<p>Hi I'm a freshman at SUNY stony brook, and I'm thinking of transferring for next or possibly junior year. I'm from one of those high schools where you take all AP track, 2300+ sats, etc. Coming from that environment to...Stony Brook...is a pretty big shift in terms of the types of people you meet. I don't really like it here so far, and a lot of the people I've met are potheads/partyers/(wannabe) gangsters. I came here over some more selective colleges because its location is convenient, and because I got a full ride. </p>
<p>Well I've been thinking and I feel like I should transfer to a selective/ivy college. But then again, I'm going here for free, and there's practically no competition. Should I just suck it up for the long term rewards?</p>
<p>It seems as though you were more interested in getting the free ride opposed to the higher education. </p>
<p>In the long run, transferring out may seem more appropriate for you if you were willing to pay the thousands of dollars to attend the ivy league/competitive schools.
Every college has its distinct set of party crowds but they also have their studious ones. You probably have not come across them yet. </p>
<p>If you want that better education and a tamer crowd, you should start putting in applications to see where you could potentially go. Start doing some research and start putting in applications in accordance to your current GPA, credits, wishes, etc.</p>
<p>i go to stony brook too! there are tons of smart kids who went to the same type of high school that you did at stony brook. as brianlee said, you just need to find them. there are the arrogant kids who don’t care about anything and are just glad to be away from home, but there are definitely people who take their studies seriously. that said, a lot of the kids in the hard core science classes and math and physics and engineering majors tend to be the more serious ones. some of the other majors are kind of hit or miss, so it just depends. it gets better as you go on. i’m a sophomore, and so far, this year has been a lot better.</p>
<p>How long have you been at SUNY Stony Brook? If I were you I’d wait for another semester and you don’t find “your crowd” then I would definitely transfer. There is no point being somewhere if you don’t fit and it’ll affect you. You could fall into depression, etc. The most important part of college is being able to go somewhere where you feel is correct. If you can get into an Ivy or private school then they might offer you good financial aid if you qualify, if you don’t then be prepared to fork up the mullah.</p>
<p>I don’t know Stony Brook well but in general:
the kids who are pre-med are serious students and the kids who work on the newspaper are interested in the world around them… and there are other subgroups of smart and interesting people throughout the school. If the only kids you are meeting are “potheads/partyers/(wannabe) gangsters” you are looking for friends in the wrong places.</p>
<p>If your classes seem too easy, sit in on some upper level classes in your favorite major; you may well find the upper level classes will be interesting and challenging.</p>
<p>I’m sure there are some colleges in the U.S. with few if any interesting classes and few if any smart students, but Stony Brook is not one of them. </p>
<p>Are you involved in any activities there?</p>
<p>wow, a lot of stonybrookers on this forum. i’m actually in a similar situation. went to a really good hs, and then ended up going to cuny mhc, because it was the only place that paid for everything(tuition,laptop, some extra money). it’s not a bad program in its own right, but it’s obvious the program was meant for kids with high grades from underperforming schools. i still have every intention of transferring because i am not happy (at all) here, and a full ride does not excuse this. since i’m international, i’ll have to pay in full, but i’ll pay back the 100K in debt in some way,even if it takes 20 years. i really want to make my college years special, and that means transferring to a college with a heft price tag, then so be it. i’ve already wasted a year here.</p>
<p>if you feel the same way, then you should definitely think about transferring, without factoring cost too much into your decision.</p>