Transfer: Big University versus Small Liberal Arts

College Search & Selection
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<p>I'm a current freshman at a small liberal arts school, and I am looking to transfer. The school I'm thinking about transferring to is a big university. Obviously the two schools are widely different, so I'm having trouble weighing out the pros and cons to each school. Any advice?</p>

<p>At my current school, I haven't found my niche. I can't seem to find my place at the school at all, and I have tried. I've joined clubs, I'm really friendly, I go out and go to parties and try to meet people. It just hasn't worked for me. When I toured last year, I knew I didn't mesh well with the people, but I picked the school anyway because I felt that I'd at least be able to find some group I'd get along with. That hasn't been the case. I've struggled socially, and the school also lacks clubs and organizations I'm passionate about or even remotely interested in. I thought the school had them, but they aren't active. So that is why I'm looking to transfer. I know I shouldn't leave just because of social reasons, but it's making me truly miserable at the school.</p>

<p>However, the academics are great, I love my professors, it is decently well-known, the location is also decent, and I guess there is still hope that I will eventually be able to find a social group I fit in (although it's very cliquey and, from what I've heard, groups don't change much from year to year). </p>

<p>So far, the only school I've applied to is a big university. It's my state school. It's big. Really big. And that does overwhelm me... and the academics are decent in comparison to my current school (I'd be in the honors college). I'll have to live off campus.. Plus, I'll be just another number.. and I will also be just another kid from my hometown who goes there. I won't be anything special. However, it has everything my current school lacks: it has all the clubs and organizations I'm interested in, it has sports, and socially it's great because I have a wide variety of friends there, and I'm already friends with some of their friends and I instantly clicked with them. I'd have a solid group, and I feel like I could finally have the indpendence and the well-rounded college experience I'm looking for. </p>

<p>But are those good enough reasons to transfer? Basically, if I strip everything down, it come sdown to academics/prestige versus social/extracurriculars. Which one is more important?</p>

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<p>Speaking as someone who attends an LAC and adores it (as much for the social aspect as for the academics): transfer. LAC social scenes are always niche-y by virtue of size, and if you’re unhappy, you’re likely to stay unhappy. Better academics isn’t worth being miserable.</p>

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<p>That’s what I’m thinking… it’s just that I want to love it. On paper, my LAC seems perfect for me. I wish I fit into the niche, but as of now I really don’t. And I’m not sure if it’s a personality thing, like maybe it would take me a while to find my niche regardless of which school I picked originally. I could stay at my LAC and be fine for the next 3 years, but I don’t want to just be there. I want to be part of my school, and I want the full college experience. I don’t want to just be the awkward person who doesn’t quite fit in but hangs around anyway.</p>

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<p>Are these your only two choices or are you still awaiting other responses? Were you unable to find a school with more balance in the characteristics you want (better social life but equally good academics)?</p>

<p>If these are the only two, I’d say transfer (especially if there’d be significant cost savings.)</p>

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<p>I’d agree with Keil. I like my LAC a lot, but it might be harder to find your niche in a smaller community now that the social scene has been fairly well-established. If you can’t transfer, then I’m sure you’ll eventually find a way to fit, but if you honestly feel that you would fit in better socially at another school, then I would transfer.</p>

<p>Do you have any other options?</p>

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<p>Thanks for the advice, guys.</p>

<p>My problem is that I don’t know where else to apply. I feel like transferring to another small LAC will not be any different from staying at the school I’m at, if not more difficult since I’d be going in as a sophomore after the social scene is already set. </p>

<p>I just can’t seem to find a school with the balance I want. I don’t think I have too high of expectations, and the balance I’m looking for isn’t that abnormal, I just can’t seem to find it so that makes me think that maybe I just need to deal with it. </p>

<p>Since I don’t fit in at my LAC, the idea of transferring to a bigger school seems nice. But there’s a reason I didn’t even look at big universities when I started looking at colleges. I’m slightly terrified of going to such a huge school, and I don’t know if it’s worth it to sacrafice the good education I’m getting now. I am trying to get in the mindset that I’m just going to college for an education, but I can’t do it because I so badly want the full experience. And my friends who go to the big university are getting the full experience.</p>

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<p>^If you think that your friends are getting “the full experience” at a big university, then why are you afraid of going there? Doesn’t their experience illustrate that it’s not as scary as you thought?</p>

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<p>Well, I’m a little more reserved than my friends. In new environments, in particular. They’re much more assertive and outgoing than I am, so they were able to find a niche for themselves even at such a large school… I didn’t apply to large schools for that very reason. I thought I’d fit perfectly at a LAC, but so far that isn’t the case. I’m just nervous because I also don’t want to transfer for the wrong reasons. I’m worried I’m relying too much on this social experince that I assume I’ll have at the bigger university when, in reality, social scenes can be so volatile that there’s no way for me to truly be sure I’ll have what my friends have. </p>

<p>But my friends are all encouraging me to transfer, and they say that I’ll instantly fit in their friend groups. I’ve even met some of their friends and we got along perfectly… but I just can’t be sure that it’d be the same if I actually attended the school rather than just visiting… and I don’t know if social issues is a good enough reason to transfer…</p>

<p>Sorry for whining! I just need unbiased opinions</p>

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<p>well if you want a social scene with more students but don’t want to be ‘just a number’ then why are you only thinking about staying at a small LAC or going to a huge public school? there are plenty of mid-size private universities that could have what you’re looking for. i’m not sure what you’re interested in or where you’d be able to get in or anything like that but schools like Emory, Vanderbilt, Rice, Tulane, Northwestern, etc. come to mind</p>

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<p>Yeah, I’m trying to find other mid-sized schools to apply to, but my problems are getting in (I am making pretty good grades in college, but I wouldn’t be able to get into the schools you listed) and paying for it since transfer students rarely get scholarships and I won’t qualify for financial aid.</p>

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<p>“I know I shouldn’t leave just because of social reasons”</p>

<p>I don’t agree with this at all. Sure you should. If you’re socially unhappy and you have other alternatives to get your education, that’s a good enough reason. Your grades are likely to go up, not down, if you are happy and feel that you’re in the right place.</p>

<p>If your state school is a flagship and you’ll be in the honors college, then you can get a terrific education there if you try. I think this is true of every “really big” flagship (UF, Ohio State, Arizona, whatever). You may not be special to the university, but you can still be special to your group of friends, to your major department, your dorm floor, etc. </p>

<p>If you want a more LAC-like academic experience, I encourage you to explore unpopular subjects and see if any of them excite you. Even giant universities will have a very small, supportive community in the department of medieval studies, or entomology, or linguistics. Even a switch like majoring in comparative literature rather than English can bring you much smaller classes and more involved classmates.</p>

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<p>There are upsides and downsides to each. Small universities give you privacy and smaller class sizes, while large universities give you more diversity and broader limitations.</p>

<p>I personaly vote for the large university, it allows you a better oppurtunity to discover yourself, but this decision should ultimately comes down to the individual Universities rather than size.</p>

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<p>FWIW, this is my family’s experience:</p>

<p>D1 also felt after a while that she did not fit in all that well socially with the prevailing campus culture at her LAC. She talked about transferring, but was too timid to do it. It did not get better for her there, actually it got a lot worse. She took a semester elsewhere, and when she came back she found herself essentially isolated there.</p>

<p>D2 did transfer from her LAC, which she found did not fit her socially among other issues. She is about to graduate from a large-midsize private university, and has been ecstatically happy there. </p>

<p>I think one reason things turned out so well for her there is she was entering with a sizable cohort of other transfer students, and the U had orientation activities for them to get to know each other. So she wasn’t totally just plopped in by herself, on her own, into a pre-existing social order at the new school. The situation there for transfers was such that she had some reasonable chance to rapidly establish a social network there. Which she took full advantage of. That would be something to look at, IMO.</p>

<p>The other thing was, the level of academics at the new school was in no way a dropoff from her prior situation. So there was no disappointment on that front either.</p>

<p>There are things you learn about yourself, and your preferences, after a year or two experiencing college that make a choice of transfer school potentially more accurate than your initial choice was.</p>

<p>Of course my family’s experiences do not constitute a statistically significant sample, but they have made me an advocate of switching if things are not working out.</p>

<p>Personally I think a small school early on, to get through the traditionally larger survey courses, followed by a larger school at the end, for more choice of courses in the upperclass years, is not a bad path to take, depending on your objectives. Sort of cherry-picking the best aspects of both environments while minimizing the worst aspects.</p>

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<p>Hanna, I really love your advice about looking into “less popular” fields. Everyone is being so helpful… </p>

<p>The Honors college of my state school is not one of the better ones, but I guess it has potential. </p>

<p>For me, best case scenerio would be to find a mid-sized school that I could just fit into, but the timid side of me isn’t sure if giving up the level of comfort and familiarity I have at my LAC would be worth it… I’m worried about starting over at a brand new school as a sophomore, so that’s why my state school seems to be the most appealing, and really the only, option. I’ve read that transfers have a tough time, if not tougher than their first school, adjusting… </p>

<p>monydad, your second daughter’s situation sounds perfect. Thanks for the tip, I’ll definitely start looking into schools that have smooth transfer transitions.</p>

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@anotherkid I’m not sure if you still use this since you have probably already graduated! I am in the exact same boat as you, and everything you described fits my situation to a T. Did you end up transferring? How was your experience transferring/staying? I am currently debating on staying or leaving but leaning more towards leaving.

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The OP hasn’t been on CC for five years. Please use old threads only for research.