Should I transfer or stay?

Transfer Students
1

I’m currently a freshman pre-med at a small private school in Texas, and I’ve been contemplating the idea of transferring since my first semester. I didn’t want to transfer that early though because I wanted to give myself more time to get adjusted and find my place on campus. I kind of did; I am part of university ministry and serve on staff for the religious retreats, and I am also in a sorority in which I recently got a leadership position. I genuinely love both of those things about my college, but I believe they’re the only things I love about it unfortunately. I came to that specific school because I thought the science department was strong, but after being here for a year, it’s apparent that that’s not the case. This brings me to the reasons I want to transfer:

  1. I don’t really like how small it is. Before college, I thought I wanted a small school, but now it feels too small. There’s not much to do on campus and I can’t drive either which has been leaving me feeling really unsatisfied.
  2. The science department isn’t as strong as I thought it was. Many of the professors don’t care, aren’t good at teaching, and both of the ochem professors we have are absolute hell. I emailed my professor asking for help about registering for his upper level class next year and he ignored my email (he sent the whole class an email after I had sent him mine).
  3. I feel like we aren’t told anything. No one explained how to pick our rooms for next year, literally EVERYONE was confused, we were only given 10 minutes to decide, and so now I ended up with a bunch of girls who clearly don’t want me living there.
  4. The registrar and science dept are very unorganized. Since I’m a freshman by credit, everyone got to register before I did. Because of this, I couldn’t get two essential classes I NEED for my major. Also, they only have two cell bio classes with 20 seats each as if there’s ONLY 40 people who need to take that class. When I emailed about this, they said they were opening more seats and that I’d get an email notifying me when they do. Today is the last day of freshman registration and neither me or my friends have received any mail or notification about open seats or sections.
  5. There’s no diversity. I don’t know if this is a dumb reason, but I come from a very diverse city and love being around people from all walks of life (I actually feel a lot more comfortable in diverse environments). People have been racist to me a few times, which has made me feel really unwelcome and upset.
  6. There isn’t a very wide selection of majors or organizations to join. I want to minor in dance or join a dance organization, but we don’t have that.
    Should just stay and stick it out? Or should I transfer? Will med schools look down on me for doing so? Will it prevent me from getting into JAMP?
2

Med schools will be fine with you transferring. Don’t worry about that.

You have had a good year at this little place, but from your description it looks to me like you would be happier overall at a bigger place. Is there still time to apply for transfer to one of the public universities in your state? Those could be good choices. Even though they have their own administrative issues, they usually offer more majors (and more courses in each major), have a wider variety of activities available, and have a more diverse student population.

3

Transfer deadlines are often later than you might think and there are more than one each year for most schools. This year, because of COVID, the deadlines for applying might be even later. Check with the schools. My thought behind this is that the schools use transfers partly to fill slots that remain open after freshmen accept and their existing students transfer or leave for other reasons. This year the F class size is in flux more than usual because of COVID. As a result, some schools might have also pushed back transfer deadlines. It’s worth an email to find this out.