<p>Okay, I'll make this short. I go to a top-3 LAC and I'm not all that satisfied with it - the classes aren't much harder than my high school, many (most) of the kids that I've met are uninteresting and nothing like the intellectual students I had envisioned, and the social scene is incestuous and already old. Check my previous posts for my stats, 1st sem college gpa is 3.9 i'm considering transferring to a larger ivy (I'm feeling pretty claustrophobic at my small school) - maybe columbia, yale, or brown - but am not sure if I should wait it out another semester and see or try to pull off an application before the coming deadline...please help!</p>
<p>There’s no harm in trying to transfer, especially if you can afford the transfer school.</p>
<p>On behalf of your current LAC, it is highly probable you haven’t given the campus enough time yet. You are taking probably mostly intro-level classes. For some students, academics don’t kick into gear until hitting upper level courses. </p>
<p>In the meantime, get involved with your campus - clubs, student government, etc. Transfer plans may not work out and you might as well get as much college-experience out of your current place as possible. It certainly can’t be <em>that</em> bad if it is a top-3 LAC, so take advantage of whatever is there while you are there.</p>
<p>A few thoughts:</p>
<p>I’m not sure that you’ll find students in any other college more intellectual than at AWS. However, there is benefit in moving to a larger school as there will likely be more diversity in interests and personalities. The social scene may be more open, but you need to balance that with the fact that you’ll be entering a year later than most other people. </p>
<p>As far as admissions, if you qualified for AWS level as a fr and have a 3.9 in college, you likely are a competitive candidate to transfer as a soph. However, it’s just difficult due to the low acceptance rates for transfers at these schools; also, B is need-aware and has limited FA for transfers.</p>
<p>As far as applying now or waiting, that too has pros and cons. If you apply now for fall, you won’t find out until May, so you’ll have had a full year to determine if you want to move. But that means putting energy into applications now, when you’re not yet sure of what you want to do. If you wait, you will know you want to move, but C & Y don’t accept spring transfers, so you’ll have to wait a full year and enter in fall 2011 as a jr.</p>
<p>Have to agree with Entomom, A and S are two of the most intellectual schools out there. Williams less so (in terms of wearing it on their sleeves), but this is true of most top schools too.</p>