As a transfer student, I have a unique perspective on life on the Tufts campus, specifically what it means to be an upperclassman thrust back into the freshman world of the unknown. One of the hardest things about entering a new school is the fear and anxiety that all of the work you had already accomplished at the other school will be ignored.
Transferring classes is not an experience that I would recommend to anyone, or at least anyone who cares about their sanity. While Tufts offers a plethora of opportunities for students, the transfer of credit process is daunting, to say the least. Not only am I at a new school, but I also must attempt to explain why I should receive credit for classes that I had already taken. It was further frustrating because I was not sure which courses I had to register for. Ideally, the most successful transfer students would have spoken with all of the professors for every class.
I, for one, still have two classes that I need to have approved, so I am setting up my schedule based on the assumption that I will receive credit for those classes. However, what happens if I do not? This frustration is not limited exclusively to transfer students; those students who study abroad run into the same obstacles when they return.
Part of my decision to transfer to a different school rested on which classes would count towards graduation. I was accepted into another university, and had found out which credits would transfer there before I had even heard from Tufts admissions. I went through the entire summer with people asking me, "How many credits transferred?" and only being able to respond, "I don't know, I guess they will eventually tell me." I understand that students should not necessarily be consumed with credit issues, but credits are both a necessary and integral part of graduating. For some students it plays a major role in which school they choose to attend, or which program they attend overseas.
Tufts is the only university I know of that requires students to speak with actual department chairs regarding their transfer of credit. It is also one of the few schools that requests that transfer students bring their syllabi with them. I personally had all of my syllabi, but I saw students who had not brought them participating in arguments, trying to get credit for classes that they had taken at other institutions.
Tufts also has a transfer of credit limit that is not widely advertised, which has both positive and negative aspects to it. I, for instance, had a double major and therefore had more credits than were allowed by Tufts' limit. In other words, I basically took a few classes for nothing other than their intrinsic value.
This process is not especially beneficial to non-transfer students, either. If transfers have reached the maximum number of transfer credits permitted, and then attend a study-abroad program not sponsored specifically by Tufts, then their classes will not count. I understand why the limit was established in the first place. However, I think there are certain aspects that should be reviewed and perhaps even revised so that the rules do not limit a student from truly utilizing all of the opportunities Tufts has to offer - opportunities that played a role in the transfer student's decision to come to Tufts in the first place.
Another problem for first-year transfers is orientation week. Overall, orientation was wonderful; but speaking from the perspective of a junior transfer, it was not quite so great. Speaking on behalf of many transfer students who have expressed similar concerns, it was frustrating to be constantly lumped in with freshmen.
I am a junior who is thinking about graduate schools, which is not on the forefront of most freshmen minds. While having a completely separate orientation is not feasible, it would have been nice to have dinner with all the other transfer students as a way to meet one another and talk about our own experiences.
While transferring has been a relatively painless process, it has been an exceptionally tedious one. There are certain aspects that could be made to accommodate students better and that would end up helping the University as well.
Elizabeth Hockmeyer is a junior majoring in English and political science.
