Despite previous experience with college, transfer students face adjustment issues

Ann Duncan, a junior who transferred to IU, is just one of about 1,100 students who transfer to IU each year. Choosing to transfer is a decision that comes with many advantages, as well as disadvantages.\nNumerous programs are specifically tailored around these transfer students’ needs. But some transfer students say these programs aren’t sufficient.\nDuncan transferred from the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, Ill., and said she does not regret her decision to transfer, but she wasn’t pleased with the orientation process. She, as many other transfer students did, lived in student housing her first year here. \n“I didn’t know anyone down here to live with, so it was basically my only choice, and I wasn’t about to do the whole apartment-with-a-stranger thing,” she said.\nJunior Evan Pund said he agreed with most of what Duncan said. He transferred to IU for the academics because of IU’s distinguished television and film program.\nAlthough many transfer students list meeting people and making friends as one of their biggest concerns, Pund said he found IU’s orientation program for transfer students inadequate.\n“I didn’t know any of the optional programs that were available to students,” he said, “and we were busy taking placement tests all day and couldn’t go see the housing or other seminars.”\nPund said he chose to live in student housing, hoping it would help him more easily make friends and socialize. But he said Willkie Quad, an apartment-style dorm for upperclassmen and graduate students, might not have been the best housing choice.\n“I would have chosen a different dorm if I could do it all over again,” he said.\nA transfer student from IUPUI, sophomore Melia White chose to come to IU because she wanted a bigger campus and to get away from home.\nWhite said that in addition to problems making friends, she had difficulty finding her way around campus at first.\nWhen all three were asked about the effect of the transfer on their GPA, Duncan and White said theirs dropped because they have more distractions and more things to do. However, Pund said his GPA actually rose due to his increased interest in classes and motivation to do well.\nWhenever people enter a new environment, they usually have to adapt and are going to find new things to do, said Terry Knaus, associate director of admissions. Therefore, it is very typical for GPAs to decrease the first semester, then bounce back the second semester.\nWhile many transfer students do complain, the University tries harder each year to improve the transfer students’ orientation programs, said Megan Ray, assistant director of the Office of Orientation Programs.\n“We get feedback,” Ray said. “We send a survey to transfer students to ask for their input about the program in September, and based on the feedback from them and their parents, we make changes. Because there are several different groups of transfer students, each program is very different.”\nThe orientation department said it has never done exit surveys to gauge how long or how successful each transfer student’s stay at IU was. When asked about the students’ complaints about struggling to make friends, Ray said the department offers sessions to help the students get acclimated with other transfer students and the University. Workshops and meetings are held, and every transfer student is encouraged to attend to learn about all the resources available to them.\nSince transfer students already know how to “do college,” the orientation office said its only job is to help them understand the ins and outs of IU.\nWhile the orientation program prides itself on catering to transfer students and their needs, some students feel it’s not successful.\n“IU treats incoming freshmen really, really well,” Duncan said, “and they don’t seem to treat transfer students with the same open arms.”