Want Some Opinions on Transfer

[gprime]

So, I believe I've mentioned this elsewhere, but I plan on transferring elsewhere for sophmore year. While there are many things I dislike about the school, there are two points in particular that leave me inclined to go elsewhere.

First, I've found Jewish life here to be disappointing in a major way. That is, while I'm not religious, and that isn't what I'm seeking from it, I've found that there are very few Jews here, and even fewer willing to identify themselves as such. The few that are seem, at best, apathetic to their Jewish identity, and at worst, have a sense of self-loathing based on it. And, quite frankly, this school is far from being Jew friendly, to the point where one of my friends, who is himself religious, fears for his physical safety when wearing a kippah, and others have had to drop classes in the Religion and Ethnic Studies department, because on teacher actively discriminates against Jewish students. The few outlets are pretty poor too. JSG, Jewish Students Group, almost never meets, and when it does, nothing really happens. They just try and sell us shirts. Hillel does very little other than offer a conservative minyan on Shabbat. And AEPi, at least here, has about as much to do with Jewish life, and knows as much about Judaism, as the Muslim Students Association.

The other major concern is my major. I applied here as a business major, though after thinking about it in the months before coming here, I decided that Political Science would be the better major for the same ultimate career. The problem is that we have a very mediocre Political Science department. Most of the school's resources go to engineering, natural sciences, business, and nursing. The social sciences are just not very strong here.

So what I am in the process of doing now is putting together a transfer list. I want to eventually choose eight schools, at least one of which should be "safety" so that I can definitely get out of here.

So far, there are five I definitely want to apply to:
- Claremont Mckenna
- U Penn (CAS, as opposed to Wharton like last year)
- Cornell (CAS)
- Washington Univeristy in St. Louis
- University of Rochester

My initial inclination is to add:
- Rice
- Emory
- A safety

The safety would most likely be UMich. I don't happen to like the school all that much, but it does have some advantages to it. If I did go there I'd be apply CAS, and then an internal transfer to the Gerald Ford School of Public Policy for junior year.

However, as I look at my original list, which had around 30 schools, there are two that I don't want to cut out completely: Brown and Wesleyan (CT). Because of the similarities between the school, I would only apply to one and not the other. I am somewhat torn on which though. Brown has a better reputation, a slightly better range of courses, and a preferable location. But they only take 3% of transfer applicants. Wesleyan is similar where it counts (open curriculum, good political science offerings, large Jewish community), and has a >27% acceptance rate for transfers. And Wesleyan does have one program, CSS, that I love, because it is based of the Oxford PPE model, but with slightly more course freedom. It is the same type of program that made me inclined to look at Penn again.

Of course, this brings up a few questions:
- I'm a Neo-Objectivist. Should I even be looking at these left of Mao schools?
- Might Hamilton, which is also an open curriculum LAC a better choice for that?
- If I do apply to one of those schools, do I replace Emory, Rice, or UMich with it? Why?
- Are there other schools I should be looking at? (Already ruled out several, including Amherst, Johns Hopkins, and NYU).


For those curious, or who feel stats would allow them to better answer this question, mine are posted below, and at the very bottom, my rough plan of classes for next semester, which will likely change before registration opens up.
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Relative to stats, mine are fairly low. I came here with a 3.5 GPA (very slightly weighted, don't know unweighted) and a low (around 1950) SAT, with SAT II scores ranging from 660 (though I got a 5 on the corresponding AP test) to 720. I had a total SAT II score of 2060/2400. Naturally, I could retake these if need be. As far as college GPA goes, I expect between a 3.8 and a 4.0 for my first semester, with the following classes:

FSCC100 - SAGES: Life of the Mind
POSC109 - American Government
BIOL225 - Evolution
HSTY289 - Chinese Martial Legend
ANTH319 - Statistical Analysis in the Social Sciences

For reference, typically anything beyond the 300s is graduate level.

High school classes were split. Half were at a well-regarded private religious school in Boston, and the other half were at one of the better Michigan public schools, where I took the heaviest load possible, including half APs junior year (had to meet a few non-AP requirements to do more) and all APs senior year.

Outside of class, my main activity is writing for the school paper, though I am also a member of JSG. Also, I have an officer position for a freethought group on campus. I am also working to create a campus ZOA chapter, which I am the president of. Next semester I may pick up either Model UN or Peer Helpers Network, which I simply couldn't fit in the first time around.
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POSC260 – Comparative Government
POSC272 – International Relations
PHIL335 – Philosophy of Law
HSTY339 – American Intellectual Theory
COSI280 – Organizational Communications
I will probably switch around the political science classes. Those are next in the sequence, but there are a number of 300 ones that I could pick instead. Also looking at Religion 330 (Classical Jewish Thought), Classics 304 (Ancient Rome: Republic and Empire), and Sociology 204 (Criminology

[swivel]

All of your choices are decent. Anywhere you go, it will be up to you to learn, but I know enough about your motivation to not doubt the outcome.

Question: Why does it bother you that your Jewish brethren shy away from their race? You should applaud this. The big reason that Jews are the victims of so much racism is because they make their race too big a deal. I celebrate the new generation of Jew who doesn't give a shit about being Jewish, doesn't mind marrying outside of the faith, and frankly aren't a bunch of racist fuck-ups like their ancestors have been for about, oh, 3,000 years.

Look at the problems that the Irish had 150-100 years ago when they got in everyone's face about being "Irish". Once they shut the fuck up and started being American, their lot started to improve. Honestly, the Jews do so much to stand out from the crowd, and then whine when they get noticed for being freaks. I don't get it.

[gprime]

Swivel, I do understand what you're getting at about the Jewish community. For me the problem comes down to politics. On my campus, anti-semitism is considered okay, and most Jews ignore it as though it doesn't apply to them. Now, I'm not suggesting that, as an example, Jews need to hanging out only with one another or grow peyot. But those who espouse hatred of Jews aren't only talking about those Jews, and the Holocaust showed exactly that. To a Jew hater, a drop of Jewish blood makes you a Jew. And as a consequence, one has to be willing to respond to anti-semitism. That never happens here. It is usually me, and maybe one or two other people who give a damn. The rest of them stay silent.

You know that I'm an Atheist, with no respect for any religious tradition, the Jewish one included. And I am also very critical of those playing the race/ethnicity card. I wish it was never something that came up. But as the US Commission on Civil Rights has pointed out, campus Anti-semitism has reached epidemic levels in this country. So I want to be at a school where, when I see it, there are others there who are not only outraged, but willing to act in response to it.

[swivel]

Swivel, I do understand what you're getting at about the Jewish community. For me the problem comes down to politics. On my campus, anti-semitism is considered okay, and most Jews ignore it as though it doesn't apply to them. Now, I'm not suggesting that, as an example, Jews need to hanging out only with one another or grow peyot. But those who espouse hatred of Jews aren't only talking about those Jews, and the Holocaust showed exactly that. To a Jew hater, a drop of Jewish blood makes you a Jew. And as a consequence, one has to be willing to respond to anti-semitism. That never happens here. It is usually me, and maybe one or two other people who give a damn. The rest of them stay silent.

You know that I'm an Atheist, with no respect for any religious tradition, the Jewish one included. And I am also very critical of those playing the race/ethnicity card. I wish it was never something that came up. But as the US Commission on Civil Rights has pointed out, campus Anti-semitism has reached epidemic levels in this country. So I want to be at a school where, when I see it, there are others there who are not only outraged, but willing to act in response to it.

I understand all of that, and appreciate it. If I were you I would look at antisemitism as something sad and lamentable, but wouldn't feel that it applied to me. I do not feel "Irish", nor do I respond to Irish jokes, or the feeling of an Irish-Bond with others. I don't care about Irish traditions or holidays. I feel as black as I do Irish, which is to say, not-at-all. I would feel the same way if I was a Jew. I just wouldn't understand what that label meant, or entailed. I would laugh at the Jews that felt "Jewish", and feel pity for the idiots who lump Jews together and hate them for being "Jewish". That sort of in-grouping and out-grouping never appealed to me, or even made sense.

In highschool, I was equally comfortable in every single clique, and moved from one to the other with perfect ease. I played chess with the geeks, sports with the jocks, went to parties with the cool kids, and never once felt like I was one of them. Maybe the answer to your woes is to adopt an isolated, yet interested attitude. Still hate the haters, but hate the anti-blacks and anti-hispanics with equal (not special) fervor.