My freshman and sophomore years of college were not the typical college experience. I stayed home my first two years and attended a local community college instead of directly attending a four-year university after high school graduation. If you’re like me, I was terrified to start over and transition to a new school halfway through college. With that being said, I was able to do it and I know you can too. I gathered up five tips to help you prepare and make your transition process a little bit easier.
1. Meet with an advisor
I cannot stress this enough. Be sure to meet with an advisor as soon as possible! Not only will this assist you in making sure that your schedule runs smoothly during your first semester, but advisors can also be great tools in finding out about opportunities that your school may have to offer. I recommend scheduling a visit the semester prior to you transferring and sitting down with an advisor to make sure that that specific school and major are a right fit for you. Advisors may also know about potential job and internship opportunities for you, so developing a relationship with them can be extremely beneficial.
2. Get involved early on
Before I transferred, every person that gave me advice seemed to say the exact same thing: join anything and everything in the beginning. Now I suggest taking this with a grain of salt because it can be easy to overload yourself, but I do think it is important to attend as many introductory meetings of organizations that you are interested in at the very start of a new semester. That way you can narrow down all of your choices and find the right place for you on campus. The MSC Open House is a great way to get a full rundown of the organizations that Texas A&M has to offer. I definitely suggest attending this at the start of each semester.
3. Attend camp
Did you know that A&M has more than just Fish Camp for incoming students? I didn’t find this out until my New Student Conference but Aggie Transition Camps puts on T-Camp in August for incoming fall transfer students and Howdy Camp in January for spring transfer students. I was hesitant at first, but attending camp was the first place that welcomed me as an Aggie and helped to ease my transition from community college to university. Attending camp will allow you to meet other Aggies in the exact same position as you, as well as teach you all about the traditions that take place at Texas A&M. I loved camp so much that I went on to be a counselor at both T-Camp and Howdy Camp.
4. Walk your classes beforehand
If you’re like me, then getting lost might just be second nature to you. Make sure you move in a few days before class so that you are able to get to campus before the first day and walk your class schedule. After a week on campus, you’ll have it down, but the first day can be a bit intimidating and it’s always great to be prepared!
5. Remember to breathe
I think this step might be the most important of them all! From experience, transferring from a community college can be difficult. That being said, at the end of the day you made it to college and that is such an accomplishment in itself. You’re here now and it’s important to every once in a while take a step back and just appreciate college and the opportunity you get to grow as an individual. My first two years at community college were not what I had originally planned for throughout high school, but I would not trade that time for the world. Each step you take throughout your life leads you to where you’re supposed to end up. So keep breathing and trust in the process.