Possible Transfer Student

Transfer Students
1

Hi,

Right now I am currently a sophomore at a well regarded school in Florida. I chose to attend since I had skipped two grades and would be able to commute everyday (I live slightly more than an hour away). But even during my freshman year, I knew that this is not the place that I want to stay at for the rest of my undergraduate years. I am an orthodox Jew and the Hillel here does not cater to the more religious (they do not offer orthodox services at all and do not offer kosher food at many of their events). I tried to work with the Hillel during the spring semester of my freshman year by joining one of their committees about programming events, and none of my suggestions were taken due to the lack of a large group of orthodox Jews on campus. Even if I wanted to dorm on campus, it would not be feasible since there is nothing in place on campus in terms of orthodox services, and the variety of kosher food here is very limited. Due to my commuting over an hour each way, I am not able to attend many of the events that occur on campus at night. Nor do I really feel up to staying on campus for the clubs that meet really late and then get home after around 11pm - the days just get too tiring with the long drive. As such, I decided to try and transfer for this current semester (Fall 2015) and was extremely happy when I was accepted to Johns Hopkins University. I planned to go, but during the week before orientation I found out that something bad happened medically to someone in my immediate family. I decided to stay in Florida another year to help my family, and the people at Johns Hopkins very graciously allowed me to return to to my current university although I had already gotten a dorm room, enrolled in classes, et cetera (I had to give up my acceptance to Hopkins though).

At this point, my time at university has been very friendless in addition to lacking in the many prayer services and religious events that I would like to attend. I’ve picked up a part-time job on campus, joined a program that will allow me to shadow a professional in the occupation that I’m thinking about working in, and joined a committee that is a part of the school’s government to help counter the feeling of isolation I have (The job and committee I do whenever I’m called upon during the day, and the program only meets once a month so I’ve decided to skip dinner to go to it when there are meetings). I also have taken up some extracurricular activities back at home. But even though my time is being taken up more, it really hasn’t helped my sense of loneliness, which is exacerbated by the fact that all of my friends from where I live have now all gone away to Israel and because I have no friends on campus (I have acquaintances, but that’s it).

My family member has already undergone successful surgery, and I am again thinking about sending out transfer applications. I’d be looking at a school like Hopkins again, that has at least around 50 people who claim to be orthodox so that I will have a community within the school (what I am lacking where I currently am). I also want to be in more of an intellectually stimulating environment (I currently have a 4.0 GPA, am pretty sure that I will maintain my 4.0 this semester, and was a straight A student in a dual curriculum for high school), which I believe can be accomplished by attending a school like Johns Hopkins. And although the school that I am at offers a pure mathematics major, the applied math major at Hopkins is better for the occupation I am looking to get into. I just wanted to ask if you all think these reasons for transferring are valid and that I’m thinking rationally about again desiring to transfer.

(Among other schools, I am also looking at Brandeis University, where I was also accepted this past transfer application cycle but turned down for Hopkins originally. I will be flying up to Brandeis to see it some time in the next month. I am not looking at Yeshiva University because I do not want to continue taking a dual curriculum.)

I know this is a rather long post, so thank you to whoever reads through it all!

2

Why don’t you pick up the phone and call Hopkins and Brandeis and see if there is any chance either one would re-activate your old application, and admit you for second semester this year?

3

@happymomof1
I was explicitly told by the people at Hopkins that I would have to reapply for Fall 2016 (they do not admit transfer students for the spring semester) and have to send in a completely new application. I also looked up on their website about reactivating an application and didn’t see a mention of that being possible (although I do admit that I did not spend more than 10-15 minutes looking, so I might have missed something). Brandeis also told me over the phone I would have to send in a new application and that this case would not fall under reactivating my old application. Brandeis does accept spring transfers, but the deadline for the application is in a few days and I would not have enough time to get everything I need sent out. I also have never seen Brandeis, so while on paper it looks like a much better fit than where I currently am (their orthodox community on campus has their own website that says there are over 250 orthodox Jews on campus there as well as the fact that half the dining hall is kosher, which is a lot more than any other place I’ve researched besides YU), I want to see the place before applying since I don’t want to be stuck in a situation that I do not like (which I am now). I’ll be flying up to see the school sometime in November during my thanksgiving break (they still have class during a portion of my break). So I’m basically resigned to having to tough it out and spend the spring semester where I currently am. I’m just wondering if these are valid reasons to transfer, as a lot of the posts that I’ve read here on CollegeConfidential would seem to tell me that I’m just not trying hard enough to immerse myself into campus dynamics and should stay even later than I currently do.

And also, honestly my lack of making friends here has sort of made me wonder if I will be able to even if I do transfer to a place where I’d be able to live on campus and there’s a lot of other likeminded orthodox Jews. Having this thought has made me wonder if I should just finish college here because I know that at the end of the day I’ll have my family at home to talk to (even though I don’t really talk to them so much besides for on Shabbat when we do not use any phones/computers/cars/electronics in general). I don’t know if my having this thought is being fair to myself though.

4

“I just wanted to ask if you all think these reasons for transferring are valid and that I’m thinking rationally about again desiring to transfer.”

Yes. and Yes. With what you’ve indicated, you’ve given several reasons for transferring (over 1 hour commute each way, want more challenging environment and a program more tailored to your desired occupation, religious and social reasons) and all are valid. If you aren’t sure that Brandeis is your top choice, then just apply for fall 2016 admission (assuming you like Brandeis) to both schools, and maybe a few others. That way you should hopefully be able to weigh several offers.

As long as you know there’s an end in sight, you should be able to stick it out where you are for the spring semester. Yes, it is harder to assimilate into any college as a transfer, but your set up at your current school (especially with the long commute) is making it pretty much impossible for you to fully integrate yourself there anyway. As I see it, you’ve got little to lose, and everything to gain. Don’t over think it. Provided all is affordable for you, I’d transfer.