When I was a sophomore in college, I began to feel like my higher education experience was starting to feel less and less like what I had anticipated. I spent my entire freshman year feeling like I had chosen the right school for me, but suddenly something felt like it didn't quite click. It's important to remember that although feeling this way can be a bit terrifying, there's no reason that you should hold yourself back from experiencing something new. I decided to stop feeling stuck in one place and I transferred to a new school that I felt was better for me. Here's a list of reasons why transferring to a different school was the best decision I've made in college:
1. It made me excited to learn again.
When I initially started to think about transferring, I wasn't sure what the root of my problem with my old school was. After giving it some thought, I realized that the professors and program that I was involved in was not what I was looking for at all. I started to become bored with my classes and never really felt challenged at all. Transferring to a new school opened my options up a lot. With new professors and classes to choose from, I began to get excited about learning again.
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2. Meeting new people.
One of the best perks of transferring is the ability to form new friendships. This doesn't necessarily mean that the people I met at my old school were bad people, but sometimes entering an entirely different atmosphere of people is healthy for you. When I started my junior year at my new school, Hunter College, I was rejuvenated by all of the new faces I got to see and friendships I got to make. You can always stay in contact with your friends from your old school so there is no reason to limit yourself from meeting new ones!
3. New places to explore.
One of the things that I learned during my freshman year in college was that your school quickly becomes your new home. At my old college, I felt like I had seen as much as I wanted to see. I had great nights going out with friends and letting loose, but I felt the burning desire to have a new place to call my stomping ground. There are obviously other ways of satisfying this urge without transferring, such as a study abroad program. But sometimes resetting your foundation somewhere new is a great way to experience a different place.
4. New ways to get involved.
It always seemed to me that everyone found their place right away during freshman year; this isn't the case at all. Personally, I felt that all the ways I was trying to get involved led to dead ends or just didn't spark my interest enough. At a new school, you become introduced to a whole new collective of clubs, Greek life and other exciting activities. If you transfer to a big city, like I did, then those possibilities are virtually endless. If you are feeling trapped in the same old rut at your current school, maybe you just need new ways to actively participate in activities on and off-campus.
5. Broadening your college experience.
At first, the idea of having to pick up and start again somewhere new freaked me out a little bit, but I was actively taking steps towards making it a reality. I wasn't exactly sure why I was so keen on switching schools because my grades were good, I knew the campus like the back of my hand. I knew the best places to eat. I had friends that I could spend free time with, and so on and so forth. What I soon came to see is that these were the exact reason why I wanted to leave so bad.
I wanted to be somewhere new and scary again like in my freshman year. I wanted to have to build up from the bottom again. I knew that in the long run, I would be proud to tell people that I got the chance to attend both Queens College and Hunter College. It wasn't that I was upset by my years at Queens at all, I wasn't. I always knew, however, that broadening my college experience was something I was interested in doing. So, if you are feeling the same types of emotions that I was, I say go for it.
