Hi. I’m currently an undergrad at a very selective and prestigious (~25% acceptance rate) liberal arts college. I got a 2000 on the SAT, and did kinda well (top 25% of my class) in a very competitive public high school, but a huge reason I got into my current college is because I’m a double legacy. The main reason I applied ED is because I’m a double legacy. But I’ve decided that I don’t like it here, and I want to leave. So my question is… will being at a very prestigious university help me get into other prestigious schools like Tufts, Rice, Pomona, etc. even though I’m getting mostly B+/A- at my current school and given my high school performance? Based solely off of my high school performance, it’s unlikely I would have gotten into any of these. Some of my extracurriculars:
Club tennis (HS/College), volunteering (HS/College), Ultimate frisbee (College), treasurer of Make a Wish at my current College, I had a job for 2.5 years at home.
Some other facts: member of LGBT, 770 on Math section of SAT, hoping to be a Math/Stats major. 5 on AP Stats/Ap Psych.
My dad said I could only transfer if I go somewhere as good or better than my current school. I won’t go too into why I want to leave (greek life is a major aspect), but my question is: is leaving realistic? Is it worth trying? Thank you!
Yes, Colby banned Greek life many years ago. However, frats still operate underground at Colby and seem to have a particularly huge presence on campus this year.
I am only going on what my daughter tells me as she is a student there. She choose Colby over Hamilton because there were no frats. Yhe sports parties are big and she is certainly not a sporty person but she has not found an “underground” frat scene although I do believe there are parties as in all colleges. I am not actually disputing as I do not want this to become a forum on frats at Colby, I was just curious about whether in fact we were discussing the same college here.
“will being at a very prestigious university help me get into other prestigious schools like Tufts, Rice, Pomona, etc.”
No. If you apply to transfer, you will need to come up with a compelling reason for the transfer - why that school is better for you given your specific goals and objectives - and why you weren’t able to get what you needed at the school you were already attending. Not liking your current school after 3 months (I assume you are a freshman), is not going to be considered ‘compelling’ at a selective school, like the ones you mention.
Assuming you are a freshman, it’s too soon for you to be concluding that your current school isn’t a fit. Nearly a third of the freshman class at every school in the country (guesstimate here) are currently feeling the same sense of disappointment and dislocation that you are, because after all the hype, it turns out that college is just college and not a 4 year travel adventure with instant new best friends. Right about now, as it gets colder, darker and the initial excitement of a new place is wearing off, it’s hard to remember what attracted you in the first place. If you make an effort to keep investing emotionally in this school, you may find, by the time spring arrives - as most people will - that you’ve found your niche and the feeling of ‘buyer’s remorse’ has passed.
Underground frats at Colby have been brought up in student reviews for a long time. It was something I worried about when my son was accepted years ago, and I discouraged him from attending Colby. He ended up at an LAC where fraternities are sanctioned and he joined one. My attitude was that if a young man is prone to want to join a fraternity, he will, whether it’s in the open or underground. It seems to me that the frats with institutional oversight do less damage to a school’s social structure than the ones that lurk in the shadows.