By Megan Davis |Staff Writer|
CSUSB’s school motto may be “come here go anywhere” but what they left out is that getting here is a huge pain if you are a transfer student.
I myself am a transfer student. I can attest to the fact that the process of transferring is one filled with frustration and anxiety, and one that doesn’t seem as brutal for our incoming freshman.
“I know for me, as a transfer student I felt the school did not really do anything to assist me in having a smooth transition, especially when compared with how much they do for the incoming freshman,” said transfer student and Coyote Chronicle Opinions Editor Katherine Valadez.
Statistics show that in Fall 2011 CSUSB enrolled almost 1,500 transfer students, but I can guarantee they didn’t get here without some headaches along the way.
I can tell you that figuring out which classes are transferable and what upper division courses correlate to your specific major are just a few items on the list of obstacles that can seem endless.
I think one of the biggest problems with the transfer process is the lack of communication between the universities and the incoming transfer students.
Most transfer students are educated on how to begin their application process, but other key and necessary information often falls through the cracks once they arrive here.
Questions like: What the heck is SOAR? Why do I have a hold on my registration for Department Advising, who do I even talk to about that? How am I supposed to know what a grad check is?
These are questions that are willingly answered for the freshman but for me; it seems like transfer students are expected to just magically know this information.
“I think the counselors and teachers here should just treat the transfers as if they are incoming freshman. We are coming from a completely different school with different kinds of classes and programs, so in reality how are we to be expected to be any more informed than the average freshman” said Marissa Wollard a transfer student from Chaffey Community College.
Also, with the lack of funding provided by the state, classes are being cut left and right at the junior colleges.
It has become an all-out war to get classes, often resulting in students having to take courses the summer before transferring, which has been deterred from in the past.
So in light of just how grueling the process is to transfer into a university, it should go without saying that we as transfer students should get just as much support and opportunities that are provided to our freshman.
As a part of the student body we should not have to feel abandoned and left to our own defenses during this critical point in our academic career.
Bearing these factors and more in mind, CSUSB and the CSU system in general should consider it a priority to aid not only the young freshman students arriving, but also the hard working transfer students who dedicated their scholastic lives to transfer to a university.