning about the US society since the knowledge won’t really apply if I go back to my country after graduation. Urban studies is a quite collaborative social science major, and it can offer a global perspective that I want. However, my current school will not offer such majors. There are a few courses related to urban studies, but they’re not well-rounded enough.

So here comes the dilemma: I could choose to stick with the social scene and the environment, since I am 80% sure that I will go to grad school and I know I can have something else then. However, I am not really happy at this school socially due to the lack of diversity, plus I will not be able to choose the major I am interested in. I would be allowed to design my own major if I want to, but still, I don’t think I can find many professors with a strong interest in urban studies, and I don’t know how to plan the research methodology class & the seminars into my schedule if my school doesn’t offer them at all.

Should I transfer? And if so, any recommendations?

Thank you so much for reading this exceedingly long post!

Something about me:
HS: weighted 4.42 GPA & upward trend, 1560 SAT, 6 APs, did two biology research and a research competition on sex education, activism club and theatre club

College: 4.0 from fall semester, joined an a capella group, member of an advisory board for international students, worked as a communication partner for people learning my native language, member of cultural club, member of clinical escort club, volunteer at metoo exhibition. Currently working on a project on urbanization and population migration during winter break

I am an international student and I don’t receive any financial aid from my current school, so tuition won’t affect my decisions

2

If you liked Barnard, you might like Bryn Mawr. Visit the website and read about the major in Growth and Structure of Cities. Here is a link: https://www.brynmawr.edu/cities/

Your reasons for transfer are solid. Go ahead and make some applications. If/when you get your acceptances, that will be the time to decide whether to stay or leave.

I think that it is difficult right now to find a good LAC that doesn’t have a majority left-of-center student body. Also, given the cost of private education in the US, the LACs have many more students from upper income backgrounds. If you want a broader mix of economic background and political orientation, then you should take a look at public universities. Which ones have some kind of recognition in your country (for a first job out of college)? Which ones have strong Urban Studies programs (for your possible major)? Could any of the various branches of City University of NY work for you? What about Temple in Philadelphia or Rutgers in New Jersey?

If you focus your possible transfer list on that major, I think you might find places that work for you.

Wishing you all the best as you work through your decision-making process.

3

In our house we operate on the principle that once somebody has given you 3 reasons why they don’t want to do something it is no longer about the reasons: they just don’t want to do it, and the rest is simply justifications. That’s how your post reads to me: ‘…and another thing I don’t like…and another thing I don’t like’. All very reasonable and rational (as you would expect from somebody at an academically selective school)- and all sounding like a lot of rationalizing. At the end of your post you boil it down to 2 elements:

If by diversity you mean international students, changing schools won’t fix that. The average in the US is 8-12% international students.

If by diversity you mean race/ethnicity, unless you change to a HBC or go to a larger university (LACs are rarely more than 5K students btw), you won’t fix that. Top options include Columbia, NYU, Rutgers, some of the UCs (asian or hispanic, depending on the campus), Stanford & MIT (asian)- but except Ga State (at 42%) the non-white populations are still only in the 20-30% range. You can look here for more examples: https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/slideshows/see-the-most-diverse-national-universities

If you mean economically diverse, you might like this interactive graphic from the NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/01/18/upshot/some-colleges-have-more-students-from-the-top-1-percent-than-the-bottom-60.html?auth=login-email

But net-net, you will have to work hard to find a really diverse LAC that meets your other requirements.

You may have really discovered that Urban Studies is your true passion- sometimes it really is love at first sight. But: you have been interested in this major for about 15 minutes- and you don’t know how your interest may evolve.

All that said, I agree with @happymomof1: you don’t want to be where you are, so look for places to transfer. Just try to work on what’s underneath all the things you mentioned above.

As for suggestions, I like happymom’s Byrn Mawr suggestion and you might try Barnard again and perhaps Pomona (or one of the other Claremont-McKenna schools)- but they aren’t great for economic diversity. You would like a lot of things about Vassar (diversity, urban studies), but probably not the location. As money isn’t an issue, if you don’t mind giving up the LAC part you could look at places like NYU, UCLA, UCB, for diversity, urban studies and urban.

Finally, a word of caution on urban studies: you really don’t know enough about the field at this point to assess the different programs, and there are several different paths and approaches. Don’t overweight an urban studies major as a decision metric unless and until you have done a lot more homework into what the major involves, what the typical pathways for students coming through that particular major at a given school are, etc. Even from your description of what you like about it, you may find that you have to actively shape/create your own major, within an ‘urban studies’ major, and possibly across another major.

4

Also agree with @happymomof1. Identify several schools that address your concerns and get the apps out for transfer. Make a decision once results come in. You may find yourself happier 2nd semester at current school, but it’s nice to have options. It’s unclear from your post if you’re looking for another LAC or would be open to a university. You might look at University of Rochester. Excellent school with an open curriculum. In a medium size city. Cold in the winter though! Their transfer deadline is March 15.

5

If you attend a school such as, say, Wesleyan, it would be challenging to find a college to which you could transfer that would offer a greater, or even a similar, academic level and range of opportunities. However, you’ve expressed a desire for an urban campus atmosphere and a well-developed urban studies program, aspects either missing or insufficient for you at your current school. My strongest recommendation would be that you reapply to Barnard, which, with a fairly accommodating 22% acceptance rate for transfer applicants, might welcome your continued interest.

6

Since cost isn’t an issue, and you have a good reason to transfer (major not offered) I think you should go for it. To echo the posts above, Barnard seems like it would be a good fit, and a probable acceptance. Not sure that transferring to another school will solve the “liberal bias in student activism” problem, especially at another LAC.

7

Agree that because you are a full pay student, you are free to transfer to a more suitable environment.

Consider Georgetown University and American University and George Washington University. All are in Washington DC.

8

Additional universities to consider:

Columbia University
Northwestern University
Vanderbilt University
Boston University
New York University (NYU)

While Bryn Mawr has a substantial population of international students, it may be too liberal (and too much of a liberal echo chamber in that conservative or non-liberal opinions are unlikely to be tolerated) and it is a very small school of just 1,350 students. The consortium doesn’t really affect much.

If you prefer an all female LAC, then consider Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, Barnard College or Wellesley College. However, I think that you will be much happier at a National University due to the breadth & depth of academic and social offerings.

9

Thanks everybody so much for their patient reply! I am truly surprised by how much kindness and support people have shown me here on the forum. I will definitely consider all of your advice. Good luck to everyone who’s applying to transfer, we’ve got this :slight_smile: