Hi I am currently in my spring quarter of my first year at UCLA and while I have had some good times I am generally unsatisfied and am considering transferring. I am seeking advice for if I should leave UCLA this year/next year. My main problem with the school is that it has been hard for me to make friends. People seem to be very fake and superficial and the ones that aren’t fake are in friend group cliques that won’t let me in. I didn’t have a lot of friends in high school either though, so I don’t know if this is just a flaw in myself that I should accept, or if changing schools would help. If I switched schools it would probably be to a smaller school like University of Redlands, Pomona College, UC Riverside, or Occidental. I am currently a marine biology major but I could switch to biology or environmental science.
So should I transfer to another college or would that not improve my chances of making friends? Or should I stay at UCLA and just hope I’ll eventually make friends through clubs and stuff and if I don’t make any then just suffer through it until I graduate?
the deadlines for applying to be a xfer student this upcoming fall have largely passed. If you want to leave ucla now it would likely be to attend a CC this fall.
You should also take advantage of the counseling services offered at ucla which I believe are free to students. Many colleges, and I expect ucla as well, offer individual counseling as well as group sessions aimed at improving social skills.
As for whether or not a transfer would improve you chances of making friends, nobody out here can possibly know. It depends on the reasons you haven’t made friends and we don’t know you (nor are we mental health professionals qualified to opine on why you have not).
I think that it is much tougher to make friends as a sophomore/junior transfer, and that the small/big school aspect doesn’t really matter; you won’t be gaining much if you are transferring solely for social reasons! I think that if you like your classes and major and UCLA in general, that you should seek other ways to find your comfort zone with friends besides transferring. I realize that making friends can be difficult for many different reasons, but I don’t think that a transfer is going to solve your problem 
“Bloom where you are planted…”
There is no secret island where they get small college students from. They’re going to be just like the kids back at your HS and at college now.
I am currently in the process of applying to University of Redlands next year although I’m still not sure if I’ll go.
Can anyone give their opinion on whether making this switch will significantly hurt my chances of employment/quality employment if I want to be a researcher for a pharmaceutical company or get a masters after and be a Clinical Laboratory Scientist (research in labs and hospitals)?