Transfer out of Wharton for Duke
This is my first time posting on any forum so I apologize in advance if I do anything wrong. I'm a second semester Freshman at the Wharton School and am not enjoying my experience thus far. I'm a pretty social guy, the kind of person people say "knows everyone," but am not enjoying Wharton/Penn and don't feel like it is a positive experience and is instead something I have been trying to make the best of. I don't feel genuinely connected to anyone here and I am not a part of any solid communities (I have applied to so many different Wharton clubs, and although I usually make the final rounds I am only involved in two clubs). I'm sick of feeling isolated, like people only want to either "work hard" or "play hard" and don't actually care about building the life-long relationships I was expecting to build in college. To put all of this in a better context, I am struggling academically with a 3.25 GPA last semester and couldn't attend rush events (and therefore didn't receive a bid) due to some highly personal reasons but am interested in Fall Rush and have been told to participate in it.
From what I've read it sounds like people have a generally more positive college experience at Duke instead of Wharton. I'm from the South and had an incredible group of friends in high school that I miss more than anything. I understand that most people here are extremely career-driven and I really respect that, but at this point I just want to be happy, and, for me, happiness comes from the people I surround myself with and the relationships derived from them.
I guess what I'm asking is will Duke be the school I'm expecting it to be, more social and slightly less academic with high friendliness and more of the popularized "college experience" or should I just stay at Wharton, be average academically, and most likely not enjoy the rest of my time here? I wouldn't be posting on here if I didn't truly feel desperate and unhappy. I am an extremely proactive person and I have tried everything I can think of to make Wharton/Penn a more positive experience, I'm very solution-oriented and right now I feel that transferring is my only solution to my current unhappiness.
Thank you all so much
