Helpful Advice For Transfer Students

by Chad Agrawal

Many students begin their college career at a community college in order to save money and then later transfer to a 4 year college or university to complete their degree and get the college courses they need to help them achieve their career goals.

However, transferring from one college to another is not always as easy as most students think and accepting a little transfer student advice before applying to transfer to that 4 year institution may make  accomplishing your transfer to university not only less stressful but also much more successful.

Consider Where You Want To Transfer To A Year Before Transferring

All colleges and universities have deadlines for accepting applications for students who want to attend their college.  Transfer students are under these application and acceptance deadlines as well first year freshman.  By contacting the Admissions Representative of the college you want to transfer to a full school year in advance of the date you actually want to start in your new school you can get all the deadline dates you must meet in order for your transfer application to be accepted and processed.  Then, make sure to meet those deadlines to get accepted into that college.

Financial Aid

Another piece of transfer students advice that students often overlook or simply don't seek out is financial aid.  The truth is that are specific scholarships available for transfer students meeting various criteria and oftentimes these scholarships have less competition than those scholarships open to everyone. These opportunities to get community college scholarships are often extremely helpful when it comes time to pay tuition costs or take out loans for college (and then pay those education loans back). Similar to application deadlines, financial aid has deadlines that you want to keep on top of.

Social Life

One of the most sought after areas of advice for transfer students is in the area of fitting in their new school.  Most students who transfer from community college to a 4 year institution are transferring from a small student body to one that is several times larger.  Even those students who were quite active in their community college may find it difficult to fit in at a larger school.  There are some things that you can do that will help you to get into the swing of your new school.

First, consider living on campus. Transfer students who decide to live on campus have an easier time of fitting into the social life on campus than those who live off campus.  There are some benefits to living in college dorm and one of those things is that you get plenty of opportunities to get to know other students and attend college events, both those put on by the college itself, and those that are planned by a group of students.

Joining some of the student organizations is also a good way to begin to feel more comfortable at your new college.  It is far easier to make friends with those people who you share interests with and forming friendships helps make for a more rounded education.  While joining those student organizations you might also want to consider joining a study group as well.  While study groups tend to me a bit more serious, it will give you support and help you to form friendships among those who share the same career goals.

If you are a student who is planning on transferring to another college, take the time to seek out advice for transfer students as this can make the entire transferring process far easier than trying to go it alone.

This post was written by Chad Agrawal

Chad Agrawal is the founder of CCTS, helping students transfer from community college to Ivy League, tier 1 or anywhere else by following this community college guide.

{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }

Jed Santarpia June 17, 2012 at 10:48 am

Wow! Thank you! I permanently wanted to write on my site something like that. Can I implement a part of your post to my site?

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