Students call transfer process challenging

Transfer students at Boston University face many opportunities and challenges when it comes to getting involved on campus, from making friends to attending university activities.

Every year, BU receives more than 2,000 applications from potential transfer students from other colleges, Transfers Associate Director Kevin Lackey said. Of those, only 200 to 225 students are accepted for the fall semester and 100 students in the spring.

College of Arts and Sciences Academic Counselor Melissa Straz said reasons for transferring vary.

These reasons range “from wanting a more academically challenging school, to location and financial reasons,” she said in an email.

However, several transfer students said once they made it through the complex application process and were admitted to BU, meeting people on campus and getting involved in student activities posed a new challenge.

“I think when you’re a freshman, you meet your core group of friends,” former Syracuse University student and CAS sophomore Joe Connolly said. “I still know more people up [at Syracuse] than here, and I was only there for a semester.”

Connolly, who said he held the assistant news editor position at Syracuse’s Daily Orange and was more involved on campus there, said it is difficult for transfer students to get involved at BU.

“I’m thinking about going back to Syracuse,” he said.

Straz said while it is often challenging for transfer students to meet people, with effort, they can have a positive experience.

“Transfer students can find it difficult to make new friends the later they transfer because many students have already established friends,” she said. “A transfer student may have to put themselves out there more than students who started at BU.”

CAS sophomore Stephanie Becker said the process of making friends was more difficult at BU than at her original school, Denison University, during her freshman year.

“It seems like it takes a little longer [to make friends],” Becker said. “People can do their own thing. There are a lot of opportunities- part of the reason I came here is all the opportunities, but it also takes away from the sense of community.”

CAS Senior Associate Dean Susan Jackson said the university does not leave transfer students to fend for themselves.

“There is orientation in the summer – a particular session for transfer students where they get advising from peers and faculty members,” she said. “There is also a CAS reception for transfer students.”

College of Communication Academic Counselor Lauren Knoll said two years ago she was approached by a transfer student who wanted to start a program to help other transfer students adjust to BU. COM already had the First Year Experience program, Knoll said, but there wasn’t a program specifically for transfer students.

Over the summer, peer advisors and counselors speak to transfer students by telephone and help students register for classes, Knoll said. There are also orientations in September and January during which students will meet each other and learn about future events and activities on campus, including a meet-and-greet, a transfer dinner and the Community Benefit Ball.

“[The Transfer Program] helps them get to know one another,” Knoll said. “We didn’t want to make them feel alienated.”