Transferring from Stanford

I’m currently a sophomore at Stanford, and I am weighing my options for the next 2 years. I have found Stanford almost unbearable since I began. Right now I am a Management Science and Engineering major, which is the closest degree Stanford has to business/finance. I’m looking at UMich (Ross or LSA) and Vanderbilt, as both are somewhat closer to home. In terms of job prospects, what would my best option be?
Ross has a 5% acceptance rate for external transfers, so I’m not betting on that. It also requires 3 years of study, which mean I would essentially start next year as a sophomore [again]. I’m also not too keen on LSA, as it doesn’t seem to have the recruiting power that Ross does.
Almost anything feels like a step down from Stanford, but also one that I’m willing to take, within reason.
I’m also faced with the issue of transfer credit at LSA and Ross - I don’t know how many credits it’s possible to transfer. I will have about 90 credits at the end of this year as Stanford is on the quarter system, but I’m not sure if enough will transfer to where I could finish my degree within 2 years.

Thoughts?

Consider Northwestern University which is also on the quarter system.

FWIW: Another poster wants to transfer out of Princeton & indicated that Stanford is a school that is of interest to him. Maybe the Deans can work out a trade.

Just curious when you say “unbearable,” how do you mean?

90 quarter credits is equivalent to 60 semester credits. Whether all will transfer is unknown, though I can’t imagine why not. You should be able to finish the remaining required credits in 2 years.

CAtransplant: There are a million reasons, but all-in-all I don’t feel Stanford is a good fit - at all. I would have transferred after my freshman year if it weren’t for Stanford’s “name.” Now, I am halfway through sophomore year and am so miserable that the name almost means almost nothing to me anymore, and I’m having a hard time wrestling with how much it actually means to be here versus somewhere else.
With that being said, I understand I would be halfway through my undergrad at the time of transfer - so now it is rather a question of practicality. I would rather just stick out the next two years than have to take another year due to non-transferring credits/degree requirements/etc. I then have to think about adjusting to another school. At the end of the day, it’s just a gamble as to if another school would be a better fit (or one where I’m not miserable).

I was also thinking of somehow lessening the time I spend here, i.e., taking a semester at UMich, studying abroad, etc.

Seems important to identify specifically how Stanford is a bad fit before plunging into another school where you might encounter the very thing that’s making you miserable at Stanford. Maybe you have and are just not expressing it here-which is fine. But that would be a very important thing to identify first.

“Seems important to identify specifically how Stanford is a bad fit before plunging into another school where you might encounter the very thing that’s making you miserable at Stanford.”

This is pretty much exactly what I was thinking.

I did get a degree from Stanford so I have some clue what it is like to actually attend. It is academically very challenging. I think that I worked pretty much all the time that I was there, with the exception of getting enough time to sleep, and most Saturday’s only working from 10am to about 5 pm and then taking the evening off. As such I can see how the academic demands are only appropriate for someone who wants to do it and someone who knows why they are doing it. However, it is not obvious to me that Michigan would be any less stressful. Similarly Stanford is large, but Michigan is even larger.

“am so miserable that the name almost means almost nothing to me”

I had the same experience as an undergrad (which was not Stanford, but was at a very challenging school). After a while a school means going to class and doing homework and taking exams.

To me the main issue is to understand what you don’t like, and make sure that you don’t transfer somewhere that would be just as bad, and possibly just as bad in the same way.

I also wonder whether taking a semester or a year off and then returning to Stanford might give you a different perspective. I was much more able to deal with the heavy workload after taking two years working at a “normal job” because after working for a couple of years I understood why I was putting in the huge effort at a demanding university.

The few students that I have known who took a semester abroad have spoken highly of the experience. I have a daughter who took approximately a semester abroad in high school and liked it a lot.