Wait, You Transferred Too?! What?!

The Throughline team does what we do because we have all been motivated by becoming the guides we wished we’d had on the sidelines of our lives. You know, those people who hold up metaphorical (and sometimes literal) signs that say things like, “You’ve got this!” “Don’t give up now!” “Keep going!” They pass you a cup of water and a thumbs up right when you’re at the mile of the race where you’re this close to calling it quits. The best compliment we get from people is when they tell us they felt like we were their cheerleaders, like we had their backs.

Some of our favorite people to cheer on are transfer students. These young people are at a crossroads, and we LOVE a good fork in the road. So you can imagine my delight when it occurred to me that everyone on the Throughline team has something remarkable in common: WE WERE ALL TRANSFER STUDENTS! No wonder we all met at Throughline; and no wonder we all love the crossroads :) Read our transfer stories below. And if you’re a student looking to make a change, you know who to talk to :) The Throughline Guidance Team.

Graduating high school, I was pretty anxious. I had always been a straight-A student and a major overachiever. I chose to go to community college due to some personal reasons in my life that made it hard to be away from my family. I was happy to have a couple of extra years at home, but I felt stressed that I would miss out on opportunities and be looked down on for choosing a different route. I started my college journey at the College of San Mateo. I began as a sociology major, mostly because my aunt was a sociology major and now has a great job, but I ended up really enjoying my classes. Being in community college almost did not feel real. I went to campus twice a week, took lots of online classes, and spent a lot of time with my mom and sister. It was the first time that I didn’t have a big group of friends to lean on, which felt lonely at first, but I quickly learned to love it. Looking back now, it might have been the best time of my life, and I wish I had slowed down and done an extra year. I don’t think I understood then that there is no reason to rush into life, it will happen before you know it. During my second year, I decided I would double major and take some business classes to expand my opportunities. Accounting felt like an important class to take in person, so I signed up for the professor with the best reviews. On my first day, I quickly understood why he had such great reviews. My accounting professor, Mr. Heath quickly became the most influential person in my community college career, and he is still someone I reach out to today. When the time came to transfer, I was already set on my school. My best friends went to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and I had visited enough times to know I wanted to go there. I secured housing before I even got into Cal Poly. A couple of weeks later, I heard from UCLA and UC Berkeley with their acceptance letters and truly felt like I was at a crossroads. It is a moment I now look back on often and wonder what my life would look like if I had decided to break my lease and go for something unfamiliar. In the end, I chose Cal Poly because of their small class sizes and high recruiting rate post-graduation, and I feel happy with my decision. When I look back, I wish I could tell myself to slow down and take the time to understand myself enough to make the right decision for me. I am now a senior at Cal Poly, halfway through my second-to-last quarter. Cal Poly has been such an engaging and unique experience. I am so happy with where I am now that it is hard to say I would do anything differently, but I know that learning more about myself earlier could have really helped me in the long run. - Anna

I graduated from Highland Park High School in 2009. Highland Park is a small town, so I graduated with fewer than 100 people, most of whom I’d known since early elementary school. I applied to 7 or so schools and don’t remember being very stressed by the process. I knew college was the next step, but I can’t say I was basing my decision on much of anything. I visited a few schools, took part in overnight opportunities, and have two older sisters, which gave me my own kind of inherited research into the range of schools or studies I could pursue. Marist was my top choice, more based on a feeling I had during my visit. It felt like the right next step in terms of size and setting, but I unfortunately didn’t get in when I initially applied. I ended up attending a larger university in the northeast, about 4 hours away from home, with a plan to study fashion merchandising. Knowing what I know now, I should have taken a gap year, but that wasn’t even something I learned about at the time.

I remember moving into my crammed basement dorm with two others. I also remember there hadn’t been much programming for first-year students, so there was lots of chatter about going off campus to meet other students. This set the tone for what became a somewhat disjointed student experience. Greek life was big, but it wasn’t something I was into; many students commuted or lived off campus. Luckily, the saving grace was one of my roommates. We bonded very quickly, and she is still one of my closest friends. Being a local who would go home on weekends, I spent most of my time going home with her, taking the train back to NJ, or my mom would come up to visit me for the weekend. I had a hard time finding my groove my freshman year. I was not aware of many, or really any, resources. After a tough year away, I re-applied to Marist, got in, and committed for my sophomore year. I found the Marist community embraced me in a way I was looking for, offering outstanding on-campus and off-campus opportunities to connect with new people. There was an abundance of programming, clubs, and social opportunities, all set against a view you cannot beat. Faculty and staff were supportive, and I always got the feeling they really wanted us to thrive. Looking back, it all worked out the way that it was meant to. But if I were to do anything differently, it would have been to be more intentional in understanding who I was and what I was looking for, and to base my decisions on that information, rather than following what I thought I should do. - Nikki

A transfer path was always on my college roadmap. My father taught English at a local community college and college and talk while I was growing up always included the college plan that my sisters and I spend two years there before transferring to four-year schools. Going to college was not as complex then. Students did not apply to as many schools and the iPhone didn’t exist. As my high school senior year approached, I didn’t question this path. Plus, the community college was in a beautiful location, had an excellent reputation, and I could continue my sports life as one of the larger fish in the smaller pond of the community college swimming team.

I ended up liking community college very much. Classes were small, professors taught the lectures and labs and were readily available during office hours. I landed a job in the bookstore fairly easily and found a good community of new friends. I experienced an atmosphere of camaraderie, not intense competition. It was a school that was the right size and pace for me.

Community college also brought me many close guides. Interactions with many of the staff involved them supporting my academics and making sure I was completing the right coursework to transfer. I still see this today in my interactions with community colleges. The faculty are focused on their teaching and there is a broad mission to be close to students to help them get ready for their next step. There is extensive support to make sure students planning to transfer to four-year schools get the right classes completed and forms filled out.

I successfully transferred to a four-year state college to complete my bachelor’s degree. Coming from a family of teachers who believe deeply in public education impacted my college path significantly. I benefited from the close integration that California’s public community colleges and universities have and have always felt I had an excellent lower-division experience. Plus, I know there was tremendous cost savings for my parents.

Would I do anything different today? Possibly. The times are different now and I know so much more about college than I (and my parents!) knew then. All my colleagues in the college counseling program I completed at UC Berkeley said the same thing…”I wish I had known all this when I was starting college!” Today I would likely have been exposed to many more colleges and programs which might have resulted in a different path. But I still believe the most important thing is finding the right fit among the many, many options available. And this ultimately means a student has the experience that is just right for them as a steppingstone to a successful and satisfying future. I know I got that. - Liz

When I applied to college, I was living in Germany as an exchange student. I took the SAT in Germany and went to internet cafes to work on my applications. I was the first in my family to go to college, and while loved and supported immensely, I was shooting in the dark. I applied to schools I had heard of in places I’d visited. Coming from the west coast, I swore: No colleges west of the Mississippi. I wound up in Chicago (dangerously close to my boundary line). I knew I wanted to continue studying German on the heels of my big adventure abroad, and the college I was attending closed their German department (the beginning of a heartbreaking trend nationwide). The loss of the program, and that general feeling that I wasn’t in the right place, led me to the decision to transfer after my freshman year.

I actually wanted to end up back on the west coast, since by this point I had a long-distance boyfriend. So my original rule about no schools west of the Mississippi loosened. Still, I applied to one Chicago-area school, just in case: Northwestern.

By June, I still hadn’t received any offers from any of the schools I’d hoped would want me. So I committed to my home state’s university and thought it would be nice to be closer to family (and the boyfriend). I was content.

I remember Father’s Day 2007. We did the obligatory golf outing with my dad, and I was in a bad mood (I usually am after golfing). I came home, hot and irritated. My mom came in with a stack of mail and a weird look on her face. There, in the pile was a big purple envelope with the word “Welcome” printed across the front. And so, I went back to the windy city and became a wild cat.

Transferring works. And so do long-distance relationships. I married the guy :) - Alex