<p>I'm attending the University of Chicago right now, and I'm so unhappy here. Academically, I believe it's great, but for some reason, I just don't feel right being here. </p>
<p>I've always been super social and have close personal friends I can speak to about anything. Here, I cannot seem to find any of that. I feel like all the dorms are so divided (the party dorm, the super anti-social dorm), and thus making friends in other dorms seems to be impossible since everyone stays within their own dorm. It's hard to make friends in classes because everyone runs off to do their own thing as soon as class ends. I have never felt so alone. </p>
<p>My question is, if I somehow am able to transfer to Columbia, will I basicall be facing the same thing? Is this what college life is?? I feel like I've tried so hard to make the best of everything, but is this really my problem? or would Columbia be a better fit? </p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>yeah Columbia seems like a good match, we’ve got the academics to match chicago (medium sized liberal arts college in big prestigious university, core curriculum etc.) But I think you’ll find Columbia kids a little less socially awkward. Chicago is also brutally cold compared to new york, which I’m sure hurts the vibe. The dorms aren’t polarized, and if you make an effort you’ll make friends quite easily. Columbia is not quite as cozy as say brown or amherst, but it’s pretty social. I think Columbia retains many of the Chicago benefits (like intellectualism, research, core curriculum, urban university with a good campus) and forgoes much of the unbearable winters and socially awkward, nerdy trend in the student body. It’s a school with boundless opportunity and attracts everyone from intellectual future phds to ambitious networkers and everything in between. It feels diverse and balanced, meaning you should be able to fit in easily. You will be challenged quite a bit, so it is not a school for the faint hearted, but I don’t think that’s your problem here.</p>
<p>It’d be a great transition for you. I live in the NW Suburbs (Chicago… obviously), and I completely agree that uChicago is segregated by “houses” in the dorms. I visited back in October, and I definitely felt an anti-social vibe across campus. </p>
<p>I agree with Con-Coll that Chicago’s bitter cold makes the vibe worse. I’ve lived here my whole life, and cannot wait to get to (hopefully) New York when I go to college after next year. I haven’t visited Columbia yet, but from what I’ve heard, it’s way more social than uChicago. If you’d describe yourself as more social, while still being intelligent, inquisitive, and hardworking (you most likely are, as you got into uChicago), i think Columbia would be perfect! Good Luck!</p>
<p>yummy, its not you, its uchicago. and that’s alright. and a bit probably of the first-year blues. </p>
<p>first years at columbia certainly retain that ‘high school’ frame of mind (think segregating) and you will get that anywhere no matter where you go. but it quickly dissipates at columbia after kids realize that all those labels don’t matter, and you spend most of your 4 years just trying to do as much as you possibly can. it’s a great time.</p>
<p>as for uchicago - it is the personification of socially awkward. and as i have maintained on here, it is a great place for graduate study (they love their grad students), but they don’t take care of their ugrads all that well. Zimmer is trying to change that, but change takes time. </p>
<p>columbia really does care about their ugrads - and will provide the necessary resources for you to do anything you want. as concoll says - it retains all the great things about uchicago, while giving you one thing chicago doesn’t have: new york. </p>
<p>good luck if you decide to transfer.</p>
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<p>I wouldn’t hyperbole that much, there still is MIT and Caltech, both of which have appalled me with their looking-anywhere-but-you periodic table jokes.</p>
<p>thanks guys! I was so afraid that it’s just me not making the best of it. Hard work doesn’t scare me, but not having close friends and being lonely does. I’ve already decided to transfer, and now it’s up to whether I can get in or not. </p>
<p>I applied to Columbia RD last year and I didn’t get in, although I did get ino a few other Ivies. So I feel like my chances are slim, since I only have 3 college grades because of Chicago’s quarter system. And while those grades are decent, they are not stellar. </p>
<p>What other top schools would you say match Columbia’s vibe?</p>
<p>no school is like columbia. 
i think it depends on what you want to study, but i have always been a fan of some liberal arts schools (I like the vibe of Amherst a lot), as for bigger universities Stanford was my other top choice, but transferring there is nearly impossible, beyond that i like UPENN (cool, urban, social). but i like columbia the most. :)</p>
<p>and applying as a transfer is different than applying RD to columbia - a lot fewer kids apply, easier to stand out. plus by the time you submit your application it will be march, and you can in early april send in your second quarter grades to give them something more to see. be very clear about your interest in columbia.</p>
<p>would the admissions office basically laugh if I honestly say I want to transfer due to social reason? I feel like most people transfer in order to find more rigorous programs and such. Compared to that, my reason feels very very lame.</p>
<p>um, practice writing what you want to say - but you can be honest, be like though you feel you have the intellectual experience you enjoy - you believe columbia offers a fuller package in which the practical (city life, social/campus life) meets the intellectual.</p>