Grueling, lonely, overwhelming, tough, intimidating, disappointing, isolating, stressful, exciting, adaptable, opportunistic, roller coaster, secluding, unexpected, full of homesickness; these are words commonly expressed by our Transfer Student Representative staff describing their first quarter at UCLA.
Mostly coming from community colleges, new transfer students at UCLA often find it challenging to assimilate to the rigorous academic life UCLA has to offer. While community colleges run on a semester system, UCLA and other schools from the University of California system (except UC Berkeley and UC Merced) have a 10-week quarter system. Not only does this adjustment pose a challenge to fresh transfer students at UCLA, but it also ignores the challenges transfers undertake. For the most part, students and teachers are under the impression that it’s extremely easy to be admitted to UCLA as a transfer and that we cannot reach our full potential as a four-year student would. This stigma remains within transfer culture and because of this we often feel unmotivated and overwhelmed with the curriculum at UCLA.
Transfer students are stigmatized for taking the easy route, but the words described above express a different tone, one that resonates how transfers themselves have different experiences during their first quarter. Students all have unique and different experiences. Just like any UCLA student, some people may find community college easy, while others may face many academic challenges. Even though some four-year universities have programs and resources to help freshmen adapt, the majority of community colleges do not offer them. So students have to adapt on their own.
Moreover, there are many factors that make community college classes seem to be the “easy” alternative. One these factors is the instructors. Community college professors do not lecture, they teach. They share their knowledge with smaller classes, which allows them to give individual attention to students. Another factor is free tutoring in writing, math and language centers. These resources develop learning skills and foster academic independence. However, these factors play a bigger role than just making classes “easier.” They help students overcome their challenges and become competitive individuals. Many community college students have to maintain a GPA close to 4.0 in order to transfer to a prestigious four-year university such as UCLA while dealing with economic struggles, family responsibilities or full-time jobs.
Additionally, some students may prolong their time in community college due to lack of communication with academic counselors, who may not be qualified enough to advise students according to their particular challenges and goals as a transfer. This issue was seen in a past Daily Bruin article titled, “For transfers, there’s no such thing as a smooth transition” by Cristina Chang.
Community college is not “the easy way out.” Even some four-year university students can identify with the challenges that community college students face. Transfer students are similar to “traditional” students, but still not the same.
Transfer students face the issue of time. They have two years to participate in clubs, obtain leadership roles, accumulate research experience, maintain a competitive GPA, adapt to the quarter system and obtain internships, not to mention that they only have one year to prepare for the GRE, LSAT or any other graduate school test. It is important that as a UCLA community, students are aware of the different challenges other students face to foster acceptance and to avoid stereotypes. Avoiding the negative stereotypical remarks toward transfers will dwindle the stigma and eventually it will fade out, but only through cooperation and understanding.
After all, we’re all just trying to find that empty desk in Powell.
Transfer Pride Week is a week dedicated to celebrating one of the most diverse groups at UCLA: the transfer community. Get all the information at transfers.ucla.edu.
Hempstead, Galaidos, Sotelo, Porroa-Garcia, Robertson-Brown and Lakhani are all part of the academic reform component of the Undergraduate Students Association Council Transfer Student Representative’s office.
“Avoiding the negative stereotypical remarks toward transfers will dwindle the stigma and eventually it will fade out, but only through cooperation and understanding.”
So your suggestion is to encourage people to censor their negative opinions on transfer students and somehow this will solve the issue of isolation and loneliness that some transfers feel?
The problem resides in the fact that they’re two years late to the party — the majority of students already created friendship groups in their freshman year. However, if a transfer is social and stays in a dorm for their first year, I’d actually argue that it’s difficult for them NOT to find friends and/or a group/community here.
Being open to meeting new people and actively pursuing it is much more effective than trying to censor other people or create random “pride” groups that celebrate diversity but in essence take one group of people and put them on a pedestal (the exact opposite of “diversity,” in my opinion). Interesting article nonetheless.
Just a couple things. I’m a “transfer student”, and the only times that I’ve heard of anti-transfer stereotypes are when fellow “transfer” students bring them up. That’s not to say it doesn’t happen, but it’s also not to say it’s as big as a problem as you think it is.
If we don’t want people thinking we’re lazy and that we’ve taken the easy way out, then we should outperform those perpetuating those stereotypes. But in the meantime, let’s not keep adding people to the entitlement mentality.
I understand everyone’s point, but the pressure to be disprove common stereotypes can be detrimental to one’s success. I don’t want to seem hyperbolic in this comparison, but similar effects have been observed when studying stereotype threat and how ethnic minorities respond to stigmatization. It’s worth noting that transfers are one of the most -if not the most- diverse populations on campus in regards to ethnicity, socioeconomic background, and age.
The issue doesn’t stem from people voicing their negative opinions. Rather, the mere existence of a stigma is already problematic. Overt attacks are not necessary for effects to be felt; microaggressions and subtle cues will suffice.
Furthermore, telling one to simply outperform their peers belittles the struggle of new transfers. This advice assumes that a transfer is not putting in the work, but there is no way to know all the variables at play. It is a tough adjustment for most and transfers -like everyone else- need time to adjust.
Transfer pride week does not put transfers on a pedestal; transfer pride week celebrates the diverse and unique stories within the community. It is a call to transfer to not be ashamed of their journey to UCLA. Transfer pride week validates their struggles and creates a sense of community for a population who is “two years late to the party.”
As Bruins, we should be able to empathize with our fellow students. Telling someone to toughen up only discredits that individual’s struggle and fixes nothing. Transfer students are not better or worse than any other student; they are equal. It’s sad that othered groups must fight for respect that should be unconditional.
Finally, just because you personally have not experienced similar struggles does not mean they do not exist. Yes, we sometimes see transfers perpetuating the stigma in self-deprecating ways, but instead of blaming them for internalizing the stigma, we should pull from roots. Transfers are not free from blame, but let’s not pretend that traditional students, faculty, and others are free from blame as well. This campus is supposed to house great minds and foster a tight community. Why is that that compassion and empathy are so rare on this campus? What is the point in telling someone their problems are not valid? Transfer don’t want your pity. It does us no good.
Why do you need a reason to be respectful and empathetic?
THE DAILY BRUIN…STOP DELETING MY COMMENTS. THERE WAS NO VULGAR LANGUAGE, ATTACK, OR CALLING OUT. I CHALLENGED THE IDEAS PRESENTED IN THIS ARTICLE. THAT IS ALL. STOP CENSORING.
As for my comment (before it was deleted)….what is this article trying to say? That just because some student’s feel uncomfortable in a new surrounding they need to be sheltered to a point that is just short of holding their hands for the next two years? This is the experience we really want to give students? College is a place for many things; education, friendships, team work, trying new things, etc. But it should also be a place to help young people transition into the real world, without mommy and daddy there every step of the way. This reactionary, unnecessary sheltering of students does not help them, it only hurts. If a student feels that their time here is truly “grueling, lonely, overwhelming, tough, intimidating, tough, disappointing, isolating, stressful, and full of homesickness”, join the club. Yes, it’s uncomfortable at first, but you adapt. That’s how it is once you graduate in two short years. USAC and the Transfer Student Representative need to stop wasting their time micro-managing how each student feels. Instead, you don’t need to do anything over the top. Just provide services for transfer students to help navigate (what clubs to join, how financial aid works, where classrooms are, how to juggle their schedules). That’s advice that could actually be helpful. Just stick to that. And people stop with these articles and initiatives that make things more dramatic than they actually are.