<p>I'm a freshman at Barnard College in New York and I am pretty sure that I want to transfer for the fall of 2009.</p>
<p>I have found the lack of community at Barnard/Columbia to be really off-putting. I don't need a lot of rah-rah school spirit (and I'm not the type to ever get interested in school sports) but I have come to the realization that I would like a stronger bond between the students, and a genuine love for the school. My experience has definitely been that people at Barnard and Columbia do not feel particularly strongly about the University, although they (and I) definitely love New York. I know that most people who go to Barnard really like it, I just don't think that I'm one of those people.</p>
<p>I was also underwhelmed by my academic experience. I know that it is typical for first-semester college students to take classes that aren't too great with professors who aren't too great, either, but I was not intellectually engaged in most of my classes. Worse was that it seemed to me that people were working not because they wanted to learn but rather because they just wanted to get good grades. I really love learning and I'm very intellectually curious and the whole situation just felt very stifling.</p>
<p>I am trying to put together a list of schools to transfer to, but it's a bit difficult since I would really like to be at least near a city (New York was the reason I came to Barnard) and I'm also planning on majoring in Film Studies (and English). I'm currently thinking of U Chicago, Northwestern, Wesleyan, and Trinity in Dublin (for something different, I guess). I was waitlisted at Wesleyan applying as a freshman and didn't apply to the other three.</p>
<p>I'm not so much looking for chances. I think I have a decent shot at all of them, except maybe Chicago, with a 3.65 at Barnard and the same at a competitive high school. I did very well on the SATs, have great ECs, and I have one professor who will write me an outstanding recommendation (the other will probably be more run of the mill since I was only really close to one of my professors). Writing is my forte so I'm sure that my essays will turn out well. Rather if any of you have transferred to any of these schools and could comment, that would be great. I just really don't want to end up at a school that has the same problems that Barnard has -- lack of community, more focused on getting work done than on the actual material -- and be stuck somewhere that I'm not crazy about after having gone through the hassle of transferring. I really like the general academic approach of Chicago, for example, but I'm a little concerned that the city environment would lead to the same community issues that Barnard has, and I've heard some bad things about the arts there. And Northwestern seems like it would have more of a community but I'm an artsy fartsy nerd, so I don't know if I would fit in socially there. Wesleyan seems like it would be the best fit but I'm not sure if a suburban liberal arts school is the best fit for me after having experienced New York (which I do love) for a year (I know Northwestern is not in Chicago, but it is certainly closer to it than Wesleyan is to Boston or New York).</p>
<p>If anybody has transferred from Barnard and has advice, that would also be great. Thanks so much for taking the time to read this.</p>