Should I transfer colleges for next year?

[127crazie]

I'm currently a freshman at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. I'm from a suburb of Minneapolis and am used to the metro area/bigger cities.

So far, Drake has been... passable. It's pretty small, I have easy classes, and I've settled into a routine. (This is two months in.)

I'm having some serious doubts, though. I kept telling myself while applying that I wanted to go out of state for college, and perhaps to a smaller one, to get away. It's clearer to me now that I somewhat mis-evaluated what would actually make me happy - I do want to "get away," but mostly by living away from home - whether it's close, like in the Twin Cities, or not wouldn't really matter, I feel in retrospect.

Now that I'm here, I feel bored a whole lot - I don't have classes on Fridays and spend most weekends (Fridays included) doing very little at all - it's become incredibly depressing, occasionally.

It's true that it's only the first semester, I don't have a student job yet, and I have fewer classes than I should (only four right now), but I'm really not sure this is "the" college for me. I hardly have reason to ever leave campus (which is only a couple of blocks wide) and feel like I'm living in this artificial environment, like Drake's campus is not the "real world" like I was used to back in Minnesota. I really miss going out into the "real world" and feel bored and depressed a lot.

Educationally, it's been fine, but I'm paying roughly $40,000 up the nose each year for this school; it hasn't been superb, and it's so small that in some ways it feels like a high school - only one cafeteria, for example. It's a liberal-arts styled education - is that really a good value?

Once again, I certainly don't have the entire picture here. I haven't been outreaching as much as I could, it's possible it's all due to too much idleness, and maybe I'm still homesick in some way. Not to mention I've only been here for two months. But the environment I'm living in here at Drake, plus the allure of in-state tuition at, say the University of Minnesota, has really been giving me second thoughts.

I'm not going to decide definitively, one way or the other, for some while. (The transferring deadlines for most schools are next spring.) But give me advice: should I seriously considering going to a different (bigger) school next fall, or hope it gets better? I don't want to make a rash decision, but even worse, I want to avoid treading water and ending up in a bad situation for me. Tell me what you think, and thank you for reading all of this. I appreciate it.

 

[Kuares]

I know there's a bunch of stuff that I should be talking about instead, but why haven't you gone to any of the Iowa tournaments? This thing right here, post in it. Drake is like 2/3 Blocks from our main TO's house.

 

[Steel]

Depends, is going to a different school going to suddenly make you outgoing?

You aren't going to have fun in college if you are just "idle" like you say. A college community is a thriving social environment and is supposed to be the best 4-5 years of your life, contributively because you get to start anew in one way or another. You need to learn to let go of what is familiar and put yourself out there. Once you do that, your feeling of being homesick is going to go away and you'll feel like you are truly at home when you're on campus.

Drake has a Greek life and from what I've read makes up just under half the student population. When you're at a school like that the social scene is going to be more or less dominated by the Greeks. Did you look into that at all? My University is over 40% Greek, but because I'm a part of it I am constantly amongst an immense amount of social situations everyday because of events, philanthropies, or just the massive network that you quickly accumulate through leaving your bedroom. Perhaps it's just not your thing but if you haven't really looked into it, I guarantee pledging a Fraternity will turn your college life around and your connections will aid you greatly after graduation.

Life is about networking and it holds massively true in college. College is where you need to elevate your networking skills to a level that will aid you in the real world, and if you're not doing anything on weekends then you need to take a look at how you can improve this.

As far as your campus not feeling like the "real world," some college campuses, maybe a lot I don't know, have a "bubble" atmosphere to them. It's commonly described as when you're on campus you're in a bubble that is primarily University-affiliated and a feeling of security because nothing can hurt you. It's not a bad thing, and it's even an enjoyable thing if you have the right mindset about it, but you just need to have in the back of your mind that it will be different after graduation and you will have to handle yourself appropriately and know how to do it.