Thinking about transferring out of Cornell

holi47
Fri, 15 Dec 2017 20:50:34 +0000

Recently just finished the first semester of sophomore year and I have been so unhappy at school that I’ve been depressed for the last three months. I feel like I can’t find my place here and that I just don’t fit in here. Overall, I was pretty content last year but it started to deteriorate more and more as the year went on. I thought that was natural and that summer break would be refreshing and that I could have a new mindset going into sophomore year. However, it just seems to get worse and worse and the main thing that are keeping me from transferring for sure is that I’m a comp sci major in Engineering and I know that Cornell has one of the best CS programs and I’m afraid that any other school that I could transfer into would be a downgrade and that my job prospects after graduation would take a hit. I’m not sure if I should just tough out 2 more years and hope things will get better for the benefits of the degree or potentially sacrifice that for a new environment which will likely make me happier. There are many reasons to why I feel like I’m so unhappy here.

1. Socially isolating. The social scene is so predominantly Greek. I’m not interested in that whatsoever but I’ve even seriously considering joining a frat just to try to fit in. It seems like kids are either the ones that are in a frat or sorority and party at the houses and annexes on weekends or kids that stay in on weekends doing homework, playing video games, or watching tv. There’s nothing wrong with either but it sucks when you want to have fun once in a while but aren’t interested in joining a frat. Most of my close friends go to state schools and I know they often have house parties and stuff which lets them have more options than just joining a frat to have fun on the weekends. Due to this, weekends are just pretty boring for me. Also, I feel like I don’t connect all the way to the most of the friends I make here. Most of my friends are in engineering due to circumstance and they are mostly just so focused on school that they don’t want to hang out normally or down to do stuff on the weekends. They are also seem judgmental and close minded and seem to disapprove of people not studying constantly. After all this time, I’ve only made one friend who I truly relate to who and he also feels similarly to how I do. I went to high school at a non prestigious public school and the kids here just seem soooo different than what I’m used to. Ithaca is also pretty boring as there seems to be nothing to do. I even Brought a car to campus but me and friends usually just drive to go eat and stuff. I want to make new friends and meet more people but it’s quite hard as most people already have their social circles after freshmen year and kids I meet usually hit me up once in a while but then go back to the groups they’re comfortable with.

2. School. I’m not doing too bad (3.35 GPA) and I usually don’t mind a challenge and the rigor but the CS/engineering workload here is quite insane. I would be okay with this if I had a fulfilling social life but I don’t so it just seems like my life is school, school, studying, and studying. This gets depressing. Kids here are also sooo cutthroat. One of my closer friends here literally wouldn’t even send me extra practice problems for a final he received somehow just because it would possibly help me do better on a curved test.

Anyways, I don’t know how to proceed with this as I’m not sure if I should just tough out 2 more years with the chance that I will keep being miserable for a good degree that will most likely give me an initial advantage for my career. I also know that the grass always seems greener on the other side so I’m not even 100% convinced that I really will be happier somewhere else, although I do think I will be a much better fit at other schools. I don’t know if I’m depressed just because I’m depressed and that I’m subconsciously attributing it to me not being happy at school or that school is what is causing my depression. I’ve just recently thought about transferring so I’m not sure what my options are yet but some schools I was thinking of were UMich, USC, UCLA, UC Berk, and Upenn. I have a 3.35 GPA with a few extracurricular so I don’t know how my chances are for transferring into these schools.