"What will the school be like?"
All the beautiful brochures, breathe taking campus tours, and the personal stories shared by others can only depict so much about a school. Living and breathing the campus environment is going to be the only way to get an accurate feel for what my new school is really going to be like. Will the campus environment and student body be all that I expected?
"What will I get involved in?"
There are hundreds of different things to get involved in on campus. There’s everything from sports, sororities/fraternities, academic clubs, leadership clubs, etc. The options seem endless. Do I get involved in the same things I did at my old school or do I try something totally new? What should I get involved in and how?
"Who will be my friends?"
Making new friends is key to surviving college, but it is especially nerve-wracking when you know no one at your new school. How will I meet people? Will they be nice? What if people at this new school will never compare to the amazing friends I had at my old school?
"What if I can’t make friends?"
I played a sport at my old school which blessed with automatic friends, my teammates. Without a sport to introduce me to my friends, I am on my own. What if I never make close relationships? What if I end up spending most of my time alone?
"Where will I live?"
As a transfer student, I am not promised housing on campus. I am supposed to start school in a little over a month and I still don't know if I’ll be living in a dorm or if I need to rent an apartment. Can someone say stressful? With all these unknowns, questions arise like what do I have to bring to school, who will be my roommate, what if I can't find an apartment, etc?
"Will the classes be harder?"
I was lucky to have been very successful at my old school. I got great grades and was loved by my professors. One of the reasons I decided to transfer was because I wanted a stronger academic program. In my mind, stronger sometimes means harder (and it for sure means more work and dedication). What if the classes are too hard for me? What if I end up getting bad grades? What if I never have that strong professor-student relationship again?
"What if this new school is not what I expected?"
There is so much I hoped for when I chose to transfer. Everything I didn't like at my old school I wanted to be different at my new school (larger campus, more students, better college location, more to do on the weekends, stronger academics). When picking out a new school, I really focused on what I wanted. But what if the new school is not what I am expecting? With every school I believe there will be something that I don't like, but what if my new dream school is not my dream school anymore once I get there?
"What if I want to transfer again?"
There will always be some sort of comparison between the schools I've attended. What if the new school doesn’t live up to the expectations I made? What if I miss my old school? There is the saying "you don't know what you had till it's gone". I worry that I'll discover I made a mistake in transferring in the first place or I will want to transfer somewhere else. There is this constant fear of my new school not being the right fit…again.
