I’m struggling a bit with the Common App transfer essay because one of the prime motivations for my transferring is extreme discomfort with the current school’s culture. I have joined several clubs over the course of the previous semester that catered to some more geeky/nerdy/theatre kiddy activities, but all of these suffered from low attendance (which meant infrequent, irregular, and uneventful gatherings). I expected that the first semester would be socially difficult and slow going, but I never imagined having no friends at all going into Winter Break. I feel very out of place inside and outside of class.
Part of the problem is how I would avoid a general sense of negativity in the Common App essay, when the meat of the question “why transfer” is tied-in with a negative reaction. There are, of course, other things I could talk about, like seeking a school with a CS Department (this one does not have one), more opportunities for off-campus activities or jobs (this school is not in the best of locations), and interest in further pursuing technical theatre (basically shut out of this at current school due to department resources and other reasons). But I fear that the culture reason may still creep in one way or another.
How exactly should I approach this? The short list of schools I am applying to all have supplements that want to know why I want to transfer specifically to their school, so I also want to avoid redundancy in the Common App essay.