My First Year at Kelley: Should I Transfer Out?

pinkerbelle
Tue, 15 Dec 2020 22:34:10 +0000

I’m a freshman at IU this year, and I am a Direct Admit to Kelley and Hutton Honors. When I first came into IU, I can’t say I was happy. I had given up my dream school USC to go to IU because it was significantly cheaper and ranked similarly to Marshall (USC’s business school). Additionally, I came from a competitive public school in the South where no one knew about IU and everyone either went to southern public schools or Ivies/near Ivies; as someone who was in the top 5% of their graduating class, I hated that all my peers were going to schools like WashU and NYU while I had to go to a public school no one knew about. I felt like all my work went to waste.

However, Kelley is an amazing and extremely underrated business school, and I mean it. It deserves more recognition in the South, and the skills I’ve gained here are super useful in my future career. Classes like K204 teach you Excel and Access skills you won’t get elsewhere, and I got the opportunity to build a database for this disability support/service organization in Bloomington with a team. Considering that everything is online, the professors work really well with the new teaching format, and I can say I have learned so much. I especially gained a lot from Compass, a class that teaches you networking skills, branding skills, and building a strong LinkedIn, all of which are things that give Kelley students huge advantages for seeking internships. I also came in with 40 college credits because IU is so generous about accepting AP and Dual Enrollment credit; this meant that I entered college as a sophomore and I am able to take sophomore-level classes my freshman year. I also had only 1 Gen-Ed to complete thanks to my AP/DE creds.

Unfortunately, the cons I have experienced at IU have outweighed my pros. Many of the people here are pretty rude and have a TERRIBLE work ethic. Many of my classmates will message me for exam answers, and I had one classmate call me at 11 in the night to FaceTime him and give him answers on a LabKoin challenge which was due in one hour. This same guy was in my K204 group for the service-learning project and didn’t do anything at ALL. And guess what? Thanks to the other hard-working members, this dude got a free grade and still has an A+ in K204. I have seen many people like this kid at Kelley and I don’t like it. I believe this is because of Kelley’s admissions standards. The only 2 requirements are (1) 30 ACT/1370 SAT (2) 3.8/4.0 GPA, which are somewhat low. There is also no background check on extracurriculars, work experience, awards, etc. There are kids who genuinely work hard but get rejected because they made a 28 on the ACT, and have a 3.7 GPA. As for the students being rude, I was ganged up by a group of Indian kids once who told me to give up my seat so they could sit together, and when I tried to make friends I have found the people to be quite cold or ignore me in general when I talk to them.

This makes me realize Kelley isn’t a great fit for me despite the academics being so good. As I apply to other schools for transfer, I realize their business schools are nowhere near as good as Kelley. UNC-Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler may be ranked #5 in the country, but they don’t start their business education until junior year. This is a similar case to other good business schools such as UVA Darden and UC Berkeley Haas. My minor is also really special since IU is one of the few big schools in the USA which offers it.

I really don’t know if it’s worth transferring. Bloomington is a great city, my professors are caring, and my classes are great. However, I’m tired of the students I’ve interacted with at IU who are rude, lazy, or have taken advantage of me, and I’m not too happy on campus.

What should I do? Should I stick it out sophomore year, and see if I meet newer and nicer people? Is it the fact that I’m online? Should I just apply as a transfer in case? (I have a budget for transfer apps). I appreciate any advice!