Be Good. Be Orange.

Submitted by Andrew Jacobo

One of the values that I associate with Being Orange is to provide a welcoming place with equal opportunity for all students. However, I am not sure that I see that as much as I would like to. I believe that OSU is lacking in the attention it puts into transfer students. I myself am a transfer student who spent his first two years of college attending a community college to save money. In my first two terms here at OSU I have met many other transfer students, and there have been several of us with similar complaints about our experiences.

I realize that there are transfer students who may just want to earn a degree, graduate, and move on with their life. They probably want to be allowed to do their own thing and be treated similar to other junior or senior level students.

On the other hand, there are students like myself who want to get more involved in OSU and learn what they have to offer, but need some help doing so. Us transfer students can be a little clueless in this new environment. For example, a freshman that I know told me about some kind of party that was being held at Dixon at the beginning of the year. I would have loved to go and have fun before the term started, but I wasn’t informed of the event in time.

I haven’t had any special attention as a transfer student since attending START. And unlike the two day experience that START was for incoming freshman, START for transfer students is a very basic orientation. My freshman friend described the two day START program as “fun,” and told me that they played games and met new people. Nothing about the transfer student START could be described as fun. We registered for classes, got our ID’s, attended a few informational presentations, and then went home. I understand that some transfer students want to get straight to business, but I have put off having the “college life” for 2 years, and want to have just as much of an exciting orientation as freshman.

I don’t just have a problem with the lack of fun that transfer students have in comparison to freshman though. I think we also need more help getting adjusted to school at OSU. In my first term, I went straight into junior level Computer Science classes. Since I had gone to a community college for the previous two years and not a university, I expected that I would need to do some catching up to be at the same level of abilities and knowledge as the other juniors. However, not only did I have to adjust to the higher difficulty of the classes, I also had to learn things like how to use my free printing as an engineering student, the fact that I needed a PIN number to register for new classes, how to get that PIN number, how to reserve study rooms in the library, how to find clubs that would expand my knowledge, how to look for internships and jobs that would help me get ahead, and the list goes on and on.

I think transfer students need more assistance in finding clubs, learning about how to use the resources OSU offers, and should be provided information about fun events on campus to help make new friends. We are in some ways as clueless as freshmen, yet expected to be at the same level as upper level students. Give us an optional fun 2 day START, show us how to do things other juniors know, make us feel more welcomed and comfortable in this new place.