Should I transfer? & if I feel I should when is the best time for me to do so?

Transfer Students
1

I’m currently an undergrad freshman at a University located in Chicago. I’m now on break and have just finished up my first quarter there and I’m having doubts about staying. I feel as if people on campus are very individual, I don’t see any sense of community and it makes it extremely difficult to meet people. The last few weeks I have been considering transferring to a bigger school with more of a community (my top choice that I didn’t get into out of high school was Northwestern), though it sounds sad my biggest concern is that I just don’t have any friends. I have joined a greek organization as a last whim of hope for friends and just feel out of place, and other campus clubs aren’t really interactive. I just want to like being at school if that makes sense, I know a lot of people feel that school is a positive thing for them and they love it, while I feel the opposite.

How do you/did you know that you should transfer? I don’t want to make another bad decision by transferring to a school and then experiencing the same issues. Also, if transferring is what I end up doing, when is the best time for me to do so based on your experiences/what you know?

Any help would be greatly appreaciated, I’ really just very lost on this whole thing. I have an older sibling who attends a big 10 school and he loves it and I just want to have that same relationship with my University.

2

Did you find it easy to make friends in high school?

Do you have a job on campus that forces interaction with people? Food service & working in the college library ar good for that.

What is your major? Are there group projects that force interaction?

Why did you choose this university? Was it the only affordable admission, or did it offer some things that you preferred over other places where you were admitted?

3

I did find it pretty easy to make friends in High School we had a close knit community at my hs, while at my university people don’t really do things on campus.

And I did not get a job this quarter because I wanted to focus on getting acclimated, and I guess that didn’t really turn out for me.

Though my major has some group interaction, it’s not extensive.

I chose this University for the fact that it was near Chicago, and not really anything else. It is a private university so tuition is pretty pricey, though I got a scholarship price isn’t much different than if I were to go to a state school. At the time, I thought this university was right for me because it had the city, and I guess I didn’t really take into account much else. The reason I chose it over other institutions I applied to was location, I just didn’t want to be in a rural area I guess…