My transfer student story is different than most, and now you're probably thinking, "Sure, that's what they all say." I'm a transfer student, which means that I went to community college after high school before transferring to UC Berkeley. Thanks to AP credits and getting an early start on taking college classes while I was in high school, I was able to transfer a year after I graduated at the age of 19. This leaves me with a strange dilemma, because I'm technically considered a junior here even though most of the people my age are sophomores who were admitted as freshmen. To make matters more complicated, I don't have the same life experiences and wisdom that my fellow transfer students have. Basically, I'm floating around in an in between space. It's weird.
However, there are things I've learned here that seem to ring true universally for transfer students when it comes to what I've discovered my first semester at UC Berkeley, so here's a few of them.
You're not special: After all of the congratulations you receive for getting into UC Berkeley, you think, "Wow, I accomplished a pretty cool thing." And then you arrive on campus, and you realize that 30,000 other people were also capable of accomplishing the same thing as you and you're forced to compete against them in an insanely rigorous and highly competitive environment. Woohoo.
People don't really like transfer students: If you're not a freshman, then your first year at UC Berkeley will not be as welcoming and filled with rainbows and butterflies as you may have liked it to be. Although there are resources for transfer students on campus, we're forced to figure everything out since we're technically already juniors and get completely thrown into the process. Also, there's a lot of students who were admitted as freshmen who resent transfer students due to the false belief that we "took the easy way out." Aka, they're just being condescending because they're jealous that we saved a lot of money and they didn't. Sorry not sorry.
A's aren't given out like lollipops here: Generally, you have to work really hard to get stellar grades here, there's no way around it (unless you luck out with a super easy professor or if you're just lucky enough to be a genius). I've learned not to be too hard on myself even though it's almost impossible since I'm a perfectionist, because things can't always go according to plan. AND THAT'S OKAY, YOU'RE NOT ALONE IN THE STRUGGLE.
At the end of the day, UC Berkeley is a tough university to attend and there's a reason that it has a reputation for being "the best public university in the world" (which is something you'll never stop hearing from people to the point where it gets really annoying). With it's insanely rigorous academics and competitive environment, it can get overwhelming and sometimes all you have to make you feel better are zesty memes from the UC Berkeley Memes for Edgy Teens page. However, I like to tell myself that one day all of this stress will be worth it and I'll look back fondly at my time spent here. One can only hope...
*but for real it's not all bad, there are also great things that will happen along the way so don't let this article discourage you!!!*
