For all transfers students who looked like first-years last Tuesday, you're not alone. Your fellow new students don't exactly know where Cobb Hall is either.
Aside from the necessary adjustments when transferring to a new school — learning your way around, making new friends and finding time for both homework and a social life — there are additional obstacles that transfer students must overcome in their time at UNC.
Jim Hefner, a School of Media and Journalism professor, said life for transfer students is made difficult because transferring sophomores, junior and seniors must catch up with other students who have attended UNC since their first year.
“From what I’ve seen, the University and our school have a hard time dealing — I think the word fairly is not unfair — with junior transfers,” Hefner said. “There’s the registration issue — if they’re not the last, they’re among the last to register.”
Juniors and seniors have at least one month to sign up for their classes before transfer students are even told of their acceptance. Prerequisite classes may be full, which can extend a transfer student’s graduation timeline by a semester or two.
Sarah Kaylan Stricker, a UNC class of 2016 graduate, who previously worked for The Daily Tar Heel, was a member of the Carolina Student Transfer Excellence Program at her community college before transferring.
“Through the Carolina Student Transfer Excellence Program, we have a much easier time transferring because we are given people at our community colleges who act as advisers and look through our proposed classes before we even enroll,” Stricker said. “People who transfer from other four-year universities — even if it is another North Carolina school — their credits are not received well. They transfer over, but they transfer as elective credits.”
Katie Cartmell, UNC transfer student coordinator, said in 2010, 89.7 percent of junior transfer students graduated within three years. In 2011, 90 percent of junior transfer students graduated within two years.
While life for transfer students may be hectic at first, all have one thing in common: choosing UNC over another university.