Hi, all. I am a freshman at Wake, and this is my second semester. There are many things I like about Wake. I love the campus and the school spirit. However I’m just not happy here. The classes aren’t very engaging or challenging, and I just don’t think the social scene is for me. I’m seriously considering transferring, but I’m kind of lost on where to start. Does anyone have any recommendations on places to apply? I have a 3.8 gpa, and I think I’m interested in going to a north eastern school.
Based on your desire for an engaging
classroom experience (see link) and preference for a northeastern location, you might be well suited to schools such as Williams, Hamilton and Bowdoin. Of this group, Hamilton is generally the most receptive to transfer applicants.
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What schools were on your list when you were applying as a first-year student? Have your priorities shifted? What insights have you gained since last year about yourself and what you want from a college?
It will be important for you to convince the schools you apply to as a transfer that you are drawn to them, rather than feeling pushed from Wake.
So what programs are you seeking? What are your priorities for a campus and academic community? What can a new school give you that you cannot get where you are?
Engaging classes and a different social scene are a start, but every school thinks its academic program is compelling. The social aspect is trickier to describe as a driving interest, though there are schools that, say, don’t have Greek life, or an avid D1 sports fandom. You don’t need to draw that contrast, just focus on what you do want.
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Freshman year can be like that.
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For general research, this site includes recent transfer acceptance rates:
To be thorough, you may want to check Common Data Sets for the rates for a few years so that you will not be misled by one-year anomalies.
Kind of late but I’m a sophomore transferring from Wake Forest too, Social scene there is abysmal. In the Northeast specifically, Boston College and Boston University were both pretty popular destinations last year and I haven’t heard any complaints. Emory is also a good one. But with your GPA, you could also try Northwestern, their application window is still open.
Can you define abysmal? Too many drugs, not enough? Not enough parties?
Since student clubs are mostly overlooked and Winston isn’t that big, Greek life controls the entire Social Scene. From my perspective, it is very toxic. Given Wake is predominately filled with students from the top 1% and over 60% (80% girls, 30% boys) are Greek-affiliated. These create a cliquey environment for outsiders who don’t already have solid connections or aren’t interested in going Greek.
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Understandable, my son is interested in Wake but not the Greek life. So that creates questions