| | | Round Two
Transfers Try Again
| | | By Meghan Wilson
Think starting at Northwestern as a freshman is incredibly hard? Try being a transfer student.
The Northwestern transfer student is a small and elusive breed found sparsely around campus. Just how small might you ask? As of September 3rd, the unofficial tally was 142. When compared to a freshman class of around 2000 students, it’s easy to see how transfers can sometimes get overlooked.
Transfers are grouped with freshman all through Orientation Week, attending those mind numbing Essential NU courses despite having already gone through a standard orientation at their first-year schools. They even get to participate in the hugely informative AlcoholEdu- strikingly pertinent to someone already proven to have survived the freshman year binging. Once all of the Orientation hoopla ends, the transfers have formally reject their freshman newness and try to integrate into the already formulated Northwestern student body.
If you came from a state school, good luck. Many of these transfers will probably be wondering what kind of academic sub-culture they have transferred to; where everyone studies, the competition for everything academic and extra-curricular is fierce, and the parties are few and far between.
Wherever a transfer student came from, they have already spent at least one year trying to adjust to another school’s rules and social practices. If you’re a transfer student, chances are it didn’t go so hot the first time. However, transitioning from not-so-stellar of an experience to a largely academic, competitive, and very very cold environment can also prove daunting. Once at NU, though, some find their transition between schools easier than others. Amy McGhee, a junior in SESPE who transferred from Rhodes College in Memphis, recalls a smooth and fulfilling transfer experience. “I like it here,” says Amy, “there is a lot more social opportunities because I came from a really small school.” She does concede, though, that “it helps a lot that my boyfriend went here so I already had him and his friends.”
If your curiosity about transfer students is mounting, head on up to North Campus near to the remodeled frat house affectionately known as “the transfer dorm”. The faint smell of stale beer and halls filled the memories of drunken frat boys and naïve freshmen seems provide the perfect environment for transfer student bonding. Many transfer students appreciate the initial community and shared experience pool. It’s just like an older and wise freshman year dorm- less puke and more punch. Some transfers call it an oasis in an already integrated sea of upperclassmen. The oasis, however, can sometimes lack a way out. Communication junior Rachel Merritt, who came to NU from Vanderbilt says, “The transfer dorm was great at first for meeting people who were in the same situation as me, but it made it more difficult to adapt to Northwestern because it put a restraint on meeting others who were already integrated into campus life.”
What happens to the few who don’t make it into this dorm? Many of them end up with the housing left over from the past year’s housing lottery. These few ‘exiles’ can sometimes spend the rest of the year wondering just what in their application got them excluded from the transfer dorm. Weinberg junior Laura Selby, an Indiana University transfer from last year, says upon learning of the dorm she felt, “slightly left out… not majorly. But it was weird to know that the option had been there and I hadn’t known about it, that housing didn’t mention it to me.”
Everyone knows being the new kid is no fun, so be on the lookout for transfers all over campus these first few weeks. If you’re a returning student, remember how tiring it was to be a freshman even when you were actually a freshman. Now picture yourself having to do it all over again. Invite some of the girls to upperclassmen parties so they’re not left boozing it up with the freshman girls at the frats all year. (Sure, it’s fun at first…)
A message to all last year’s transfers: Be happy to know a new group has claimed the title “new upperclassmen on campus.” And to this year’s transfer students- welcome to Northwestern, you made a good choice, but good luck.
Meghan would love to show you a thing or two- any comments or requests for a private tour should be sent to: m-wilson-1@northwestern.edu
| | |
