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.