Hello,
I am a freshman at Ross at the University of Michigan. I believe I made a huge mistake accepting here and plan on transferring. It does not appear to be a social or academic fit for me, and I was sick early on, which made it difficult to find my people. I plan on taking a leave of absence for my second semester and applying for schools in the fall. I was accepted at and turned down good schools (Dartmouth and Vanderbilt) to be here, and was wondering how easy it would be to transfer for this type of schools—or those schools specifically—with only one semester of credits under my belt. I am getting good grades and starting to get more involved in the community (intramural basketball, volunteer intern for a political campaign, member of the Business of Entertainment and Media club).
I do have a pretty good family connection at Dartmouth if that has any impact.
You’ve been at UofM, what? A month? Two? And even though you were sick early on, when presumably you couldn’t really explore all that the school has to offer, you’ve nevertheless decided it isn’t a “social or academic fit”?
It seems it’s way premature to write off one of the finest universities in the country. You’re likely experiencing what many (if not most) freshmen experience: a period of adjustment. That’s what happens in college - people grow and change and adapt. Odds are that by the end of the year you will be far more “at home” at your school than you are now.
Check Dartmouth’s or Vandy’s transfer policy; that’s a more reliable source of information than posting on CC. Apply if you desperately want to leave Uof M… just know that you could find yourself in an awkward position come next summer: having to leave a school and friends you’ve grown to like, and needing to start all over at a new school with new people, at a school you really don’t know well either.
Overall, I agree with @katliamom- we have both seen so many students have buyer’s remorse in the first couple of months…
…and then seen a bunch of those same people the following spring come back and say ‘oh no- now I love it here, and I have committed to go someplace else and given up this place’ and…
…others of those people come back the following autumn saying ‘oh no - I left school A for school B and now I miss A or found that B has even more things that I don’t like than A did’.
It happens every year: a surprising number of students head off to college thinking that they will walk into a nearly ready-formed group of friends, discover that they haven’t found “their people” a whole month or two into the first semester and despair of ever finding them.
This was where my collegekids, who (poor wee beasties) moved an unreasonable number of times during their childhood actually benefitted from those moves: they knew that it takes a time to find your good friends- but that you always do, even in the most unlikely places.
Something to consider with your plan of leaving at the end of the semester: simply walking away from a situation which has no apparent serious negatives (all you have said is “I don’t like the fit”) is not a compelling reason to take 3 semesters off from college. IMO, it might be the biggest negative on your application for transfer. Why would you not stay in school and do transfer applications from there, to start next September?
(also, when you turned down Vandy & Dartmouth did they send you the ‘we will hold your information for a year in case you change your mind’ card? if so, and you want to go to one of them now, if your grades are strong at Ross your odds are decent - though the money may not be as good as it was the first time around).