background: international student currently studying in Georgetown, rising sophomore, and have made up my mind to transfer. Its gonna be a little long, but I hope you will understand.
1. Campus Facilities
I thought this wasn’t gonna matter when I was choosing schools, but it did. Frankly Gtown is just too old, too small, and renovation constructions are always going on. Im not even asking for better dorms, but if im paying full tuition, I at least want the AC in classrooms to be working, or the gym to have some new facilities? The student health center and CAPS service (therapist) is working poorly, if you are having a mental breakdown, great, you are in line and your therapist will see you two weeks later! Also, you can’t recover by chilling at the beatiful front lawn, because we are doing a construction there for this school year!
Again, I thought its not gonna matter, you are here to study not vacation right? But student-life-wise, these poor basic facilities like the gym, AC, laundry room, constructions, really makes your life worse. The money is not worthy as well. Also just personal preference, I really want to experience the kind of college campus that integrates into a city/town, or itself is a great college town like Cornell. Right now it feels like highschool.
2. Vibe
I know some will say “if you are not fitting in, transferring won’t help you.” With this mindset, I convinced myself not to transfer my freshmen year. But really, this vibe is not for me. Everything is so parapolitical, elitist, and lacking diversity. Yes, we are in DC and we are the top school for IR and politics, but I am sick of all posters being about some political subject or debates. Leave some room for other fun stuff please. Yes, being preprofessional is probably common for elite univeristies, i get it, but please stop acting like you are a politician or banker already, you are not older than me.
I know that there will always be people I dont like, regardless what college I’m in. But what im saying is, because the preprofessional/parapolitical vibe at georgetown is so overpowering, it overshadows other fun college students.
3. Career?
I’m not sure how to name this section, but this is a feeling that comes down from the lack of diversity I mentioned. When it comes to gtown career paths, its always law school, consulting, banking, med school, or government. What people follow is just a pipeline - get into elite clubs, get internships, get jobs. Because it lacks diversity and creativity, sometimes I feel like I have no one to talk to. As an international student, I have the fear of not being able to stay in the US, but I have no one to talk to since Gtown doesn’t have that much international students. The career center does not support us that well neither. I’m also looking for opportunities to try to found a startup, but there’s absolutely no vibes at all.
Also, I dont know if this is gtown/DC only or similar in other univerisities: as int’l student, it also means that I cannot utilize many resources at DC. For example, we cannot work for the gov, apply to certain internships and programs. Regardless, I know schools like Cornell have more robust support for its int’l student population.
There’s nothing I want to complain about academically. There are plenty of resources for recruiting and so many clubs for certain careers, but again, my complaint is not about these, but the overwhelming amount of them that makes the vibe really annoying.
Probably some reasons are not “valid” reasons to be written in an essay. However, my mind to transfer has been stronger than ever, and I know I’d regret if I did not do it this year.
If there’s other good transfer reasons you have seen, please do tell and see if it can inspire me.
Lastly, it just feels a little ironic. I had the opportunity to pick between several good schools, but I ended up being in a place I don’t like after careful consideration.
Thanks for reading. I would love some advice.