I rushed into picking my college. I picked my college based on my not wanting to put in the work to look for a school I liked. I figured that I would just figure it out and that it doesn’t really matter what school you go to. I didn’t tour the campus or do any research into what the school was like. I saw that it was an easy school to get into and that I didn’t have to write an essay and immediately sent in my application. For the rest of high school, I just relaxed and watched my friends freak out over what colleges they were applying to.
It is now my 4th week of college life, and I really hate my school. I feel socially isolated. One thing that I found out about my campus is that it is a commuter school. The entire campus is dead on the weekends, no clubs, no events nothing is happening. I chose to live on campus and the only dorm owned by the school on campus has around ~300 people probably even less than that. I don’t really have the desire to be friends with my roommate, and I don’t think he really has the desire to be friends with me. We both just kind of do our own thing which is nice. I haven’t met or talked to any of the people on my floor because I hardly see them.
I figured that I would just have to join some clubs in order to make so friends but all of the clubs on my campus are diversity based (i.e. (insert race) student association), or none of them relate to my major. The ones that do relate to my interest have their own problems, I joined a few (most of which never posted where or when they meet, so I ended up emailing them), and they either conflict with my class schedule, or provided no response.
I also hate my campus, I was hoping to be in a nice campus with big trees and open spaces, historical buildings and a peaceful atmosphere. No, my campus is basically a giant office park with sad patches of grass and a very erratic atmosphere.
Right now, I currently have plans to transfer to a bigger, non-commuter campus next year and work from there, however I am worried about my ability to transfer credits. Thankfully this semester I decided to adjust more to college by taking fewer classes (which I also hoped would give me the time to make and hang out with friends, but if you couldn’t tell its not really working out).
Basically my plan is this,
-Finish this semester with good grades
-Communicate with my counselor near the end of the semester about which credits will transfer to the school I want to go to.
-Register for classes for the spring semester that will transfer.
-Cancel my lease on the dorm and just commute from home (because I feel like staying on campus would just be a waste at this point if I don’t plan on staying at the school anyway)
-Continue to get good grades for the spring semester in order to increase my chance of my transfer application being accepted.
-Eventually be in the school I want for next fall semester.
The reason I am posting this here is because I want to know if this a good reason to transfer or if I am just overreacting? My school doesn’t have the campus life that I was hoping for, and I feel very socially isolated, am I just not trying enough, or is this a legitimate reason to transfer?