<p>Hi everyone,</p>
<p>I half hate myself for posting on college confidential again, but I am really sort of seeking out help with a dilemma I’ve found myself relatively embroiled in right now.</p>
<p>I’d like to consider myself a pretty outdoorsy guy. I really enjoy running, hiking, skiing, and a lot of related activities that I did with regularity in high school that I can’t honestly find at Brown. So recently I’ve been thinking of transferring, although I’ve been looking really earnestly for all options at Brown.</p>
<p>I’m looking seriously at Dartmouth and Williams, and at a few other small schools. I am finding myself caught between a proverbial rock and hard place, as I feel so strange wanting to leave behind Brown. I love 98% of Brown. I just am having a lot of trouble living in such a strongly urban environment (some don’t consider it urban, but being from a small rural town in the Northeast, it definitely feels like a huge change). </p>
<p>I am not honestly sure if I should just suffer for the four years without a really integral part of myself, the part that loves the outdoors and wants to run and hike every day, to live out the Brown experience. I love Brown, but I just don’t know if I’d be able to make it the whole way feeling as I do now.</p>
<p>Any thoughts or advice would be great!</p>
<p>You should post to the other college sites to see how much you would really be doing all of that. Most kids aren’t going to be skiiing regularly unless it is on their winter break at home or on vaca. My daughter had a bike at Brown and used to ride the East Bay Bike trail to Newport frequently.</p>
<p>It’s only a one time thing, but she also did BOLT 5 day baclpacking trip in the White Mountains pre-sophmore year:
[BOLT[/url</a>]</p>
<p>If you stay, BOLT has ongoing roles for leaders and mentors and has ongoing activities. Perhaps you could institute more weekend hiking events.</p>
<p>Join the running club and do group runs? Join Brown Outing Club for hiking, kayaking, rock climbing.
[url=<a href=“http://brownoutingclub.com/who-we-are/]About”>Brown Outing Club – Brown University, est. 1502]About</a> | Brown Outing Club](<a href=“BOLT – BROWN OUTDOOR LEADERSHIP TRAINING”>BOLT – BROWN OUTDOOR LEADERSHIP TRAINING)</p>
<p>Well, first I need to think what it is about the city you don’t like, and consider whether can these be mitigated. I’m also from a more rural environment and am outdoorsy, and I also miss many aspects of that lifestyle. That said, I’ve found ways I can get around them a bit - there’s a couple little parks behind the IR and Judaic Studies buildings where one can sit and feel far away from it all, for example. I love laying out on the Quiet Green or Main Green during less busy hours to do work - I just need the grass and sun. Similarly, East Side Bike Path and blackstone boulevard both offer ample green biking opportunities, something I much love. That said, certainly aspects of ‘home’ are irreplaceable - there are basically no stars in Providence, if you run in one direction, you will not inevitable end up in a nice solitary meadow, there are no farms, and you simply will not find country air - if these (or other) irreplaceable aspects of living in less populated areas are things you need to feel happy, then you should go to that; denying yourself never helped anyone. </p>
<p>Now, before you head on down to the transfer office, bear in mind that both your circumstances and expectations have likely changed since arriving at college and these other communities might have their own downsides as potentially insufferable as the city. A best friend of mine headed the transfer community at Brown, and a most remarkable fact is that nearly half of all students who transfer out of Brown end up transferring back to Brown within a year (including the only person I ever met who transferred) and it is worth doing the critical thought necessary to avoid the trouble that path entails. Pardon the terrible, terrible cliche, but while there is likely more grass in Hanover and Williamstown, it is not necessarily greener. Aspects you probably didn’t have to deal with at home but must extensively deal with at college - like the ability to spontaneously hit up the CVS, a bank, Verizon, the mall for computer issues, the movies, the non-auto transport options etc. - are all far, far more limited in the country. You may even come to miss having a Chipotle right next door (my friend at Dartmouth once did an altogether 2 hour detour to eat at one once, which I remember thinking was desperation at its worst). The social life will be much more insular, more drinking, more cliquey (as there are less alternatives) etc, so you have to make sure you really feel comfortable in the community. Be a hard-nosed economist, and really consider fully the potential risks of transferring (aka the problems entailed above, among others, and the sheer effort involved in moving and reforging community, not to mention the loss of the open curriculum) and whether they are worth the benefits of transferring (only you can know the scope of these, but presumably they are primarily based in being out of a city.) I would really advise deeply, deeply pondering these issues over a prolonged period before coming to a conclusion. And if that conclusion is still that you really feel irreconcilably constrained by Brown’s location, then you’ll know you critically came to the conclusion that transferring is the best option, and you’ll be able to start with the confidence that this is the right thing to do, warts and all. But don’t assume that transferring won’t incur its own problems - make no mistakes, it will - instead decide are these problems worth it. Good luck!</p>
<p>If you love 98% of Brown, I think you should stay. Transferring is disruptive and expensive…harder than you think. The added value you get from transferring to a more outdoor type school is outweighed by the negatives. You will be graduated in a blink of an eye, then you can relocate where you want, right?</p>
<p>Good luck to you.</p>
<p>i think that if you transfer you may find 2% you don’t like at another school as well, and will have gone through the arduous process of transferring and starting over meeting professors and making friends. I’d recommend getting involved with BOLT. It may take more effort at Brown, but you can still find outdoorsy stuff to do</p>
<p>Being at Brown is a really great opportunity. I transferred INTO brown so I tend to view anyone who wants to transfer who doesn’t have a REALLY strong reason as pretty nutso. “They don’t have one extracurricular I want” doesn’t seem really strong. </p>
<p>And do keep perspective on the years of your life. I thought 4 years was forever too…but it’s not. There’s life after college when you can go hiking whenever. It’s a little different than “only one chance to major in journalism” or “one chance to play competitive college squash”</p>