Being a transfer student is more complicated than you'd expect. Most people assume that you just decide to transfer,--for whatever reason--apply to new schools, and then you simply switch schools. Yes, you do all of these things to transfer, but there is a great deal more to it. When I was thinking about transferring, I struggled with whether or not transferring schools was admitting failure and if I would face judgment from outsiders. Arguably it shouldn't matter what other people think of our decisions, but it does play a role in the decision.My roommate, Liz Post, transferred from Western Connecticut University and she faced opposition because of her decision. "She said, "People were questioning my decision to transfer and some even tried to convince me to stay, but I had to decide what was best for me and my education."
I also worried that I would have to take extra classes or graduate late if my credits did not transfer in which could end up being very expensive. Luckily all of my credits were transferable and any extra credits I needed could be easily obtained, but that is definitely not the case for all transfer students. Several of my transfer friends at Mount Holyoke College have been classified as the wrong graduation year because their credits wouldn't transfer in. The biggest issue with this comes down to financial constraints; taking loans for four years of college or even paying out of pocket is an insanely tough undertaking and sometimes switching schools can mean having to pay for extra semesters or a year of extra classes which is unrealistic for a lot of students.
On top of both of those things, there is, of course, the concern that you will not be accepted into the schools you apply to because the acceptance rate for transfer students is significantly lower than traditional first-year students. For example, Mount Holyoke only accepts roughly 50 transfer students a year whereas if you are a first-year student you would be vying for one of about 1,800 spots, according to Mount Holyoke's website. I was lucky enough to have an amazing college counselor who helped me pick schools that I liked and walked me through the actual process of applying as a transfer student so the whole process was relatively painless, but many transfer students are left to figure it out alone.
Mount Holyoke College has tried to make the transition as seamless as possible and they have provided resources to assimilate us into the community. With that being said, it is still difficult to switch school because you are essentially starting over and I can honestly say I was not looking forward to being a first-year again. In the past few months, however, I have started to feel more at home at MHC than I ever did at my other school and I think all of the obstacles were definitely worth it.