Should I transfer from Swarthmore?

Transfer Students
1

I am a freshman of the class of 2020 at Swarthmore College.
To be very frank, Swarthmore was never at the top of my list, even though I humbly acknowledge how great the institution is academically. I ended up coming here because all of my top choices either rejected me or waitlisted me. Unfortunately, having lived abroad for the past few years, I was unable to visit any colleges to help me make application decisions, so I had to rely on internet reviews and comments to get a feel of each institution. On paper, the small community and suburban location seemed fine to me, so I was happy to get an early write and generous financial aid (to be clear, I am an American citizen, so I received need-blind admission). After coming here, the initial “wow” factor quickly vanished with the end of orientation, and I started to become more and more bored here. On the academic front, Swarthmore is rigorous and in that respect, rewarding, and I have no real complaints about it. But the town has no life, and I am frustrated by the lack of places to eat or go to (even the movie theater is in another city). It is not feasible to travel to Philly every weekend, given the cost (both monetary and temporal).
On top of that, I have been detecting a significant level of dissatisfaction from quite a few upperclassmen with regards to the administration, the “needless” rigor and grade deflation, and in some cases the community as a whole. A certain student told me that the English department (English being a major that I am highly considering) is “iffy” and “limited”.
With all of that in mind, I have been unable to keep the idea of a transfer out of my head. I feel like I want to go to a more “happening” city area, and so far, I have been considering Columbia, Yale, Harvard, and UChicago. I know that I will be sacrificing certain aspects such as small class sizes and a closer community, but I am not highly attracted by either of those. I am attracted to these bigger institutions because of the “only at _____” opportunities such as meeting a Nobel laureate or working on big, exciting projects. As an added benefit, which I do not weigh very highly, Yale, Columbia and UChicago would be closer to family.

I understand that all four of these institutions are far reaches, but I still feel like I have a shot. I guess what I want to ask on this forum is whether or not the issues I presented above would be resolved at one of these institutions, or if my thought of transferring is misguided and naive. Additionally, I would appreciate any advice regarding the transfer process.
For some context, my final IB score was a 43 (7, 7, 6 in HLs), a SAT superscore of 2300, 800 in Math II, 750 in Literature, 740 in Physics (should I give any of these again if I were to apply for a transfer?). My first semester at Swat is Pass/Fail but my “grades” so far have been pretty good.

2

Were you rejected by these schools last year?

3

@TomSrOfBoston I was rejected by Columbia and Harvard, WLed at Yale, didn’t apply to UChicago. I’m not trying to make excuses, I may as well have been an inadequate applicant, but I also had a very crappy counselor who, I now realize, gave me horrid advice regarding my CommonApp.
It was because of my previous rejections that I asked whether I should retake some of the tests.

4

I graduated in 1989 from Swarthmore. Many students feel claustrophobic by the end of 4 years at Swarthmore, so your current feeling of constraint will probably get stronger. Despite the train station on campus, it was my experience was like yours: it’s not terribly practical to use. I was very neurotic about my study habits; workaholic. Sweatmore does culturally encourage that orientation, but I also brought to the college. I think that the college is very homogenous and its culture limiting in many ways, and the rigor is over done. Bigger schools have more diversity both cognitively and culturally than Swat. From what you write, I hear that you are inclined to transfer, and I encourage you to explore that desire to transfer. Then explore the idea of staying. compare the two psychological experiences. As long as you have strong grades and can transfer to the schools you listed, I doubt you will regret it. I would not attend Swarthmore if I had a do-over, but given many challenges that I face at the age and stage, that may say more about me than Swarthmore.

5

Hello,

I am a Swarthmore grad of 2012. My freshman year, I had serious thoughts about transferring like you. My dissatisfactions were different-- Swarthmore had been my first choice (I applied and got accepted ED), but I felt it did not live up to its reputation as a “collaboration over competition” and “work hard, play hard” school. I had an extremely difficult time finding community or anyone who would value friendships anywhere near as close to academics.

I applied to transfer to several other top tier liberal arts schools and was accepted. When it came time to chose whether or not to stay at Swarthmore in May, I chose to stay. I am still not sure this was the best choice, but what it did do was light a fire under me. I’d made the choice to stay, so I put so much more effort into making it the experience I wanted it to be than I was able to freshman year. I joined a club sports team that traveled a lot, made friends with upperclassmen who lived off campus in the Ville and in Philly, and took advantage of the Tri-Co academically and socially. I didn’t and don’t love Swarthmore. But I have many good memories from college and what I think is the best academic education in the country. Maybe I would have had an amazing, life changing, nostalgia-inducing experience somewhere else, but Swarthmore got me where I wanted to go in life.

As for your concerns:

(1) It will never feel bigger or less suffocating than it does now. This will get worse. There are ways to manage it (take a UPenn class, get on Tinder and meet people at other schools, join a club that’s community involved, etc)
(2) I think students at every top tier school are dissatisfied with administration by default. College is a time to push back against authority and try to craft community how you want it. This is developmentally normal. There are some serious, serious areas of growth for Swarthmore admin, and they may be reasons to leave if any of them bother you specifically, but if it’s just the climate of dissatisfaction, I wouldn’t worry too much.
(3) I know nothing about the English department, but my guess is you are only limited if you want to be. Get to know professors, get involved in their research, take classes at other schools, etc. Some departments hand opportunities to students, some require you to work a little more for them. In either case, you learn valuable skills about advocating for yourself.

I hope this helps! Good luck with your process, whatever you decide to do.