Being a transfer at any school is never easy, but Sophomore Chris Ratanski made it look like a walk in the park. Ratanski, a Chemistry major, started in the Fall Semester of 2016 and has adapted nicely to his new school – with the help of his new found friends, of course.
With so many new and exciting experiences that come with starting a new school, it can be intimidating at first. But Ratanski accredits all his instant success to his roommate, Justin Huang. The pair was assigned randomly over the summer, and once they met on move-in day, they have been friends ever since. “I think it [transferring] went well. I had a great roommate, Justin Huang, and he’s really helped me along with the process, he’s involved me in all of his endeavors and without him I don’t know where I would be to be honest,” he said.
One of the most common stresses of transfer students is living with a random roommate, as Ratanski mentioned. He said “It was scary, coming to a new school with the first time living with a roommate, it’s a very intimidating process but Justin was just so lovable – nothing about him to hate. I got lucky.” Since Ratanski had no problem with his roommate, he was able to focus on academics and involvement on campus. As a Chemistry major, it can sometimes be hard to juggle both.
TCNJ offers so many different clubs and organizations to join and be a part of – it’s overwhelming to pick just a few. Luckily, Ratanski found his niche and joined CUB, the school’s campus activities programming board. He became super involved, and landed a position on CUB’s A Board with the Alt chapter, where he helps plan alternative shows around campus. He said that CUB helped his transition as a transfer because “I met a lot of people, made a lot of friends, something to do instead of sitting around, so they helped me out.” In this semester, CUB already has had a bunch of Alt shows, such as Jeff Rosenstock and Pinegrove, along with a comedy show featuring Eric André.
For Ratanski, transferring to a new school was not as bad as it was made out to be. He made great friends, got extremely involved with CUB, and had an awesome roommate to help ease the stressed that transferring may have caused. For anyone looking to transfer to TCNJ, Ratanski says “My biggest tip is find a roommate as good as Justin, if you can, and get involved around campus.”