Sophomore looking to transfer

Hey everyone. I am currently a college sophomore looking to transfer. Last semester, I decided to apply to transfer second semester and it was a pretty last-minute decision. I felt unsure because why should I transfer from a top-ranked university where everything is kind of good on paper because they’d supposedly offer all the academic opportunities I’d need?

I was in one of the schools of the uni I was currently at and felt restricted so even if there were opportunities to take literature courses (which is something I love) I didn’t get to know if I’d be able to access them because of all the core requirements (there were a ton because aside from core university requirements my school had a lot which my dean essentially strong-armed me into finishing first, and I probably won’t be done with them until junior year if I just focus on them). That was the reasoning I gave the colleges I’d applied to for transfer admissions. The thing is, my college was already selective so I thought that I might as well transfer “upwards” if I was going to do it which may have been a stupid choice.

I was able to sneak put a linguistics course into my schedule after switching deans and I know the reasoning I gave for transferring was quite shoddy but I am just NOT feeling my current university. The academics at my current school are good and I’d literally have a whole business career laid out ahead of me at the end of this. While I tried to love my current university, and I do have friends and extracurriculars I’m involved in, I just don’t love it. Also, the kids at my school are quite wealthy and preppy and there have been a few instances where people treated me in a way that made me uncomfortable (and as a POC there are many instances where they’ve been overtly racist, kind of like one of those @dearpwi stories. although as true as this is I’m not sure a college would accept this as a positive reason to transfer) I went to a high school that had many kids who came from really good backgrounds but in college there have been times where my literal skin crawled because of what was said/done even if it doesn’t represent the majority of students. I’m on an athletic team and honestly I felt pretty unwelcome and even ostracized (which could be racial but I’m going to assume the best for now). Maybe cause I’m not good enough at my sport since I joined the NCAA team once I was in college instead of being recruited?

I think my GPA was the main reason I was rejected last semester (especially since I applied to schools with less than 10% admittance rates) but also I know I had shoddy reasoning about how I didn’t want to be a business/econ major and wanted to focus more on my ultimate goal of becoming a writer. Except, look at me here now, an International Business major in my second year (but my thoughts remain the same). I’m worried the colleges I applied to last semester will think I’m full of crap cause I’m literally on the path to becoming the business major I said I didn’t want to become, although I added an English minor so now my Deans have to let me take literature courses.

What would be more helpful for these colleges to know this time around and will I look like a hypocrite if I apply again as the very thing I was trying to avoid? Honestly, I would have taken the other path once I’d transferred gladly but since I am in this pre-professional school and things just fell into place this is my school life if I stay at my current college. I know I could technically wait it out till graduation but I think that sounds like a pretty bad idea. I don’t want to waste my undergraduate years and I do not plan to go to grad school.

“my ultimate goal of becoming a writer”

So you want to be a writer.

Can you clearly and concisely articulate what you intend to major in, what you want in a university, and what you expect will be better after you transfer?

Sometimes transferring might be relatively easy, whereas transferring to a place that you like better and that is a better fit for you might be not so easy.

Another issue is that if you transfer when you are already half way through university, it can become hard to get to know people and to get to know your professors.

I did attend some highly ranked universities in the US. I can assure you that there will be a range of people and a range of personalities at any school. There will be someone you do not like at any school. I personally found more of this as an undergraduate student and less as a graduate student. Probably the issue is that as people get older they get more mature and more likely to treat others in a reasonable way.

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