Go for it—Transfer
You are in charge of your own college experience.
By Amalia Cabigas, Contributing Writer
On the last day of senior year, I wrote a letter to my future self. In this letter, I talked about how excited I was for college and how I thought the college I chose was going to fulfill all of my expectations of what I thought college would be. I thought I would make a bunch of new friends, feel at home in my new city and go out every weekend. I was confident that college was going to be much more exhilarating than high school. However, this was not the case. I spent most of my days FaceTiming my high school friends, cooped up in my dorm room, hunched over my laptop. In this letter, I had hyped the college that I chose up so much and was so confident that my college experience was going to be crazy that I wondered if my 2019 self would be disappointed that I transferred.
Transferring colleges is a huge transition, and does not come without its doubts. Nearly one-third of college students transfer (Strauss, 2019). However, this percentage does not take into account the number of college students that think about transferring but never do.
College students may want to transfer schools but decide not to for a majority of different reasons. Maybe they don't want to feel like a freshman all over again. This is something that I initially struggled with; the first week I moved to Madison, I had no idea where anything was, and I had barely any friends, but you learn to adapt to your surroundings. You use Google Maps to get to class and find buildings, use apps to teach you bus routes, and join clubs and organizations to make new friends. Being unfamiliar with the city is only temporary and isn’t as much of a problem as you think it'd be. Upperclassmen don’t even know every inch of the city. There is so much to explore and new people to meet every day.
Maybe they don’t want to explain to everyone why they transferred. When I first got to Madison, other students would ask me this all the time. I didn’t like my previous college. That’s it. No big, serious reason. It was just no longer fulfilling my needs. Now, I know people may have many other, more personal reasons, but it really is no one else's business. If random people ask why you transferred, give them a surface-level answer. It does not matter why you transferred, what matters is you are here now.
Maybe they think transferring will look bad on their academic record. This is something that I also struggled with; I thought my future employers would look at me switching colleges as being indecisive. However, this is actually completely the opposite of what employers think. Transferring colleges and getting good grades at that new college show amazing adaptability and flexibility (Friedman, 2019). Being thrown into a completely new environment, and thriving, shows that you handle change very well. Additionally, only the institution you graduate from will be listed on your diploma.
Obviously, academics should come first for every student; however, quality of life is also so important during your college years. There is seriously nothing wrong with transferring, and if anything it actually has its benefits. It has given me an immense appreciation for my new city, exposed me to new opportunities that I didn't even know existed and has gotten me to step out of my comfort zone. Transferring colleges allows many students to thrive academically, flower socially, and cultivate their creativity. It also allows students to explore new classes that may not have been offered at their previous college and pursue new-found passions (Perron, 2011).
My 18-year-old self would be proud I dared to pick everything up and move to a completely different environment. At first, it was a difficult transition, but transferring was the best thing I ever did for myself.
Ultimately, you are in charge of your own college experience, and if transferring will make it better in any way, I say go for it.
Sources:
Friedman, J. (2019). Transferring colleges: 10 frequently asked questions. U.S. News.
Perron, M. (2011). Benefits of transferring. CollegeXpress.
Strauss, V. (2019). Why So Many College Students Decide To Transfer. Washington Post.