Lifestyles

Yet, things didn't feel quite right for the nursing major: With a student body size of more than 20,000, Barker says she felt lost, and the nursing program didn't seem personalized enough.

"I really enjoyed the school; I loved Kent, and I loved the campus. ... It was just a really large school with big classroom sizes," says Barker, an Oakland resident originally from New Kensington. "I was just a Social Security number; nobody knew my name. It was really difficult to find anybody who could help."

Barker, who transferred in 2004 to Carlow College in Oakland for her sophomore year, is not alone in her experience. Many high school graduates, when they arrive at what they thought was the school of their dreams, discover they are in the wrong place. They know they need to change directions and go somewhere else.

And that's okay, says Kim McCarty, director of admissions for Seton Hill University in Greensburg, Westmoreland County.

"Students are not going to be successful anywhere if they are unhappy and uncomfortable," she says.

Maybe it's homesickness when they are at a faraway school, or personal or family issues, McCarty says. Maybe it's a matter of finances, dissatisfaction with campus social life, or the desire to pursue a different academic program. Maybe, like Barker, they realize that the student body size simply is too big to make them feel comfortable and at home.

Andrew Pujol, 18, had the opposite problem: The student body at St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Westmoreland County, was too small, and the atmosphere too quiet, for him. Pujol, who is from New Kensington, is preparing to transfer next semester to Penn State in State College.

Part of the reason he chose St. Vincent, which has about 1,500 students, was the opportunity to get smaller class sizes and more individual attention. He says the school and its academic programs are great; yet, the trade-off was an unstimulating social scene, Pujol says.

"There's absolutely no social life; the whole place is like a ghost town on the weekends, and there's nobody here," says the psychology major. "It was a shock. The first weekend, me and my roommate were sitting in our dorm, staring at the ceiling with nothing to do."

Two people, depending on their lifestyles and tastes, can have very different experiences at the same school, and one person's complaint can be another person's blessing. Frank Altier, now a Harrison City dentist, chose St. Vincent College for its intimate atmosphere after starting at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, where he felt out of place.

"I hated it," says Altier, 35, who lives in Hempfield, Westmoreland County. "After the first week, I was ready to leave, but I had to stick it out for the first semester. ... It wasn't really what I thought it was going to be."

He says he liked the academic programs at Carnegie Mellon, but that the place didn't personally feel like a good fit. At St. Vincent College, Altier says, he got more individualized attention from professors, and he felt more at home.

"The whole atmosphere was like a caring atmosphere. ... Whereas, at Carnegie Mellon, I felt like you were just there," Altier says. He later went to the University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine, and says that his Carnegie Mellon experience prepared him for living in Oakland.

Barker, too, had a happy ending, and says she is glad she transferred. Now, through Carlow's nursing program, she get to do hands-on work at area hospitals, and she gets a lot of instruction and help from her professors at the school of about 2,500 students.

Her parents also were supportive of her plans when Barker told them she wanted to leave Kent State.

"They were supporting me, and they helped me with the transferring," Barker says. "They helped me make sure I made the right choice the second time around."

Judy Trosell, associate director of the adult-degree center at Carlow College, says that students who feel they made a mistake in their original college choice should not get discouraged. It's hard to be certain of anything in life, let alone at age 18.

"I think, sometimes, kids, particularly high school kids, maybe initially don't even really know what they want," Trosell says.

With the right research and introspection about what went wrong, she says, students will find the right place.

"I think, very often, they're looking for a better fit for them," Trosell says. "I believe that there is a right fit, if you will, for every student."

Adjusting to college life

If your dream college seems to be turning into an institutional nightmare, don't lose heart, experts say. You might have made a wise and well-researched choice, only to discover that things didn't feel right. Maybe something you thought you wanted, such as a long-distance move or a large student body, turned out to feel bad when you got there.

Consider these tips:

• First of all, unless there are severe personal problems or other urgent matters, stick it out for at least a semester, and, preferably a year, says Kim McCarty, director of admissions for Seton Hill University, Greensburg. Maybe you're in the perfect place, but it won't feel like it until the homesickness and strangeness wear off. All campuses have some resources to help students facing the same problems.

• Look into whether the problem can be solved while staying at the same school. For instance, maybe you need to switch roommates or change majors.

• In choosing a new school, ask yourself what you didn't like about your first school, then look for schools that don't have that trait, says Judy Trossel, associate director of the adult-degree center at Carlow College, in Pittsburgh.

  For instance, if the school felt impersonal, choose a smaller college. Consider all of the factors involved in transferring, such as finances and possible loss of credits, plus the cornerstone factors in choosing a college: academics, size, location, extracurricular activities and the like. Research can prevent future mistakes, Trossel and McCarty say. Visit campuses, too, to see what they're really like. Develop a rapport with an admissions counselor, and be honest about why you want to leave and what you're looking for.

• When breaking the news to your parents, who might have been as invested in the original school as you were, be sensitive but honest about your struggles, Trossel and McCarty say. Take a proactive approach by presenting other options you have thought about.

Sources: Kim McCarty, director of admissions for Seton Hill University, and Judy Trosell, associate director of the adult degree center at Carlow College in Pittsburgh

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