Any 2-year transfers going to a 4-year this year? How ya dealin?
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Permalink Reply by Kimberly Wilcox on -
hey Andrew,
I was in the same boat as you. I transferred from a community college to a college about 5 hours away from home.
I was really REALLY nervous at first (aside from spending a couple weeks in the summer and some school breaks at my dad's house, the only other time I've been away from home for a long period of time is when I went to California with my grandparents for 2 weeks a few summers ago.), but things were good right away. The first couple of days, I was pretty homesick, and I missed my mom and my younger sister a lot... but things here at school got really good really fast. The school had a lot planned for freshmen that weekend (that I went to anyway, even though I'm a junior), which I think was honestly just to keep people's minds busy so they wouldn't have time to be homesick. At the first floor meeting, we all had to introduce ourselves to each other, and I started talking to some of the people from my floor pretty much as soon as that meeting ended. My best friends here are some of the people from my floor.
I really lucked out with the floor I got put on. I'm on a substance free floor (no drugs, alcohol, smoking, etc.) because I chose to be here. There are some people who only ended up here because they didn't pick a dorm building/floor to live on, and just ended up getting put here. Now that I've written that sentence, I realize that it had nothing to do with what I was saying... but anyway. I lucked out so great that I'm on this floor. I love the people I've met. My RA is one of my favorite people on the floor; he really truly cares about us all, and you can tell. You know? He's always there, and helps us with homework (thankfully he's a physics major! I would be failing that class if not for his help), and he's just there for us all in general. He's there to talk to and to confide in. And he's nice. There's other RA's here who are mean, who don't care, and who act like they're better than the rest of us just because they're an RA. My RA isn't like that. Hopefully you end up with an RA like mine, and not one of the horrible ones.
Classes-wise... I don't know why, but I haven't been able to really get into my schoolwork here. That's bad, I know. All through high school, and even at the community college, I never had to really study in order to get good grades. I got A's without even trying. Here, it's different. Here, I actually have to study. I have to try in my classes, really try hard. And that's hard for me because I don't really know how to. I've got probably about a B- average overall right now, which isn't terrible, but it's not an A. The classes here are also a lot harder than the ones at the community college I went to, and there's a lot more people in the classes. I went from having classes of about 24, 25 people to having an insane amount here. My history class has about 270 people in it. The TA's know us better than the teachers do.
As far as tips or advice...
1. Go to all (or most) of the activities the school has planned for freshmen/new students. And go to the floor activities that your RA plans. I don't know how it is at the school you're transferring to, but here, the RAs have to do at least 3 floor activities a month. They're called cubs (yeahhh I dunno why) and it's just a fun activity that at least 3 floor members and the RA do together.
2. Be yourself. These people don't know you yet, just like you don't know them yet. Let them know the real you.
3. Don't be afraid to meet with your advisor to talk about classes/your future/your goals/whatever. They're there to help.
4. Call home. I call my mom almost every day (sometimes I get busy with school stuff and can't call her, and she understands). Maybe make a set day and time to call, so you know you'll both be free. I skype with my dad and younger siblings every Wednesday night at 8.
5. Talk to your teachers. Let them get to know you. Or, if you're in a class like my history class, with 270 other people, talk to the TAs and get to know them. Most of the time, they're the ones doing the grading, not the teacher. Or, well, that's how it is in my history class anyway.
6. Don't take more classes than your can handle. It's a lot of work. A lot. It's all good to push yourself, but don't overdo it or else you'll get really frustrated and not know how to deal with it and just want to give up on all of it. And keep up with the work (or try to anyway!). My physics teacher has homework due each class, Monday and Wednesday, but he only collects it on Wednesdays... and it's so easy to fall into the habit of not doing any of it until Tuesday night (or sometimes Wednesday morning....), and again, that causes stress to build up.
That's all I can think of at the moment. It's about 12:30 in the morning, and I'm really tired.. so sorry if there's typos or spelling mistakes or whatever. :) And if I think of more to add, I'll post again. Good luck when you transfer!
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