Enrich Your College Education With Transfers, Overloads, and Early Graduation

I started college with all intentions of having the perfectly typical experience. I’d read all the catalogues, checked out the advice articles, and knew exactly what to expect. I’d applied to three schools and got accepted to all, so the choice was mine. My future was in my hands. With complete confidence (the first sign that something would go wrong) I made my decision and chose one school – let’s call it Small Private Liberal Arts College, or SPLAC, for short. I accepted their offered scholarship, packed my things, bid a tearful goodbye to my best friend (so unnecessarily dramatic), and ventured into the unknown. 

I was, by all outward signs, just another traditional day student. I was months out of high school, barely eighteen years old, and nervous as anything. What if I hated it? What if I just didn’t fit in? What if I had to flee my dorm and spend every weekend – gasp! – at home? These were my worst fears. 

Guess what. They were realized. All of them. And yes, I survived. It turns out that I didn’t really fit in. I didn’t go home every weekend – just 93% of them. I wasn’t part of any cliques. I wasn’t interested in sororities and their promise of matching pink t-shirts and pearl necklaces. I even tried joining a dance club, but I still didn’t feel like this school could possibly be my home. I suppose I could try blame this on my classmates – it being an expensive school, they were from a different world with their mansions and maids and exotic spring breaks – but I digress. It wasn’t their fault, of course. 

I could try to blame myself. I’m very shy, and often kept to myself. I chose to pass on the parties; I chose to not join a sorority (it was a very Greek campus). I was more comfortable going home to the place and people I knew than staying with those I didn’t. I suppose I could also try to blame the school – it didn’t have the program I wanted (actually an excellent reason to transfer) or perhaps the work was just too hard (except it wasn’t).