So, I’m a freshman at Northwestern and I really, really do not like it. The whole greek scene just is not for me and I feel like i would be happier somewhere else.
The schools I’m interested in would be Harvard, Yale, Columbia, UPenn, Dartmouth, and Duke.
My high school GPA and ACT were very good (3.91 and 35 with 12/12 essay). My extracurriculars were quite good as well. The only problem is that my college first quarter GPA is not stellar. A combination of having a hard time adapting and taking extremely difficult courses (the hardest I could) left me with just above a 3.4.
Do I have a realistic chance at any of these schools?
I think a 3.4 is an excellent GPA for the first semester at Northwestern taking the hardest courses you could. That said, you might want to consider giving it more of a chance. It will be hard to start all over again next year, and you might find yourself in the same position. Northwestern is not a small school. Are there any clubs you can join to help you find your clan? I just wouldn’t want you to think that the grass is greener elsewhere because it probably is not. Besides . . . Duke? Dartmouth? They have a big Greek culture.
You applied to Northwestern ED, and wrote passionately about it. Now that you are there you say that the greek scene is so overwhelming you need to leave (though I think it’s less than half the student base, and there are other strong student cohorts) and are looking to trade up to an Ivy (or the so-called ‘southern ivy’). Which, as the other posters have pointed out, includes 2 schools that are seen as considerably more greek-centric than Northwestern.
I don’t see anything in your post to suggest that you have any particular reason for thinking that you will like these schools more than Northwestern (not counting ego/prestige gratification)- or even that you have really looked at them in particular. They all want a “compelling” “well-defined” “academic need” to transfer to their school. Can you answer that for each one?
btw, Columbia specifies a 3.5 GPA for transfers and Yale a 3.8.
I should mention that my major is math, and my professor has said that the course we’re currently taking is around the same difficulty as an honors real analysis course. Also, another class I took curved grades down, which obviously hurt me.I was under the impression that first quarter freshman grades were less important than high school grades. Is this not the case?
And yes, I do have a well defined, academic need to transfer to any of those schools. The reason being that I can NOT focus here due to the ridiculous greek atmosphere and need to be somewhere more serious. The students here are just obsessed with greek life and don’t care about anything else. Of course, this is not a reason unique to any of the schools, but I can figure something out to make it unique to each one.
My main reason for coming to this university was that I thought I would have a healthy mix of social life and good academics. Well, if you don’t go greek, there is basically no social life to speak of. So what’s the point in staying? I’d much rather go somewhere a bit more prestigious, and somewhere where I don’t have to be in a fraternity to actually be able to have a social life.
Well, that seems to be the real piece here. You are not the only person on CC who wants to jump ship b/c their college choice isn’t what they expected/hoped. Standard advice is to give it more time (there are always more social groups than you notice at the beginning).
The next level of advice says that If you are looking to change colleges, do your homework- starting with understanding why you got this choice wrong. You were very excited about Northwestern- what did you miss about it, and more importantly, what did you miss about you- that makes you now think that it was a mistake? If you don’t figure out what signals you missed - about the school or about yourself- you can easily end up making the same mistake again. As others have pointed out, you are all ready to jump to other schools with a strong greek presence, as long as you see them as ‘more prestigious’.
Having trouble studying because the school you are in is not ‘serious’ enough is not actually a ‘compelling academic reason’ for transferring, even if it was true that 9,282 of the 9,283 Northwestern undergrads
What about your financial situation? If you received a lot of financial aid, you may not be able to afford to transfer.
Can you try to go out and do things? Make a social life for yourself.
Your reason for transferring seems a bit unbelievable to me. There is partying at every school. Are you saying that there is non-stop Greek partying all the time in your dorm to the point that your can’t study?
I thought going into this that I wanted a lively social scene, but now I realize I’d rather have a non-Greek social scene that’s a bit less overwhelming. It’s not non-stop partying or anything, but there is strong pressure to go out many times per week, and I admittedly allowed myself to be too pulled in to it.
I got some financial aid, but not a lot. We still have to pay a ton for me to go here, and I’m taking out loans.
And yes, I guess the biggest reason I want to transfer is that I want to go to an Ivy. It sounds superficial, but it was a dream of mine since I was a little kid, and I realize now that coming to Northwestern was a mistake.
Really? One quarter of college can screw me over that badly? The average GPA for my college (Arts and Sciences) is only a 3.25; Northwestern is somewhat well known for grade deflation, particularly in this college.
I think the best thing to do is to make the best of this situation. Northwestern is a prestigious school. You do realize that you are very fortunate to have this opportunity, don’t you?
You will not ever be happy if you cannot let go of your unrealistic dreams. If you do very well, you can apply to an Ivy for grad school.
Fraternity membership:
Dartmouth 46%
Duke 30%
U Penn 30%
Northwestern 29%
Harvard and Yale will have dining clubs and/or secret societies that are similarly exclusive. Columbia will have its own traits that make finding your niche a challenge. Coming in as a transfer instead of a freshman you will miss out on events that draw freshmen together, and it will be that much harder to get connected.
In other words, the grass is not greener on the other side. Do your homework. Don’t make choices randomly. Instead of dreaming about how you can feel at home somewhere else that possibly has even more Greeks, why don’t you spend time figuring out how to fit in at Northwestern?
First semester of college is very difficult for many, many students across the country. A lot of freshmen make their first B’s ever not because of lack of ability, but because of the strain of being in a new place and trying to find their way. That does not mean that there is anything wrong with your university or with you, or with the combination of you at this particular university.
It’s an adjustment period. Give yourself more time to adjust and find your niche. Congratulate yourself and give yourself some praise for your courage and accomplishments so far, and just keep at it. Things will get better. Even for adults who move to a new city for a new job, it can take a year before they get settled in and feel at home and find connections with people they enjoy. You are learning life skills through these challenges that will stay with you long-term.
Btw, Northwestern is as prestigious as it gets. The top student in recent years from my daughter’s high school chose Northwestern over her admissions to Stanford, Columbia, and many other places. The university is certainly good enough to get you where you need to go in life – it will never be a mark against you that you attended Northwestern and not some other place. If you do well there, you can likely get into graduate school at one of these other universities if you are still dreaming of them down the road.
If you think there’s no partying at the ivies… there’s a bridge in Brooklyn we can all sell you. Your “ivy dream” is a fantasy, and not a compelling reason to jump ship. If [very specific school that happens to be an ivy] had [very specific academic department missing from your current school], maybe, but this just sounds like dissatisfaction that you didn’t score a relatively meaningless name brand the first time around.
Sorry but a 3.4 wont get you in, try Northwestern out for two years and heck if you really don’t like it transfer as a junior. Also get that gpa up to at least a 3.8 if you want to be competitive.
It doesn’t matter what college you are from, those top colleges you want are going to be looking for stellar academic profiles.
Hard to believe, but true. You can only undo the undone by making a massively compelling academic argument for transferring, such as some Professor absolutely needs you for their research. And writes about that for the admissions committee. That’s how you do it.
Fair point. Go ahead, apply to all 8 Ivies, (and check back with your results next year that prove us wrong).
But before applying check the Common Data Sets of the possible transfer schools. Some never take transfers (Princeton?; I’m too lazy to check), and others only take a few transfers each year. And the reason for that is the Ivies have a very high Frosh retention rate, so there are no additional beds in dorms from first year’s leaving.
The most transfer-friendly Ivy, is Cornell, and I would guess that the trasnfers are mostly in the ‘contract’ schools. To transfer into Cornell’s Arts & Sciences, you need a ~3.8.
Note:
high school grades and test scores are not of much relevance to transfers, who already have a college transcript.
if you are a national class rower, perhaps the coach can pull some strings.
But if you find it hard to believe, go apply and see how it works out for you.