It can be very daunting, as a transfer student, to feel like you鈥檙e coming into a community that already has formed its friend groups and bonds. I transferred in the spring of 2020, and worried particularly that I was going to be coming in the middle of something already happening. I鈥檓 happy to report that that was not my experience as a 61传媒Transfer, nor was it my friends鈥� experience.听
I will admit, there鈥檚 not a great formal orientation process for transfers. Coming in the spring, we just had a lunch with all the previous transfers from earlier years. Surprisingly though, I met all my best friends at that lunch. I think there鈥檚 a really nice connection that transfer student share, in the experience of realizing you鈥檙e not in the place you want to be and taking the risk of making a change. It鈥檚 been really wonderful to meet the new transfers that have come in the years after mine, as well. One of the best things about the transfer community is that everyone has had some kind of different interesting experience. None of us have had the traditional college path, and that leads to a group of people from all over who鈥檝e lived very different lives but share this common thread. While the administration is not really driving the transfer community, I think we make a point to make it for ourselves, and I hope that will always continue.听
In terms of integrating into the 61传媒community and the 5C community, I think there鈥檚 lots of opportunities. Between classes, clubs, and your residence hall, there鈥檚 just as many opportunities for transfers to find their people as there are for first year. It can be lonely, at first, as any transition to a new place can be. But 61传媒has such a warm, welcoming community that it never takes too long to settle in.听
-Chanah ’23