Hi, all!
I’m a freshman at a liberal arts college that is consistently ranked among the top 9-12 in the US. I was initially drawn to its small size, but now that I’ve completed my first semester, I’ve found it really, really stifling. It’s also overwhelmingly focused on its STEM fields, which I definitely wasn’t expecting, and as someone interested in the humanities, there’s not a huge breadth of courses available that align with my interests–the small class sizes are great in terms of forming relationships with professors, but there are not a lot of options, and I’ve done some deep diving in the course catalog. Similarly, the clear hierarchy of majors (natural sciences/math > social sciences > humanities) has been difficult to swallow, and it’s pronounced enough that I’ve heard English professors griping about how none of our funding comes their way. To give you an idea, on my hall of 14 freshman, I know of only one person who is interested in the humanities. That was a shock. The social scene is also dominated by athletes, and there’s a general sense of exclusion that I was also unprepared for. I know a lot of first-semester freshman are unhappy, but I genuinely feel like I made the wrong choice. I thought this college would be the perfect fit for me, and though I’m not quite ready to call it quits, I’ve spoken with my parents, and they advised me to start looking into transferring and are, fortunately enough, fully supportive. My main problem is that I only really considered small LAC’s in my college search, so I’m kind of at a loss of where to look from here. As of right now, I’m not considering small LAC’s, as I expect my experience at the majority of them to be similar to my current experience. To give you an idea of my stats:
High school (top private school in the state, top 25 in the nation)
Senior year GPA: 99.83 (first semester), 100.33 (second semester)
Overall GPA: 97.87 (freshman year was not my jam)
ACT: 32 (35 E, 27 M, 35 R, 31 S), 33 Superscore (36 E, 27 M, 36 R, 31 S + 36 W)
College
Major: Undeclared until second semester sophomore year
GPA: 3.925 (4.0 in Writing Seminar, Environmental Studies, and French Literature; 3.7 in American Politics)
To give you an idea of where I applied last year, my first choice was Georgetown’s SFS (was determined to go into foreign affairs), where I was deferred and then rejected. My current school was my second choice. I was accepted to Barnard. I was waitlisted at Amherst and Tufts. I’m considering reapplying to Georgetown’s CAS, as I tried out a political science course at my current college and wasn’t a huge fan and now understand that my strengths lie in the humanities, though I’d like to keep my options open. Apart from that, I’m pretty much lost. What I know is that I’d like to stay in the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic region (not totally opposed to the Midwest, though), preferably at a medium-sized school (3,000-7,000) without a huge Greek presence, and a strong bent towards the humanities (particularly English, foreign languages, history, religion, etc.) I understand that a transfer is a difficult and multifaceted process that requires a lot of thought and discussion, and I acknowledge that I’m extremely fortunate to be able to consider one in the first place. As I mentioned before, I’m definitely planning on sticking it out where I am right now for the next semester; I just thought it would be a good idea to start looking into it.
I know my list so far is vague, but any help would be greatly, greatly appreciated. Thank you so much!