The marginalized group no one ever thinks of: transfer students
Story highlights
- Leaving home at the age of 22: Hello, Cal Poly
- Have you ever felt discriminated against? Why do you feel ostracized?
- An overview of transfer students
- Freshmen and transfer students don’t go through the same transition
- Discrimination or a natural process?
- What do other students think of transfer students?
Leaving home at the age of 22: Hello, Cal Poly
Waking up, Joseph Marsili looked around and realized he was the only one in his studio. He hadn’t thought breaking free from his parents at the age of 22 would be a challenge. He regretted not wanting to have a roommate in the beginning.
Talking about his experience at Cal Poly, Marisli (now 23) said he feels old and doesn’t want to participate in fraternity parties or other events that first-year students often enjoy. If he wants to drink, he can just go to bars, because he’s over 21 now, he said.
Marsili is a San Ramon native and a transfer student from Las Positas Community College (LPCC) with a junior standing.
“I felt like it was kind of hard to relate to other people that hadn’t transferred,” Marsili talked about his first quarter at Cal Poly. “I sort of felt ostracized but that could have been my own—that was mostly my own—mentality.
“I felt strange, especially because it took me four years to finish community college, you know, various struggles, not really knowing exactly what to do and not wanting to jump to college—to a four-year—without knowing exactly what I want to do because I don’t want to waste money.”
“I felt like it was kind of hard to relate to other people that hadn’t transferred. I sort of felt ostracized but that could have been my own—that was mostly my own—mentality.”
by Joseph Marsili
Out of high school, Marsili applied only to University of California, Santa Cruz as a physics major, but didn’t get in. He then attended LPCC.
The school was only about 10 miles away from his home, so Marsili lived with his parents during his entire four years of community college.
After LPCC, Marsili was admitted to both Cal Poly and University of California, Davis. Considering that his grandparents used to live in Los Osos, close by San Luis Obispo, he chose Cal Poly. He now majors in mathematics.
“Honestly I would have definitely considered Davis,” he said. “I have a lot of friends that go to Davis, which [is] the point of transferring and being more comfortable. I feel like I probably would have had a much better time adapting up there, because I have at least 10 or 15 friends going up there. That would have changed everything, I feel like.”
Marsili said although he does try to make friends at Cal Poly, he finds it easier to relate to transfer and upper-division students than to freshmen.
“Actually,” he said, letting out a laugh, “coincidentally, most of my friends are transfer students right now.”
“I kind of have to make new friends all the time here, it’s kind of a constant thing, which is good, and bad in its own way. It’s nice to meet new people but it’s also hard when you’re struggling in a new place, not having someone that you’re really comfortable with to really talk to about things.”
by Joseph Marsili
Joseph Marsili is a transfer mathematics junior. He said during his first quarter at Cal Poly, he felt ostracized.
Have you ever felt discriminated against? Why do you feel ostracized?
“The only discrimination I feel like I sometimes encounter would be … based on the fact that I am now 23,” he said. “If I just straight up say that to someone, some people might be judgmental about that [and] not understand where I’m coming from.”
Marsili added he doesn’t experience that much though.
Besides, Marsili said he also finds it hard to fit in because of the culture differences between San Luis Obispo and San Ramon—a suburban city of the San Francisco Bay Area.
He said the bay has a huge diversity of people, so it’s easier to find some niche to fit in.
He also notices Cal Poly has a sports, fitness and outdoorsy culture that he enjoys but does not relate to as much, he said.
“People like me, general introverts, don’t necessarily go out that often,” he said. “So seeing mostly people who have different hobbies and … how they do line dancing [and] all the different cultural things, I mean I didn’t feel excluded, I just felt like I’m in a completely different environment and I felt sort of alone in that way.”
An overview of transfer students
Courtesy of Devin Kennedy.
Devin Kennedy is a history senior with a German minor. He has two years of experience being a resident adviser in Poly Canyon and Yosemite.
With two years of experience being a resident adviser (RA) in Poly Canyon Village (PCV) and Yosemite, history senior—with a German minor—Devin Kennedy said he has interacted with a lot of transfer students, and not all of them are in the same situation.
He divided transfer students into two groups: locals and non-locals.
“The locals tend to feel like they have a place here because they can kind of find people that they already knew,” he said. “For those that aren’t, it’s tough. It’s kind of like coming to a new environment entirely.”
Kennedy also had a different way of grouping transfer students: those who already know what they’re looking for and just fit in v. those who stick to their apartments and don’t integrate themselves further, he said.
He said the second type is not so common.
Kennedy has a local friend who went to University of California, Merced and then went back to San Luis Obispo to attend Cuesta College before transferring to Cal Poly.
“It was a little tough at first,” Kennedy said. “He still has some problems, I guess, with kind of like interacting and finding people to hang out with.”
Kennedy said his friend plays basketball, which helped him find his group, so now he feels comfortable being at Cal Poly.
Freshmen and transfer students don’t go through the same transition
Kennedy said freshmen coming to Cal Poly experience their first time being free from their parents while transfer students’ transition to Cal Poly is more like high school students switching schools.
“They just kind of have to reset but they already know the environment that they’re going into,” he said.
The challenge that transfer students face, Kennedy said, is to adjust from a semester system to a quarter system, which is more fast-paced.
“Students who start here from the beginning, of course, they’ve already adjusted to the rigorous system we have,” he said. “Community college students are typically used to the semester system, for example. And the expectations are a lot lower [at community colleges].”
He added that at Cal Poly, “they really push you.” It often takes transfer students their first quarter to adapt to the school, he said.
Even though freshmen also have to go through such transition, they start with a large group of peers, so it’s easier, Kennedy said.
Although Cal Poly tries to group transfer students together and offers them the resources that it offers freshmen, “the majority of transfer students don’t take advantage of those resources because they think they know what to do already,” Kennedy said.
He said some high schools, especially private ones, prepare their students for college very well. His school was on a trimester system and did a good job preparing him for Cal Poly.
“So right when I entered into Cal Poly, I was just on the go, on the high-level units, and I was able to adjust myself well,” he said.
Discrimination or a natural process?
Kennedy said when someone tells him they’re transfer students, he doesn’t put a second thought to it.
“It’s pretty much a natural process from what I’ve seen,” he said. “As a student, I can’t tell a transfer student from any student here. It’s very difficult unless they tell me directly of course … So I can’t see there’s a discriminatory level on that part.
“Administratively, of course we know who the transfer students are and who they aren’t. And we offer resources, and they were there for them, but they choose not to take in them, then we can’t really help them.”
He said he can tell if someone’s a freshman but cannot tell apart a transfer student from an upper-division student who started at Cal Poly.
“It seems like when everybody reaches a certain age, like 19 or 20, they’re already kind of adapting to the adult world,” he said. “And everybody’s ages just kind of mix, and it doesn’t really matter after a certain point.”
Kennedy said somebody once thought he was 27, and some others thought he was 19.
“It is tough to get in as a transfer student, I know that,” he said, “and I know a lot of the students that do come in, they’re proving themselves or they attempt to prove themselves the first quarter. Sometimes they’re not successful, sometimes they are; but it’s all about—just like the freshmen—just coming to a whole new world.”
What do other students think about transfer students?
Chloe Andruss is a landscape architecture freshman. She said she thinks transfer students are just as good as other students.
As a landscape architecture freshman, Chloe Andruss admits she’s closer to freshmen than to transfer students.
“Because I’m a landscape architecture major, [transfer students] all have studio together, so they know each other a lot more.”
Andruss doesn’t think that freshmen isolate transfer students, but that transfer students know each other better, so they are all friends, she said.
“Since they’re older, so it’s a little more intimidating,” she explained why it’s hard for freshmen and transfer students to become friends.
Andruss thinks academically, transfer students are just as good as students that started at Cal Poly, she said.
“I think it’s harder for them because they have to take all their major courses at once.”
Geoff Wacker is a computer engineering sophomore. He said if transfer students feel isolated, they can come to an adviser for help.
Computer engineering sophomore Geoff Wacker said if transfer students feel isolated, maybe that’s because they are new to campus, and no one really knows them.
“I know one transfer student that I worked with in a group project,” he said. “I thought things were good. They were normal, no isolation or anything like that, you know.”
He said he also felt a little lonely during his first quarter at Cal Poly because he was getting used to everything, but once he got established, he felt fine.
“I personally have gone to advisors and stuff like that,” he said, “and they have always told me that ‘oh if your friends ever have issues, send them to us, we’ll help out regardless of if they’re a transfer student or not.’”
Wacker said he thinks transfer students are just as good as other students academically.
Just for fun
Transfer myths (click on the link to read real facts behind them)
- My friend lost all his credits when he transferred into a senior college.
- A two-year doesn’t prepare you for senior colleges?
- Liberal Arts majors are only for undecided students…it’s not a real major
- In senior colleges you get exactly what you pay for: a more expensive college will
- give you a better education than a less expensive college.
- Never take out a student loan
- Private colleges are not a transfer option because they are too expensive
- The number of community college students transferring to four-year schools is declining
- Students with an AAS degree cannot transfer
- All programs of the same major are the same at all schools.
- All colleges offer an application fee waiver for members of Phi Theta Kappa
- If I have a two-year degree, it means four-year colleges will accept all of my credits.
- If I leave my two-year school owing money, it doesn’t matter because I am starting from fresh at my new school
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