Stigma attached to transfers?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Columbia University
1

<p>I recently accepted my offer for transfer admission to Columbia for Fall 2009. I've been really excited and looking forward to the transition, but lately my feet have gotten slightly cold due to something a recent graduate told me about how transfers are treated at Columbia: </p>

<p>"I remember our sophomore year we got all these kids in from Cornell, and nobody would really talk to them. Like as soon as they said they were from Cornell people would snort and find some reason to leave. They ended up transferring out again, or something"</p>

<p>Please tell me this isn't true.</p>

2

<p>isntlife - </p>

<p>transferring is a tough process. it is like arriving in the middle of a race and expecting to catch up right away. so i think you have to know there will be some adjustment issues. the other side of it is that no matter how hard we try, there are some pretty insensitive people especially regarding transfers from schools that they consider less than Columbia. it is not a prevailing opinion, but you probably will confront it when you come.</p>

<p>what you will find more often is that people will treat you as, well, a person. of course there will be a curiosity about what life is like at another school, and usually within the first few days you will find someone on your hall or nearby that will take you under their wing (as I did with a few transfers) and explain to you all the nitty gritty details of columbia. It will take some time, but eventually it will be as if you never transferred. interestingly enough - if you figure out a good answer for “oh where did you live freshman year?” then it could actually make things easier to make friends. someone i knew who transferred from Vassar said “i was part of a unique social experiment and volunteered to be a man at a woman’s college.” </p>

<p>if you are awkward about it, and sense a stigma, you are only magnifying the issue. note that there will be a level of uneasiness and negotiate it accordingly. if you isolate yourself you wont really get a chance to enjoy and integrate yourself into columbia.</p>

3

<p>I feel as though if you don’t make yourself “look” like a new comer nobody would suspect your transfer status. What I would really like to know is are all the students in a given class columbia familiar with only a few, most or all of their peers in the same graduating class? Or is it more so that there are people who you see 6 months down the road that you have never seen once before but have been at the school since day 1.</p>

<p>I know at Syracuse U. there are people who I have not seen until after 5 or more months but they have been at the school since it has started.</p>

4

<p>people transfer in with varying degrees of success, it is certainly possible to gel into campus very well and make tons of friends. PM Lionheaded, he transferred in last year.</p>

5

<p>I’ve gotten two msgs about this so I thought I’d pay it forward.</p>

<p>For me the biggest issue sociability-wise was the “Freshman but not a freshman” aspect.</p>

<p>First off, you’re not in Freshman housing. As an incoming sophomore I really wanted to be in John Jay to still get the social experience of a building full of newcomers looking to make friends but they don’t allow for that so you’ll end up along with some other transfers wherever there’s space, surrounded by Sophomores, Juniors and Seniors. (Advice: if you pick EC for your housing you’ll be in a double with a transfer on the 6th floor that’s all transfers. )</p>

<p>The good news is that they save housing for us so the rooms themselves are excellent by sophomore standard. I ended up in a single with my own bathroom in Nussbaum (a Junior/Senior feat). </p>

<p>Initially bonding with these upperclassmen is a bit of a push as they are basically doing their own thing. They’re very friendly but they have their circle of friends, activities, internships and are well-established whereas you’re as fresh and newbish as a Freshman- only without the administrative hand-holding. </p>

<p>But there’s also a bit of detachment from freshers too. Or at least there was for me. You have core classes with freshmen but you’re not sharing their same UW & Frontiers of Sc. experience and don’t live with them so it’s definitely not an instantaneous bond.</p>

<p>Ultimately you realize that you sort of have to go with the flow and make the best of both worlds.</p>

<p>There’s absolutely no “outright” divide (Barnard girls have it muuuuch harder than us on that front). You’re a student. I eventually stopped saying I was a transfer because it always leads to the same tedious (oh so very tedious) “What year? What school are you from?” conversation. Gets old fast.It’s more of a personal identity crisis at best…and I’m sure many avoid it. </p>

<p>Few general pieces of advice:</p>

<p>1) Sign up for clubs! Do it. Even if you only go to meetings for a month, you’ll meet people from all years that way. I</p>

<p>2) New York can wait. I was overeager and scheduled internship interviews all throughout my first week, missing bonding most activities. Settle into Columbia first. I did it but I wouldn’t recommend an internship your first semester there.</p>

<p>3) Eat at John Jays. I learned this far too late, put off by the stories of dining plans (and Chipotle proximity) but it’s a very social place. No one wants to eat alone and you can always (yes even as a transfer) sit and meet people. A #4 dining plan (or enough flex dollars to sign in regularly) is not a bad thing to begin with.</p>

<p>4) Talk in class. Even if you’re awkward and shy (exhibit A) most seminars grade heavily on participation. I ended up talking a lot in lit hum and then people just assumed I was sociable and walked up to me, invited me to lunch after class, texted you to eat at JJ’s etc. And it’s a necessity for a good grade. That one’s universal for every new student, really. </p>

<p>P.S. Like I said I missed most of the activities for transfer bonding and did not keep in touch, or particularly bond (weirdoes), with my initial transfer group (you get 6 students assigned to 1 current student/group leader for the first week as you go to and from activities). Don’t. They’re the only students exactly like you throughout the school. </p>

<p>For the record I ended up mostly friends with freshmen and other transfers I happened upon later now. Eventually you’ll feel your way around to what works for you. I know a transfer who only hangs out with grad and GS students so really there’s no “path”. </p>

<p>Hope this helps!</p>

6

<p>As a transfer (Columbia to Cornell), I never had difficulties making friends. True, I ended up hanging out with some younger students, but classrooms and clubs provided other opportunities to bond with my class. My transfer status only really mattered when some classes didn’t transfer fully credit-wise. You will be fine. Good luck at Columbia!</p>

7

<p>Well, it worked out okay for President Obama. Of course, he didn’t transfer in from Cornell…</p>

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<p>House of London,</p>

<p>You mentioned not looking like a newcomer. What exactly would this entail?</p>

<p>I’ve visited campus a few times and still cannot define the “average” Columbia student. I will be attending Columbia this fall. I wear Lacoste/Ralph Lauren/J Crew style clothes and sometimes the occasional t-shirt/sweatshirt, depending on the day. Would my clothes make me look like a “newcomer?”</p>

9

<p>“Well, it worked out okay for President Obama.”</p>

<p>From what I gathered, Obama wasn’t very happy with his two years at Columbia. That’s why he rarely mentions his undergrad alma mater (neither does he mention Occidental, where he did marijuana). At columbia, Obama studied most of the time, practically lived in the Butler, and didn’t go out often. Maybe because he was a transfer?</p>

<p>Oh, and also: at that time Columbia didn’t provide transfers with housing, so Obama lived in the streets for about a week.</p>

10

<p>I really don’t get why clothes are always such an issue. There are no “looks”. I think HoL meant that unplaceable, unshakable, map-carrying look of nervousness and frenzy that follows newbies; not their clothes.</p>

<p>It’s just a normal school. From fashionistas to perma-sweats. Everyone dress however they want. There’s no standard look whatsoever. It’s basically public school fashion-wise. A public school full of the top 3% at your local high school. Adjust the numbers and you get the curve. You’ll be judged by your clothes to that same extent as you are on the outside world but not in a rich/poor newcomer/old soul way. </p>

<p>…Just don’t be a hipster. We loathe you oh so very much.</p>

11

<p>“I really don’t get why clothes are always such an issue. There are no “looks”. I think HoL meant that unplaceable, unshakable, map-carrying look of nervousness and frenzy that follows newbies; not their clothes.”</p>

<p>I’m glad somebody has common sense.^</p>

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<p>I had thought NY in general was hipster accessible. Hmm…</p>

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<p>It’s also rat accessible; doesn’t mean we like them. Or that they care that we don’t like them. They do their things and are loathed for it. Not a bad analogy for hipsters.</p>

14

<p>I came in here to offer advice and discovered that, as far as the OP is concerned, LionHeaded has already had what looks like the final word. Good advice there.</p>

<p>But this:

Obama lived in an apartment on 109th and Amsterdam. He arrived the first night and his super wasn’t available to give him his key, because he had, you know, arrived at night - so he slept on his own stoop the first night. He hardly “lived in the streets”, he had his own manhattan apartment.</p>

<p>But yes, be glad you’ll be living in the dorms.</p>