It’s safe to say that everyone on the planet Earth has had a tough year. For transfer students, Temple has made it just a little bit harder. As a recent transfer student to Temple University, and with a few connections to other transfers, I have compiled a list of all the areas that Temple failed to help their transfer students have a smooth transition, and guided tips to help new transfers succeed. This is not meant to bash Temple University as a whole, I thoroughly believe they excel in many areas, just not when it comes to transfer students.
Social
Transitioning to college is already an extremely difficult thing for anyone socially, but it’s even harder as a transfer student. As a large university with a high amount of transfer students, Temple University does not do much at all to help with this social process. To start, they only hold a small orientation for your major alone. This session lasts a couple hours, and gives you only a small pool of people to interact with who are also transferring, most of which you normally do not have the time to grab the numbers and social media. In addition, there are no real clubs and activities fair for transfer students, truly only for freshman, and only in the fall semester. The final barrier between Temple transfers and a social life is through housing. Many people in college find their main social group through residence halls. Many transfer students are older than the typical freshman age range, and by then many upperclassmen get off campus apartments, making it harder to find new friends. Mix all of these issues in with the insanely large class sizes of TU, and transfer students are ultimately alone for the remainder of their college experience.
Here’s how to fix it:
- Put yourself out there! People are willing to reach out to you if you extend yourself first. This could help make connections by extending your information to others first.
- Do research on what Temple offers for clubs and organizations. If you are unsure of what your passions may be, every major has a list of clubs and organizations you can be a part of and a description of each. I have found it much easier to look up a club, find one I am interested in, then look it up on social media to find the best way to contact them.
- Temple’s social life happens off campus, too. Look for the off campus housing pages on social media. Find a good place for your price. You can also talk to the people who you’d be living with as well, so you can find out if you’ll get along.
I would finally like to point out that as your classes continue on through your Temple experience, your major courses will bring you close to a smaller group of Temple students. Do not feel discouraged if it takes some time, it will happen!
Informative
As mentioned previously, for transfer students there is only one small orientation session that lasts only a couple hours. That is not much time to fit in all that is important when coming to a new college. The information they cover is requirements for you to graduate from a particular college, and that’s it. What this information sessions has failed to mention is typical college policies like where to go/who to talk to if an emergency occurs (such as sexual assault, or alcohol related problems). This is a very important part of an undergraduate student’s college experience, and this information needs to be understood by all Temple students. Another area where they lacked an explanation is with typical meal plans, or class registration, and where to find how to manage these things. In relation to this, transfer students are out of the know when it comes to course selection until that orientation session. They have to pick a bunch of random classes on the spot or sift through whatever is left over in the late action. The final issue faced in the informational category is where to find all important buildings on Temple’s campus, including health resources, and just simply your classes on the first day.
Here’s what I learned:
- Temple offers an escort system from the TUPolice if you feel you are endangered walking home. The TUPolice phone number is listed for you all over, so put it in your emergency contacts to report to for any issues you may have. Other health resources are also listed on Temple’s website, so make sure you have read-up, and saved the information telling you where to go if you are sick, or need mental assistance.
- The TUPortal has everything you need. Make sure you go through the portal thoroughly to know what is available to you at your fingertips. This can help you with all meal plans, or registration issues you have. There is a place on the Student Tools tab for planning of your course schedules, so that when registration comes, you are ready to go, and be first to get your wanted class times.
- Download the TUMobile app. This app gives you access to your TUportal to Diamond Dollars, and other important information. But, most importantly, it helps you find necessary buildings. On the first day of classes, the mobile app can help you with a GPS guide to find the buildings for your classes, or other buildings you are in search of.
The prolonged disarray and confusion the transfer process at TU puts students through makes it very hard for them to ever fully feel a part of the Temple community. Pair this with a global pandemic and all online classes, and you have a recipe for feelings of total isolation. These tips were not found easily for any other transfers, and myself. Overtime, I hope that this information is more easily accessible to transfer students, or that this guide is helpful to those who are struggling right now.