Transfer to UIowa from UofKentucky?

[hannahfaith]

I know this is long but this has been consuming me over break so any advice would be appreciated!

I am currently a freshman at the University of Kentucky and I honestly hate it. I don’t feel like I belong there at all and have really struggled to find my people and it’s just not an environment I thrive in. I never really wanted to go there in the first place as I impulsively committed after getting rejected from my first choice and it was a school that gave me a good amount of money and wasn’t too far away without being in-state. I am in the honors college as well as a sorority there both of which I love and will definitely miss, but I find myself always wanting to go home and dread going back. I’ve tried super hard to find my people by going to various events, joining a small group at the on campus Christian community, doing a club sport, joining a sorority, and just asking people to do stuff. I have friends but it’s just the overall environment that just suffocates me and I don’t know how to exactly describe it.

I have filled out several transfer applications to go literally anywhere else, even the school 30 mins from me I swore I’d never go to just because I hate UK. Ever since Thanksgiving break, I have been thinking about transferring and having literal dreams about transferring to a different school because it’s on my mind that much. I also have the option to graduate in three years, and based upon my current experience, I want out ASAP. I haven’t really brought it up with my parents because I don’t want to upset them after all they have done to get me to UK, but I’m miserable every day, especially the weekends.

Maybe it will get better like everyone says it does, but what if it doesn’t? Then what? It might just be the fact that I went to an extremely academically rigorous small Catholic all girls high school and I’m having problems adjusting, but something tells me its not. It might also be that I hate partying and it seems like that’s all people like to do at UK. I also feel super trapped without having my car on campus as well.

My parents do know my struggles of finding friends and they think that COVID really messed up my class socially and all of us as a whole struggle with making friends because it hit when we finished 8th grade and started freshman year, which is usually the age people start making plans and doing stuff on their own and stuff like that, but I don’t know if COVID is really to blame at this point since it’s been like five years.

The school I really want to transfer to (The University of Iowa) is one that I’ve wanted to go to my entire life is 8 hours away which my parents said they were okay with when I first started looking at schools, however I felt like they didn’t really want me to go that far so I looked elsewhere since I’m a major people pleaser. I cried when I turned them down and spent the rest of my senior year wondering if I shouldn’t have done that, and even wished in the summer I was going there. I mean maybe I’d still have the same problems there, but it’s the place I feel like I’m meant to be. I am a middle level education major (middle school) which works a bit different there as you do a double major in your subject and education to be certified for the grades I want, but then I’d also be able to do high school as well. I’ve also heard that it’s harder to get certified in your home state you go far away rather than bordering states like I am now. I would also miss being in the honors college, and I know that they have my sorority, but chapters differ at every school.

Overall, I’m thinking about talking to my parents about filling some transfer applications out just in case spring semester doesn’t go better, or maybe this is normal and I’m just overdramatic. Any advice would be appreciated!

[vwlizard]

I’m not saying to ignore what you are feeling, but from my experience with D22 friends, some hated their first semester or year and thought of transferring. Most of them didn’t transfer as they would not have qualified for as much merit as transfer students. They stuck it out where they were and ended up liking or loving it the next year.

It is usually easier to get a teaching job in the state you attend college. Many states have reciprocal certification but personal recommendations and someone in your corner who has a personal relationship with the person hiring you go a long way. Being certified 6-12 has advantages as long as you would be willing to teach at the high school level. Even if you get hired for middle school, administrators like flexibility, and as a new hire, it is likely that you can get “reassigned” early in your career.

It sounds like you are doing everything right to find “your people”, but most often that doesn’t happen right away. Keep in mind that “your people” usually isn’t a large group like what you see in movies, but one or two close friends.

I do suggest talking to your parents about what you are feeling as you say it is consuming you. Will another large school like the University of Iowa really be that different? Especially coming in as a transfer student? Or should you take a look at the smaller school near your home?

[tsbna44]

There are no dream schools.

All have bad profs, roomies, food etc.

You’d be trading one biggy - albeit in a larger city…for another.

You’d be behind socially and more. It will cost more.

Are you sure the big school is right for you as opposed to a Murray State as an example ?

You can always apply and if things get better, stay.

Best of luck.

[Publisher]

Need more information.

Why do you want to attend the University of Iowa ? What do you think will be different at U Iowa compared to your current situation ?

Am I mistaken,or, based on your past posts, wasn’t Clemson University your first choice school ?

From a psychological standpoint, it might help to complete and to submit a few transfer applications. Should be a cathartic exercise possibly leading to a life changing experience.

As a Catholic with familiarity with many Catholic families, it is tough to adjust from a single sex all Catholic school environment to a non-Catholic school.

Consider your in state options (my understanding is that you are not resident of any of Kentucky, Iowa, or South Carolina) and consider Catholic and Jesuit schools.