Transferring universities is a unique experience that allows students to understand the culture of two different universities as well as learn more than those who stay at one university their entire undergrad. The SA Andrew along with Dr Hill led three transfers in a discussion about our transition. This discussion ended up reaching a place where Dr Hill and Andrew were giving us advice on Cornell in general. I liked this Rose event because it was genuinely helpful in trying to find our niche here.
During the discussion I learned a lot that I did not know about Dr Hill. He is a very accomplished man who has studied at the best universities in the world. He told us how he had never been involved during his undergrad and was able to attend these highly regarded schools by forming connections with professors. Dr Hill worked hard to not only become close with the professors who were teaching him, but also professors at universities that he was interested in eventually attending. The culture of Cornell puts pressure on students to get involved with as many clubs as possible, and although they are helpful it is overwhelming to feel that we will fail if we do not join these organizations. Dr Hill really put it into perspective and along with Andrew.
I personally transfered from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and Cornell University is a very different ball game. I am so happy that I was able to spend a year at my state school with my friends from childhood! Yet, coming to Cornell I felt like I was never going to be able to keep up. It is nerve wrecking to leave a place that you already know you love to go to a place that is unfamiliar. Luckily, I am very happy here and it was nice to see other transfers were struggling with the same things as I was.
As someone who started my undergraduate career at Cornell, I have no first hand experience regarding how other schools function. But I have met many transfer students, and they all seem to have a common experience here at Cornell: the school just plops them down onto campus and lets them figure everything out themselves. Many of them expressed frustration with how they were expected to naturally find and utilize the resources on campus without any help. I’m glad Rose was able to hold such an insightful event for transfer students to connect and learn together, especially considering that you as a transfer student actually enjoyed it.
One reason I chose Cornell is that all the professors I talked to beforehand were very approachable and genuinely interested in teaching and helping their students. I’ve found it isn’t hard forming a personal connection with the people you look up to so long as you make an effort to; they’ll always be open to you.