<p>I'll start.
I dislike being a transfer because:</p>
<ol>
<li>No financial aid: explains itself.</li>
<li>Course selection: we're given the scraps. I really think this is a way for the university to make money; not only could we potentially lose credits transferring in, but we have to take what's left, so the courses we need could not be offered, delaying our graduation date. </li>
<li>We have a terrible orientation: i know we're already used to the college environment, but there are some things at a freshman orientation that we need at a transfer's, such as school-specific sessions. for example, i belong to the college of natural resources, and at a freshman orientation, all of those in that school get together and talk and blah blah blah. that's important to me. additionally, i'm a cadet, and we don't have cadet sessions either. we could do without the carnival and whatnot, but leave us the important things, even if it means staying overnight. </li>
<li>no convocation: hell, i'd even join a freshman convocation, but we don't even have that option.</li>
<li>financial aid: again. out of all the things on this list, this is the most bogus. some chose to attend a community college because of the lack of funds, and when we transfer, we're still in the same spot. </li>
</ol>
<p>of course, this is all subjective and dependent on what what school you're transferring to. i'm a little bitter because [at least at my school] i feel left out. but all in all, the least they could do is make our orientation better for what they lack in financial aid funds. seriously.</p>
<p>Eh, it’s hard to say, seeing as how I haven’t begun the school year yet. But course selection won’t be so fun.</p>
<p>At the school to which I’m matriculating, NYU, it actually worked out for me to just room with a friend who goes to an art school nearby. But at a lot of the other schools I applied to, they said right up front they don’t guarantee or sometimes don’t even offer housing to transfers. If I hadn’t gotten into NYU, I might have gone to McGill, and it would’ve been hard living all by myself in an apartment in a city where I know nobody (not to mention my French skills are a work in progress…). I’m really shy, so it would have made meeting people even more of a challenge for me.</p>
<p>The lack of financial aid makes me feel like I’m just buying my way into a school sometimes. I didn’t apply for need-based aid, so at need-aware schools, it makes me feel uncomfortable.</p>
<p>My biggest concern is going to be not knowing anybody as a junior. I don’t have a huge amount of trouble making friends, but I’m still nervous about how it’ll go. I also agree about course selection, I ended up paying an enrollment deposit to register for classes and then withdrawing because I wouldn’t have been able to graduate on time after seeing what was left.</p>
<p>I’m transferring this year and the lack of financial aid has certainly been disheartening, but what makes me want to gripe even more than that is that even after you’ve been accepted and you’ve managed to align the necessary funding to attend and you’ve submitted all of the required paperwork and paid the fees, you are still left out in the cold in terms of course selection. Not having any assurance that you will be able to add the courses you need until after you have completed the previous semester really left a bad taste in my mouth. It doesn’t make sense because other students who are currently attending the university are allowed to register for those courses even if they haven’t completed the prereqs yet (same as you). The only comment my advisor had was that hopefully a portion of the students who already registered for the course would drop it before the semester due to not passing the prereq or due to finding the course is too difficult.</p>
<p>Financial aid is my biggest problem so far as well. I’m also unsure as to how transfer students are accepted at a lot of schools. I know UVA has a peer adviser program and does a lot to accommodate incoming transfers, but I’ve heard of students at other schools who take issue with transfer students on the grounds that they are undeserving of a spot because many (including myself) didn’t perform as well as we could/should have in high school, or because they got a good GPA at an “easy” CC or four-year in order to transfer up. There was a thread about this not too long ago from a Vandy transfer; does anyone else have any experience with this?</p>
<p>I appreciate all of your answers! It wasn’t meant to make people feel sad; the way I see it is an extra boost of motivation to show them up. Try your hardest to prove you deserve that spot.</p>