How much should a person's "gut feeling" matter when transferring?

Joycelene
Sat, 01 Dec 2007 00:52:57 +0000

I do feel I have strong reasons for transferring. The academic environment is… lacking, for lack of a better word. I know I’m not being challenged enough and this is a cakewalk compared to high school for me, where I took a full load of AP and honors courses and felt like I was really working to my potential. I wanted a more intellectual environment where people like to learn just for the sake of learning. (I get made fun of for doing my homework on time Kind of awkward for me…)

I hate the location (I’m from Chicagoland and I’m in southwestern VA. I’m planning on actually migrating further north. I miss actual winters!) I also have trouble flying; I get anxiety attacks and I need to fly whenever I go home and the prospect of having to fly 5 times a year really frightens me already.

My school is bite sized (800 and is smaller than my graduating class in high school) and I feel so claustrophobic. I’d like a few hundred more people at my college so I could have some escape from certain people. It gets very hard to avoid people with a school this small… and that bothers me a lot.

I’m also in a pretty apathetic environment and everyone isn’t really passionate… I’m VERY passionate and I feel like being here is draining me of that. (Several people agree.) I’m a big activist and want to keep that up but I feel that while I have been here I’ve been more involved in activism, I don’t think I’m as involved as I could possibly be, despite my location.

There’s also very little diversity at my college (other than the fact that it’s a women’s college.) I also feel like my college will not challenge me as a person. One of the advertisements I’ve heard someone tell me about (I don’t think I’ve ever received it but I can believe it was sent) was, “Don’t like math? You can take an art class instead!” And yes, there is an art class that will fulfill the advanced math requirement. Not kidding. I feel like I’ll be strong in the areas I want to be good at here but I don’t think they will encourage me to be stronger in other areas, which bothers me a lot. :/

My areas of study are strong (Women’s Studies – obviously lol, and Psychology) but I don’t feel like I should stay at this college just because my potential major is strong :/