Hello, lovelies. I went to Transfer Orientation earlier this week and there isn’t a lot of information out there about it. I tried to look up blog posts on how to prepare for it, but there wasn’t much available. Now that I’ve been to one, I can tell you all what to expect.
Before my Freshman year of college, I wrote a very comprehensive guide to Freshman Orientation. For the sake of not being repetitive, I’m going to try to mostly focus on the transfer stuff. I recommend you read the original post, as well.
Without further ado, here’s what you can expect during transfer orientation (based on my experience).
Related – The (Soon-To-Be) College Students Guide To Freshman Orientation
//Before You Go//
Clear all holds on your account (Verify citizenship, immunization, etc.) – You won’t be allowed to register for classes until you finish this. Your university will most likely send you a pre-orientation checklist to complete before the event, so get on that.
Call the previous school to send your final transcript – This way, you’re advisor will have all the information he or she needs to recommend classes. Just in case your school doesn’t send your last semester transcript in time, write down the CRN codes for them. My advisor didn’t have my transcript for the Spring 2018 semester yet, but I was prepared. After giving him the CRN numbers, he was able to find the courses that are equivalent to the ones at my current university. I’m sure this made his life easier.
Write A List Of Questions For Your Advisor – My biggest question was whether or not American Sign Language would count as my foreign language requirement because my previous university counted it as a foreign language class, while my current university doesn’t. Thankfully, it’s taking my credits, so I won’t have to spend more time and money taking another language class. Keep a list of questions like that for your advisor because it would suck to finish the meeting only to think of five other questions you never thought to ask.
Look Up Your Major Requirements And Classes You Are Interested – Depending on the year you transfer, you’ve probably declared your major already. If so, look up all the requirements to graduate with that major in your new college so that you’re prepared to register for proper classes and edit your four-year plan.
//What To Expect//
Check-In – The first thing you’ll do is check-in. This is pretty self-explanatory. You’ll go up to the main desk and will be handed a name tag and the schedule. You will also likely receive things like your meal ticket for the dining hall and a card for a free T-Shirt.
Introduction + Speeches – This happened in Freshman Orientation as well, so you know what to expect. There will be a bunch of speeches by the dean of students, financial aid people, campus police, etc. They’ll share a bunch of information about the school and show very cheesy school spirit videos.
Group Meeting With An Orientation Leader – After the speech, you’ll get separated from your parents and placed into groups. In said groups, you’ll be able to ask the student leaders questions and meet other transfer students. This session was a lot shorter in the transfer orientation compared to the freshman orientation because it was expected that we already knew most of the basic aspects of college (which is true).
There was also another group meeting organized by major so that each student would be able to watch a presentation about their major requirements. That meeting was very helpful.
Meet With An Academic Advisor – Before registering for classes, all the students had to meet with an academic adviser. We were all assigned times to go meet ours. It was nice that it was individualized. During freshman orientation, we were sent to advisors in groups of five or six by major. It makes sense that transfer orientation works individually because we aren’t starting from square one; we have already completed a good chunk of college and are at different points in our college career. Orientation advisement is probably different based on the school you go to, but in my experience, advisement was done in small groups with Freshmen and individually with transfer students.
Register For Classes – I advise you to register for classes during orientation rather than at home. The website might be different from what you’re used to and there are a lot of people who will help you figure out how to use the interface. It takes the pressure off.
Get An ID Card – The school I used to go to gave us our Student ID cards for free during Freshman orientation, but my current school charged me $30! That’s an insane price for a piece of plastic, but I paid it anyway. It’s an important piece of plastic.
Campus/Resident Hall Tours – This part is pretty self-explanatory. A tour guide will take you around the school, show you main buildings like the library and student center, and let you inside dorm rooms to see what they’re like.
//Freshman Orientation Vs. Transfer Orientation//
It’s A Lot Shorter Than Freshman Orientation – I don’t remember how long my Freshman Orientation was, but I know that the Freshman Orientation at the school I attend now lasts two days, while the transfer orientation only lasts one. Like I said before, they expected us to already know a lot of the main points, so they only talked about things that related to the school.
It’s Not As Structured– I remember my freshman orientation being scheduled to a T. We were never left alone. We were always going back and forth listening to speeches and doing activities with a student leader. This made sense since we were fresh out of high school and didn’t know what we were doing. Transfer orientation was treated differently. They straight up told us that we probably know what we’re doing and let us decide our schedules for ourselves. Campus tours would start and finish at different times and videos were shown in different rooms. We were able to choose what times we wanted to do each task. Our schedules weren’t dictated for us.
You Do A Lot More Things Alone – Because the schedule was structured that way, I spent most of my time alone. There wasn’t a lot of social time because everyone was trying to go from one task to another. This also made orientation a lot shorter. Orientation was from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, but I easily finished everything I needed to do before 2:00. After that, I went to lunch and spent time with my friend. I actually liked this part of orientation because I wasn’t wasting time on filler activities.
There Aren’t As Many “Get To Know Eachother” Activities – Even though I was more productive doing things alone, I do wish that there were a few more opportunities to interact with other students. I talked to a lot of people during Freshman Orientation and actually made friends, while there were only five minutes specifically for talking to each other during transfer orientation. There will be a lot of cool activities for transfer students once school starts, but I do wish that they gave us an hour group session to talk to and get to know people.
That’s it for now. I hope this post helped and I’ll see you next time.
Related – The (Soon-To-Be) College Students Guide To Freshman Orientation
Did you transfer colleges? If so, do you have any advice for me?