With sweaty palms and a nervous stomach, junior Sheri Davis stepped onto the U’s campus for the first time. She had put in two years at Salt Lake Community College, and she felt like a seasoned college student. She wasn’t worried about the classes or the homework, but she had to admit, she was a little intimidated by the sheer size of the campus.
While her hands quivered a bit more than she would have liked, she looked at her class schedule and then at her watch. After consulting the well-worn map, she came to the conclusion that she had 10 minutes to get from President’s Circle to Milton Bennion Hall for her class.
“Campus is just so?BIG!” she exclaimed with a laugh. “It doesn’t look like the buildings are that far apart on the map, but they seem miles away when you’re in a hurry and running to your class!”
But like all new things, after a few days she became more familiar with the campus and began to realize it wasn’t as big or scary as she first thought.
The transition from other colleges and universities to the U can be difficult. Transfer students are suddenly faced with larger classes, major requirements, a much bigger campus and, of course, parking shortages. But these problems should be just minor irritations on the road to graduation.
Many students enroll in other schools with the intent to transfer. Their reasons vary, some want to stay close to home, there are many who want a smaller school because it will be an easier transition from high school, and then there’s the issue of cheaper tuition.
“I wanted to get my associate’s degree and then start at the U,” Davis said. “I liked the idea of smaller classes and more availability of classes at SLCC for my general education requirements.”
While Salt Lake Community College is still the biggest feeder school for the U in Utah, producing 39 percent of transfer students, the U draws from the other large universities in the state.
According to Student Affairs, approximately 26 percent of transfer students came from Utah Valley State College, Weber State or Utah State University.
“BYU was too restrictive, and it just wasn’t my style. The U seems much more down to earth and friendly,” said senior Nate Benson. “I guess I picked the U because they have a really good mechanical engineering program.”
The drop-out rate among transfer students after the first year is consistent with the overall drop-out rate: approximately 30 percent.
However, Student Affairs, under the direction of Kari Ellingson, is conducting an on going survey of transfer students to identify problems and determine if more could be done to help them to meet their goal of graduation.
“Here’s a group of students who have some experience in college, and then they drop out,” Ellingson said. “What allowed them to get through school [before] that is not happening here?”
However, she notes, these students face different issues than freshman. They are usually older; the average age is 24 when they arrive at the U. Thirty-two percent of them are married with families, and 59 percent say they plan on working more than 20 hours per week, according to the survey.
“Through the survey, we hope to be able to identify the consistent differences between the students who stay and those who don’t and try to intervene,” Ellingson said.
She went on to say that they also want to try to determine if there are specific aspects or departments such as financial aid, transfer admissions and registration that students are continually having problems with so that administration can focus its attention on those specific areas.
For many, problems are only minor and common.
“Besides the parking problems, which everyone has to deal with, the only other major problem I have had was with admissions. I got some bad information and was enrolled as a non-matriculated student not seeking a degree,” Davis said. “I’m still trying to get the problem resolved. I’m hoping that will happen before the end of the semester.”
Although college life is probably a familiar phenomenon for transfer students, the U encourages them to attend orientation.
Unlike new freshman orientation, which generally has longer sessions, the sessions designed for transfer students deal mainly with the specific majors and are relatively short. The U has tried to customize orientation by adding several night and weekend sessions.
Orientation is intended as a tool to show new students that the U isn’t as big or impersonal as first impressions might have lead them to believe.
“Many students went to a smaller school because it felt safer. They feel that the U is a scary place,” Ellingson said. “By making Orientation high spirited and fun, we are trying to show that the U isn’t as scary as they thought.”
The majority of transfer students attend some form of Orientation.
Sixty percent of transfer students went in person last year, while 38 percent did an on-line Orientation.
“We try to make Orientation a fun and positive experience. Our staff has a lot of energy, and I think that gets the students excited about the U and this new experience,” said Gwen Fears, assistant director of Orientation.
A lot of students may not attend Orientation because they believe it to be boring or redundant since they’ve already had college experience. But Fears battles that perception. “We don’t waste their time by playing lame games. We realize the students are busy.”
But some students feel it still needs work.
“I think there could have been a better Orientation for transfer students,” said sophomore Tyler Free, who transferred from SLCC. “My group was so large and they didn’t have my major so I had to go with a group that was sort of close to my major.”
As with any new experience, it can be intimidating at first, but after a few days, most students realize that the U is just like the other schools they’ve attended?for the most part.
“I’ll admit I was a little nervous at first,” said Benson, who transferred from BYU. “But after a little while, I realized it wasn’t as bad as I had thought.”