<p>I am currently in my first quarter of my junior year of Northwestern, however I started in winter of my freshman year so I have actually only completed 2 full years of undergrad (so I am aiming to enter next fall as a junior)
I am unhappy with Northwestern's sense of community, or lack thereof, as well as the lack of accesibility to professors in my department. For this reason, I'm looking to transfer to a small liberal arts school. I'm hoping to form closer bonds with professors, and to feel apart of a campus community. I am very involved at Northwestern, I just find myself dissatisfied with the student body as a whole, in terms of the social life available and the level of engagement in academics. I have made up for the lack of academic engagement by taking graduate level courses in my major, philosophy, but I feel like it's always an uphill battle to get in courses that are set aside for grad students. I was wondering if you all could tell me my chances for transferring to Swarthmore, Wesleyan, and Vassar, and if you could also possibly suggest other schools to apply to. Here are my stats:</p>
<p>Major: Philosophy, GPA: 3.7 (possible minor in French or Gender Studies)
Ethnicity: hispanic</p>
<p>Extracurriculars:
Exec Board of NU Human Rights Conference: organizate the selection of delegates and serve as representative to delegates for the annual conference.
Exec board of Rainbow Alliance: organized college LGBT network for Chicago area colleges, coordinate volunteer program at the Chicago LGBT community center.
Gender Studies Undergraduate Board: organize speakers and film screenings.</p>
<p>Work experience: worked at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Law firm in Vienna, Austria, attended German language program at Diplomatic Academy in Vienna, worked at Northwestern Law school, worked at Chicago LGBT community center.</p>
<p>I feel confident that I can get fairly good letters of rec</p>
<p>The universe of transfer applications to Swarthmore is so small that, statistically speaking, it would be pure folly for any of us to try to give you a "chances" answer. However, you certainly look like a credible, maybe even strong, transfer applicant to all of the schools you mention including Swarthmore. That's all we can really give you because what Swarthmore may be looking for in any particular year of transfers will vary so much. Which majors need a warm body or two? And, on and on with variables we can't possibly predict.</p>
<p>To maximize your chances at Swarthmore, you want to learn as much as you can about the school. Go visit if you can. Meet the admissions people. Meet with some professors. Meet with the student groups of interest to you. And, so on and so forth.</p>
<p>You should email the head of the department (who, I guess, now is Peter Baumann), and ask for advice. Alternatively, you could email any other faculty member based on your academic interests: Swarthmore</a> College :: Philosophy :: Faculty & Staff</p>
<p>I realize this is kind of late, but the lack of community is exactly why I want to transfer <em>out</em> of Swat (right now I'm looking to go to women's colleges instead). Just make sure you know exactly what you're getting yourself into.</p>
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I'm a current first-year at Swarthmore College and want to transfer to Smith basically because I have found absolutely no community here, socially or academically.
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<p>Sounds horrible. Nothing from your First Year Seminar? Nothing from math or science study groups? Nothing from your freshman hall? Nothing from your roommate?</p>
<p>It's too bad it's not workin' out for you. I'm sure the transfer will be pretty straightforward. I'm sure you've been talking to the Deans at Swarthmore. I'm guessing that in a situation like that, some phone calls are made and the transfer goes without a hitch. This isn't Larrimore's first rodeo.</p>
<p>My FYS and my rooming situation have been the two most positive things about my experience thus far. However, my roommate, while wonderful and certainly the best friend I have on campus, lives locally and is often gone during the evenings and on weekends. My FYS is the only class where people work together voluntarily, not just on assigned projects. It's the only class where just about everyone participates equally, the professor respects our opinions instead of striving to make us look dumb compared to her, and people truly collaborate. </p>
<p>Math and science study groups have largely been a joke. For my science class, there are meetings run by lab instructors (I think that's what they are...). It's not students studying collaboratively, offering and accepting help; it's an instructor running a smaller, optional class where generally a few people dominate the conversation and ask the most questions. I've only gone to one study group for my math class. It was run by an older student who answered everyone's questions individually; it was not a group effort. Note that both of these study groups are teacher-based-- I have not found a group of students large or small that gets together to work on problem sets. True, I am in intro-level classes and I do hear of study groups of juniors and seniors in advanced seminars, but not much of the sort happens among lowerclassmen. </p>
<p>My hall is terrible. There are very few freshman. My RA is sweet but powerless and does not enforce rules well. My roommate and I pretty much blockade ourselves in our room to avoid the noisy, smoking, rude group of upperclassmen that is our hall. The freshman in my dorm building are very cliquey, and I am not a part of their group.</p>
<p>I know I got landed with a bad semester. I accidentally picked poorly taught classes, and I got stuck on a bad hall. Still, the overall vibe at Swarthmore is one I don't think I can live with. Everything is too focused on individualism for anyone to build a true community. Obviously, lots of people like Swarthmore and have likely found friends, but I am finding it extraordinarily difficult to fit in.</p>
<p>It sounds awful for you. Barricading yourself in your room is a pretty extreme measure. My daughter always liked to leave her door open so people could pop in and out. She went to the library for studying and then tried to have some fun after returning to the dorm each night.</p>
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The freshman in my dorm building are very cliquey
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<p>I'm having a really hard time picturing a random group of Swarthmore freshman being "cliquey". I know there is usually "the Mertz cult", but that's every freshman on a hall all going to dinner together like killer zombies across Parrish Beach. Have you tried just hanging out with the freshmen in your dorm? What happens? Are they maybe interpreting your barricaded door as a sign you don't want to mingle?</p>
<p>You mentioned smoking. Did you somehow end up in Hollowell? If that's an issue, you should go talk to Myrt about a dorm change for 2nd semester.</p>
<p>I don't know what to say about the other stuff. Having tutored study groups in both math and science sounds pretty sweet. They even supply donuts in the science ones, no? I guess you were looking for different kinds of study groups.</p>
<p>In any case, I hope things improve for you a bit next semester before heading off to Smith or wherever. You should be talking to the deans, just to make the most of your remaining few months at Swarthmore.</p>