College Transfer Students Talk Back: "We Need Help, Too"

March 27, 2010 - PRLog -- (New York, NY) - America's obsession with applying to colleges is stronger than ever, with colleges around the country announcing record numbers of college applicants. Browse the college reference section at a bookstore and you'll see an infinite amount of titles feeding this frenzy. At the same time, college transfer numbers are on the rise. After reaching out to hundreds of transfer students, Lan Ngo and Chris Goodmacher, creators of www.thetransferbook.com, found that transfer students need just as much help as freshman applicants, yet they are relatively invisible.

Transferring: A Nonstandard Process

According to Lisa Bleich, president of College Bound Mentor, LLC, 25 percent of all college students switch to another school. Many of these students, however, are left to fend for themselves because transfer applications are not as nearly streamlined as freshman applications.

Eric Matsumoto Okawa, who transferred from Santa Monica College to Cornell University said, "The lack of standard guidelines for transfer applications creates a major barrier for students who are looking for an intellectual or social change of pace."

Recently, the issue of transfer students from community colleges has been gaining more attention, and the Senate Education Committee cleared a bill to make it easier for these students to transfer. However, the unique problems of students who want to transfer from one four-year university or college to another have yet to be addressed on a large scale.

"High school applicants have a wealth of information to guide them through the application process, but… there is nothing like that available to transfers. The transfer process is just as rigorous as the high school application process, oftentimes moreso because many transfers are searching for a new school and filling out applications while still enrolled full time at their current school," a transfer student from the University of Michigan to Pitzer College said in an interview with Ngo.

A Lonely, Emotional Experience

Making the decision to switch colleges is not an easy one. For many students, it involves an emotional upheaval and the experience can feel isolating.

"I was really embarrassed about not liking Drexel. I was embarrassed to tell my friends and family when they asked about college because all my friends were off somewhere else having great freshman experiences," a transfer student said reflecting on her eventual decision to leave Drexel University to go to Allegheny College.

A transfer student at Villanova University said, "Being a transfer student can be a hard pill to swallow if you are moving from one four-year to another... Transferring can feel like failure."

These two transfer students as well as many others in a series of in-depth interviews conducted by Ngo and Goodmacher agree that emotional support and guidance during the transfer process would have been helpful. It would have also helped to know other transfer students.

"Whatever the reason, the decision to transfer to another college can feel like a daunting and isolating process," said a student who transferred to the University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign.

She also said that, for prospective transfer students, it's important to have a community of others that have successfully completed the journey.

Until school counselors, parents of undergraduate students, and four-year institutions face the reality that a substantial number of students may not want to stay at an undergraduate school for all four years, transfer students will have to rely on the few available resources devoted to helping them. Transfer students will have to continue to go largely ignored.

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About The Transfer Book: www.TheTransferBook.com founded in 2009 to provide prospective and current college transfer students with advice and perspectives on the transfer process and experience. The site offers a guidebook on transferring and features a blog with detailed tips on how to navigate the transfer application and make the adjustment after transferring.