<p>I was a decent student in high school, graduating in the top 10% of my class. Being a varsity athlete all my life, I wanted to play a sport in college, so I chose a small school. One thing led to another, and I realized I wanted to go to Ohio State instead. Transferring seemed easy enough, with less than 3 sentences for the 'essay' portion. They sent me all the information telling me that I would receive instructions in the future on how to transfer my credits ect. This, however, was not the case.
Weeks before my classes were supposed to start, my advisor called me telling me to schedule classes on Carmen (OSU's version of blackboard). I had not received a school email or login yet, let alone any information on what Carmen is (I had to google it). Beyond that, the advisor didn't even tell me how to schedule, so I had to come into their office to schedule (they sent me to a freshmen orientation, yet, told me not to stay once they found out I was a transfer). The quarter was awful, seeing as that transfer students get last priority (below freshmen status) for scheduling. They gave me an online class to 'help me understand scheduling' but it was not helpful at all. The advisors at OSU are so swamped by the number of students they have that they email back days or even weeks after the initial question is asked.
As far as social life, I wouldn't suggest transferring unless you are already established with a group of friends who will live off campus, or you are initiated into a Greek fraternity or Sorority that has a chapter at OSU. Many of the fraternities and sororities on campus look unfavorably upon transfers, as they have one year out of the way already. It is very difficult rushing as a sophomore if you don't know anybody in the fraternity, it probably isn't even worth your time, even if you were pledging at a different school.
Living in a dorm as a transfer means living in whatever happens to be available, frequently with socially awkward students (if they didn't have any friends to live with soph year, something is wrong).
OSU's rooming situation is strange, as sometimes you can end up in a single, other times you end up in a quad with no walls (one giant room). Clearly this isn't going to be the ideal situation, and if you don't have a solid friend base established it can be very difficult to go out and make friends, because many people have fallen into a solid friend group freshman year. It is difficult being a transfer student at any school in terms of making friends, but seeing that OSU takes pride in 'how great our transfer program is' it is incredibly disappointing they don't have something more to help transfers fit in (like possibly sticking them with other transfers when placing in dorms, having an orientation, ect).
All in all, if I had to do it again, I would have just sent OSU my high school transcript and told them I worked a year (the advisors flipped when I told them this, but it is true). Transferring also means many classes don't get credit, rather, are acknowledged as a bunch of pointless credits. Funny enough, they take away your freshman forgiveness, even with none of your credits immediately counting towards graduation.</p>
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<p>Not a good idea to do yourself, and even worse advice to give to others:</p>
<p>[National</a> Student Clearinghouse](<a href=“http://www.studentclearinghouse.org/]National”>http://www.studentclearinghouse.org/)</p>
<p>Dude I transferred here out of state, knowing nobody, im living off campus and I have a time consuming job. </p>
<p>I’ve received about 12 emails regarding gatherings specifically for transfers to meet and get to know oneanother. I haven’t gone to a single one of them and I’ve already made a few friends.</p>
<p>Stop complaining and go meet people</p>