<p>
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She says she doesn't want to be where it's forbidden, just not in your face every night.
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</p>
<p>I think that is what a great many kids are looking for.</p>
<p>That would certainly be an apt description of Swarthmore...and, from what I know, of many of the suggestions made on this thread.</p>
<p>The only name tossed out that I would want to do a little more research on if I were you would be Northwestern. My impression is that it may fall more decisively into the "work hard/play hard" column. UChicago, across town, would be the Chicagoland school that I would be looking at for a less prominent drinking scene.</p>
<p>Even at colleges which have a work hard/party hard reputation, there are significant numbers who do not buy into the last half of the reputation. The trick is seeking those students out. In your daughters case the thing I find most troubling is the mocking that she is being subjected to for her choice. Friends like that are not really friends at all.</p>
<p>She should give her college another semester before making a decision. And if she is uncomfortable about merely being around students drinking, a transfer would be in order, preferrably to a college with minimal fraternity/sorority influence.</p>
<p>"Even at colleges which have a work hard/party hard reputation, there are significant numbers who do not buy into the last half of the reputation."</p>
<p>Much more common is the first half of the equation.</p>
<p>We know a number of kids at Northwestern. I don't think the drinking there is out of control. Some of the heavy-drinking factors are in place: prominent Greek scene and Big Ten athletics. But another factor that contributes to heavy drinking, rural isolation, is absent: Evanston itself is a wonderful college town and access to Chicago is easy. My concern for the OP's daughter is that NW not terribly undergrad-centric, certainly less so than any LAC, and also less so, I think, than a number of the small to mid-sized Us mentioned in this thread (Tufts, Brandeis, Wash U).
It's also possible that housing for transfers is not guaranteed at NW. You would need to check with admissions, but I know they are experiencing a housing crunch.</p>
<p>I don't know how true this assertion can be when only 10% of transfer applicants are accepted each year (this info is available on the Tufts admissions site).</p>
<p>Originaloog recommended that: "She should give her college another semester before making a decision." I am pretty sure that the original poster's daughter did return to her college for the spring semester - the op did not say she did not.</p>
<p>In that case, Wjb gave very good advice when he/she said, "Even though she's on the fence about transferring, I would encourage her to go through the transfer process. Then, at the end of the semester, she'll be able to make the decision whether she wants to leave her current school. If she takes no action, the decision is made for her."</p>
<p>It can't hurt to apply to transfer. If she becomes happy at her current school, she can always decline any transfer acceptances she receives.</p>
<p>
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I don't know how true this assertion can be when only 10% of transfer applicants are accepted each year (this info is available on the Tufts admissions site).<br>
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I guess this brings up an important point. The year before my daughter applied to transfer, Tufts had accepted nearly 30% of its transfer applicants. That made Tufts transfer-friendly, in her eyes. (And she was in fact accepted as a transfer.) But the percentage accepted at any given school varies from year to year, so in formulating a transfer list it's important to check the school's common data set.</p>
<p>The current admissions dean forced the issue. He argued that Swarthmore should either accept a legitimate number of transfer students or stop accepting transfer applications period. He suggested that the extremely low number of transfers accepted essentially made it dishonest to advertise a transfer application process. They opted to start accepting a reasonable number of transfers each year. In fact, I think they factor that number into the decision about how many freshmen to enroll each fall.</p>
<p>BTW, I could be wrong. But, I think a transfer app that uses "drinking culture" as a seque into an essay expressing the desire for a campus culture centered around learning, academic engagement, and inclusive community could be very effective at places like Swarthmore. This strikes me as a legitimate reason for a transfer, especially to schools that pride themselves on offering that kind of campus culture.</p>
<p>My daughter's transfer applications essays were along the lines of what interested dad discusses above, except that she emphasized the positives of the schools she was applying to and more indirectly alluded to the excessive drinking at her current school, instead of making the drinking culture the focus of her essay. Her aim was to put these same points across in a tactful way, without overtly "bashing" her current school. Since she was accepted, this strategy worked for her (of course, in conjunction with all of the other parts of her application.)</p>
<p>My D's was virtually the same, Mof2. D did not want to look like she was being negative or had a problem herself. Instead, she emphasized the kind of "culture" she was looking for. Our feeling, and I've heard it confirmed since, is that colleges looking at transfer students don't want to hear grievances or complaints--they may see the student as the problem.</p>
<p>She mainly emphasized that the colleges she was applying to were very strong in her areas of academic interest (stronger in xxxx specific ways than her current school) and that she was currently partcipating in xxx activities and that she would like to continue with these (in detail, with specifics of similar activities at the new school) and also participate in xxx, which was not available at her current school. That she could take advantage of museums, etc. in the city, unlike her current school. Then she said that although she loved the academics and activities, the social life was not what she had hoped for, and that she felt it would be more up her alley at xxxx, especially since it is near a city and not in such a rural location. I am not sure if she even mentioned the word "drinking" - she might have said that the social life revolved around "fraternity parties" which she did not enjoy. I am sure that the readers of her application knew what she was talking about, and also saw that she is a tactful young lady.</p>
<p>PS I think of it as similar to a job interview - you shouldn't bash your current job no matter how much you hate it!</p>
<p>On the subject of transfer essays, I want to underscore that even when a school didn't ask for it (and not all of them did) my D tried to explain to every school via an essay or a cover letter exactly why they ought to take her. She did this by digging deep into each college's website to learn as much as she could about her major department and about the campus, beginning an e-mail dialogue with a professor in her area of academic interest, then trying to articulate very specifically why she would like to attend each college and why she would be an asset to each campus.</p>
<p>While the drinking culture has some measurable negatives, a negative impact on future success may not be one of them. The list recently posted of Who's Who listings showed Penn with the most and Wisconsin second and first among state U's as it is in CEO's. I'll be the first to admit that UW has a larger drinking culture than Michigan, Illinois, Berkeley and most other schools.</p>
<p>In case you missed it here are the Top 25 or so.</p>
<p>UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA 9545 1747 0.183
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON 29078 1685 0.058
YALE UNIVERSITY 5319 1513 0.284
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN 37377 1467 0.039
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN 29632 1444 0.049
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN-ANN ARBOR 24828 1230 0.050
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 33694 1193 0.035
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 9519 954 0.100
CORNELL UNIVERSITY-ENDOWED COLLEGES 13625 936 0.069
UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND-COLLEGE PARK 25140 910 0.036
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-BERKELEY 22880 809 0.035
PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY-MAIN CAMPUS 34824 808 0.023
UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA-MAIN CAMPUS 14129 804 0.057
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL 15911 796 0.050
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-LOS ANGELES 24946 739 0.030
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY 9115 716 0.079
STANFORD UNIVERSITY 6555 682 0.104
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY 20212 666 0.033
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO 4545 664 0.146
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK 7233 625 0.086
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON-SEATTLE CAMPUS 27732 569 0.021
DUKE UNIVERSITY 6301 516 0.082
SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY 12268 477 0.039
UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME 8260 423 0.051
BROWN UNIVERSITY 6014 405 0.067
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 4136 396 0.096</p>
<p>We look at college more for what the actual experience is going to be and the intrinsic learning, rather than what the student is going to get as a return later on.</p>
<p>I've got a college grad D from an elite LAC who works going door to door as a canvasser for environmental causes. She's happy and supports herself. CEO is not in her future.</p>
<p>My S is thinking poker pro. If that doesn't pan out, he'll figure out something to do with his education, I have no doubt. But I also don't think it will be CEO-ing, either.</p>
<p>So, it's more important for us that the experience itself be enriching, not the future that comes after it.</p>
<p>I know that--it's a comprehensive list. That's why I did not mention it with Illinois etc.</p>
<p>Mini, I am still waiting for proof that COLLEGE drinking leads to AA. I think drinking in college was much like much like rioting--something you did and then moved on when you grew up.</p>