<p>Hey guys, I'm currently a sophomore up at Washington University in St Louis and after a year here I've realized it's absolutely not right for me.</p>
<p>The schools I'd want to transfer to most (for the Spring) are Cornell, Wesleyan, UChicago, and NYU. Other schools I'm considering are other LAC's like Swarthmore and Williams, as well as other Ivies.</p>
<p>My high school record is fine (probably not outstanding):
GPA 4.55 (top 10%)
President of Debate/Science Olympiad, VP of JSA (won a number of tournies in the former two)
Worked in a few neuroscience labs
SAT 2200 (2300 superscore), above 750 for three SAT2's
Won a couple state/nationwide writing competitions
Also I played guitar in jazz band, made music, did martial arts and stuff</p>
<p>First semester freshman year though, I got a 3.44 (not on Deans List or anything) and second semester got a 2.7. </p>
<p>Here at Wash U, I'm on the executive board of a group, have worked in a lab on the med campus, worked over the summer at a lab, and have done some community service working with kids at grade schools in the city.</p>
<p>I really want to get out of here, but I don't if it's really realistic with my college grades.</p>
<p>I have a rule of thumb when chancing academic transfer students. With a 3.5, you can transfer to most schools close to your ranking or below. But since you have about a 3.1, I think the Ivies and the top 10 LACs are going to be difficult for you. NYU and Wesleyan are slight reaches, but you have a good chance at them.</p>
<p>What I would like to know is why WUSTL is a bad fit for you.</p>
<p>Well, even before I accepted I wasn’t too excited about it (it was the better of my best two options, the other being full-ride at a hometown state school). To start out, I didn’t like the campus because it felt too small and “organized” (the buildings are all basically in one small rectangle), the campus isn’t in the city, the general atmosphere is “preppy party-bro” (a generalization, but a fair one I think), and there’s no sense of school unity. It just feels very disconnected and closed-in. The school also feels weirdly new, and I get no sense of tradition or school spirit. Academics are extremely centered around pre-meds (and to a much lesser extent, engineers), so the intro bio and chem classes are ‘weed-out’ classes that are standardized for hundreds of students and not in the least personal. I was just another bio major, and even though I wanted to do research and wasn’t pre-med, I felt lumped in with them regardless.</p>
<p>But now also, I’m realizing that my interests lie more in the humanities, and I don’t feel like the undergraduate academics in those areas are really that strong (or at least, I feel they’d be much stronger at other schools). There’s simply not much of a community here for those outside of pre-meds and partying.</p>
<p>I spent a year trying to convince myself that I would feel the same at other schools, and that this was just an issue of “grass always being greener,” but after that freshman year, after visiting my friends at other schools like Oberlin and UChicago, and after researching other universities, I’ve realized that that’s simply not true. WashU’s just not my fit.</p>
<p>Would transferring to a school like Wesleyan or NYU be an unwise step down?</p>
<p>Well, I can say the pre-med scene is similar here at Vanderbilt. But while biomedical engineering is the most prevalent major here, I’ve met a lot of people in other fields as well. Economics, engineering, and education are other popular choices here. Vanderbilt also boasts a reputation for being an intense party school, and yes, I do feel like I’m being pressured to attend fraternity parties every Thursday and Friday. But I felt the same peer pressure at the college I transferred from as well. I think you need to accept that every school has lots of students who get wasted.</p>
<p>Moreover, very few schools are plopped in the middle of a major city like NYU. In fact NYU is the only example I can think of right now. The same goes for school spirit… at higher ranked colleges, school spirit is tossed to the wayside because all everyone does is study, and I doubt students have much enthusiasm for the institution which tortures them so. Still, your academic reasons are convincing. If the humanities program at a lower-ranked university is far stronger than at WUSTL, then you should consider transferring there. Since you’ve already done research, I won’t go on about how there’s no guarantee you’ll be happier.</p>
<p>All things considered I would recommend you to apply for transfer for your dream colleges. The only harm in the process is the time you spend on the applications and the application fees. You sound like you’re sick of WUSTL and would be better off and happier at a different college. The transfer acceptance rate at Chicago was 4% last year though. So yeah, good luck.</p>
<p>Personally, I would try not to step down too far down the rankings. NYU is a solid choice, and their acceptance rate hovers around 33% so you have a good shot of getting in. But of course, apply where you think will be best for you, regardless of ranking. There are other factors you should consider as well, like financial aid. You always have a safety in staying at WUSTL, so you have the freedom to take risks when applying for transfer.</p>
<p>I am at WashU, and I kind of feel the same way… I want to learn something about art and mgmt. But obviously there is no that atmosphere at WU. I love metropolis such as NYC and HK. My dream school is Brown and NYU. Can you tell me the results of your application?</p>