Transferring is a tricky business. The financial and emotional returns of enrolling at a new college must outweigh the loss of friends, connections and the year you spent adjusting to the last place you called home. Although I will never regret my choice to transfer to Vanderbilt from Bates College, the process came with challenges that not only reflected the common struggles that any new college student faces, but also ones that are wholly unique to the transfer experience.
Getting involved with the campus community when I arrived at Vanderbilt was turbulent. Although our separate and lengthier transfer student orientation served as a good outlet for building community, I still felt trapped and isolated from the greater student body even after one month into the school year. A “bubble” began to form. All of my friends were transfers — a common experience in the transfer community. Those 300 or so students became the only faces I knew on campus. Immediately after arriving on campus, I had to spend five full days with only my fellow transfers during orientation. Most of us didn’t have much of a say in terms of housing, and almost everyone shared a double with other transfers. While we had all experienced arriving at college before, I still envied the 1600 or so freshmen who had such a large group to mingle with and their ability to find new friends and grow their circles.
To have such an insular and small community bound by a single common experience made the college experience feel like high school all over again. The agency you normally have in being able to choose who you surround yourself with was eroded. The ethos of being able to meet new people everywhere you turn in college was gone. College is about meeting people with completely different backgrounds, places, identities and cultures. Although diversity exists within the transfer population, there are only so many types of people who can exist in such a constricted group.
When I tried branching out to other students who hadn’t transferred, I often found myself in an awkward position of constantly being an outsider. It felt like I didn’t have my foot in the door. I didn’t understand things that others could relate to; for instance, I had missed out on the “Commons experience.” The window of opportunity to branch out had ended long before I’d even arrived. Breaking through the barriers of a pre-existing friend group felt impossible because I wasn’t a freshman, so I resigned myself to the fringes and borders of friend groups. Hopelessness took over; in those shoes, it’s easy to feel unwanted and tossed aside.
I eventually learned that only through patience can true friendships arise. When I started joining campus organizations that I was interested in, I found classmates who slowly but surely became my closest friends here — just by bonding with people over similar interests. However, the process was excruciatingly slow and as proud as I am for not giving up, there were many times when I almost caved in.
As I was trying to meet people, there was also the adjustment needed to succeed academically. As a transfer, it’s critical to have strong academic performance in order to be considered for acceptance — but these good grades can give you a sense of false confidence. For many transfers, the academics at Vanderbilt will be a step up from their previous institution. The paradigm of being an exceptional student in high school and then receiving a reality check upon arrival to college is common, but if you’ve already overcome that you assume it’s over. I wish I knew better. The transition from a small liberal arts college, where classroom sizes often wouldn’t exceed 40, to lecture halls packed with 200 students was brutal. The study strategies and timelines I had employed in my first year weren’t of any use, and the learning curve was steep. By the end of my first month, the expectations I had put on myself were extreme.
I went from consistently being one of the best students in my classes at Bates to nothing more than mediocre in my first few months here. Simply put, I was humbled. Vanderbilt gave me a reality check I didn’t receive in the more lax and casual environment of my previous school. Although I felt exasperated at first, I’m only grateful for it now. It made me approach my field of study, molecular biology, with more passion than I ever had before.
I learned that I have to love what I do in order to gather the strength and tenacity to devote the hours upon hours of study. Working until the dead of night in my lab at the medical school gave me direction for what I plan on doing in the future. Vanderbilt challenged me and took me to a level, both intellectually and personally, I thought I’d never be able to achieve when I was at Bates.
For any prospective or current transfers, my biggest piece of advice would be to say yes. Whether it is the question of joining a club you know nothing about or going to Velvet Taco at some incredibly odd and regrettable hour of the day, it’s those experiences that can make you feel less isolated and more likely to find your people on campus. I regret being complacent with the misguided belief that everyone had already found their people. It takes time, which can be demoralizing, but the good things come around eventually. It’s about breaking the walls that exist on this campus — only then can you make a difference and leave your mark.
For those in the Office of Undergraduate Education, my biggest request would be to let us loose. Sequestering us in a separate orientation program has its benefits as we’ve already been through a year of college, but at some point you need to let us meet other new students. We need more exposure to the thousands of fresh faces who’ve arrived on campus.
To any transfer student, you will fail. It’s scary but inevitable, especially given our unique position and niche on this campus. Accept it and move on. Learn from your mistakes. Have patience. I assure you — in the end, it’s all worth it.
