Should I Withdraw from Semester?

[toajoe]

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So I'm currently an undergrad freshman who seems to be in a bit of a rut. I'm in my Spring semester of freshman year and I need some major advice!
I've been debating for two weeks now whether or not I should totally drop this semester and start fresh at a different school. I am currently attending a public state school in Illinois and plan to transfer to different university next fall. I live near Chicago and am planning to transfer to a private university near my house (literally only 10minutes away by car) due to convenience. I am currently living on campus at my current school, but decided I want to commute next fall. My commute to my current school would be 45-50 minutes each way. Now I do plan to go back to work (part-time) near where I live as I commute to school next fall, but it would be so much more convenient if I attended the university near my house -- keeping in mind I also have to take labs that are 3 hours long and would have to unpleasantly cram my schedule for the coming semesters so I'm not having to commute every single day. So this is why I plan to transfer to the university near my house.
Now, I am a pre-dental Biology major, and a little bit of a background on me ... my first semester went pretty awful. I've had personal hardships all semester long; My mother passed right before I started college, my cousin was killed, and a friend of mine also passed two months ago. Due to these things, I was coming home every weekend and just simply struggling in terms of my GPA. I ended up with a 2.5 my first semester.

Now I'm 7 weeks into my second semester and things are still kind of hard personally, but I'm considering dropping this semester. I would really prefer to start fresh in the fall and get a better start at this semester at a different school close to home. I feel I can achieve much better grades than the ones I'm currently getting.

Has anyone had any experience transferring university to university? I understand credits are a major concern, but the school I plan to transfer to is very transfer friendly and have had many students from my school transfer there before. I was accepted into this school after I applied my senior year of high school with a great merit scholarship, but obviously didn't commit. Now, I have also considered simply going to a community college, to ensure all my credits are 100% accurate.
So would dropping this semester and waiting till Fall to go to a different school be really detrimental to me?
Should I accept Cs and Bs rather than As and stay for the semester, or should I totally withdraw from the school and start fresh else where?

 

[ICUrunning]

It seems you've had a rough start. I think you should take a break, collect your thoughts and start anew at the other school. No need to stay where you are right now and receive poor grades.

Sorry for your losses. Dental schools will definitely understand that losing three people close to you will have a detrimental effect on your well-being, emotionally and mentally.

Start fresh. Good luck man.

 

[monch]

My condolences to your losses... I can't imagine going through personal loss and having to deal with school too... So are you leaning towards transferring through convenience or you genuinely want to attend the private school? Even if you transfer and have a "fresh start," you have to send transcripts from all universities attended. You are also only a freshman, so you have plenty of opportunities to really focus and get those A's too. It's a big decision, so make sure you really want to transfer schools! Good luck!