LondonCircle

Hello, all. I'm currently considering transferring from a fairly prestigious university, and while I have my academic reasons (my school is primarily known for natural science and engineering, and I am so far into liberal arts that I don't even own a calculator), I have some social reasons too. For one, I feel that my school is seriously lacking in spirit; we have a residential college system here, and everyone makes a big deal out of what "college" they're in and not the actually university they have the privilege of attending. We have a huge football stadium, but no one ever goes to games because no one really seems to care about the school beyond the academic opportunities. However, I've also heard that this is a serious problem across the board for prestigious universities. Are there any schools that are known for having good academics while still having a vibrant and proud student body? Or would I have to transfer down (something that makes me nervous) to find anything like this?

sometransfer

First off, I'm an engineer, so I want to be at the school you are right now. Call me crazy, but you're saying school spirit is measured by how many people go to sports games and drinking parties on the weekend. Then I would recommend schools like Duke, Vanderbilt, and Notre Dame. Since I am at Vanderbilt, I can tell you attendance for our football and basketball games is very strong. I think you will also find more people with liberal arts majors here. Transferring here is somewhat easy (I did) since your school is close in rank and admissions looks to accept about 350 transfer students every year (200 enroll). Just make sure your grades are good enough and you're taking courses required by your major. A 3.5 should be fine from where you are.

LondonCircle

I'm not really saying that school spirit should only be measured by things like sports attendance, but it is a facet. I just want to be at a school where people actually seem proud of the school as a whole, not just the academics. Academics are very important to me, but I resent that there are so many kids here who a just here for the name on the degree.
I've considered Vandy, but they only take fall admissions and I don't really want to wait a whole year.

sometransfer

Most schools only take fall transfers. Even the ones which take spring transfers accept 20 at the maximum, and enroll in the single digits.

I think you need to step back and realize you are in a fortunate position compared to a lot of other students, who would take innocent lives to be at your school. You might loathe the environment, but you made the choice to go there, after all. Unless some miracle happens, you have to transfer in the fall of next year, when there will be many options available to you which could fit both your academic and social interests.

However, for the time being, you should also try to make your current college work for you. At most top schools, all most of the students do is study, so there's little school spirit for the other things students attend college for, like sports or parties. Then you have schools like Duke, Vanderbilt, Virginia and Michigan which embody the work hard, play harder motto. But overall, most students at high-ranked colleges just want to get out with their degree. So yeah, just try to find happiness where you are now. There's not much you can do to get out until next fall anyway.

BruinsJEW

I echo what "sometransfer" has said. I too transferred from a school that was the complete opposite of yours. The student body wasn't the most intelligent and they cared more about partying and socializing than going to class. The three most important things for me when I transferred were 1) high quality academics, 2) college campus/ college town life, and 3) student body (diversity and school spirited).

Since you are at a pretty small school, I'm not sure how well you'd adapt to a large public like UVA, UNC, Michigan, but I would highly recommend those. Each of these schools is known for having some of the best academic programs, happy student bodies, and solid athletic programs. If the top, large public school isn't your thing, then I would check out Duke, Vanderbilt, and USC.