What is it like to be a transfer student at NJIT?
The question is raised as NJIT celebrates National Transfer
Student Week for the first time.
The event, observed nationally from Oct. 21—Oct. 25, aims to
celebrate transfer students and the administrative professionals who support
them on their journey through higher education.
Jasmine Howard, Transfer Coordinator at the Advising Success
Center, heard about the week-long celebration from another colleague, but it
was only after attending the National Institute for the Study of Transfer
Students conference this past February that she returned to NJIT, determined to
try it out.
“[After] going there and hearing them talk about it, I was
like, okay, I want NJIT to try it. You just have to start somewhere,” Howard
said, speaking of the event’s launch at NJIT. “If we just start it, try it,
then we can build upon it, so it’s something I was really passionate about.”
But how do transfer students feel about it?
Corey O’Brien, a fifth-year mechanical engineering transfer
from Brookdale Community College, said, “I don’t think it really addresses
academic success, or difficulty, in any meaningful way—at least based on the
event titles.”
Stephen Kurilla, a fifth-year chemistry major who
transferred from Ocean County College in Fall 2017, agrees. “It’s nice, but
what I needed two years ago was information, not a celebration.”
This week does not make up for the reality of being a
transfer student at NJIT, he says. “You have all the negatives of being new,
with all the negatives of being an upperclassman.”
“[It’s] nice and all, but it’s also a
too little too late situation,” O’Brien agrees. “I felt kind of on my own from
the start, and in ways I didn’t feel at Brookdale.”
Howard is aware of this disconnect and the need to do better. “I feel like there’s been such a focus on getting transfer students
registered for their first semester… [but] it’s not just getting registered for
that first semester, but how are we supporting students through the transfer
shock experience, through adjusting to what NJIT is like.… Transfer students
are also first year students so there should be more support.”
According to Howard, as of Fall 2019, there are “over 3,100
transfer students currently enrolled.” NJIT’s Office of Institutional
Effectiveness reported an enrollment of 8,532 undergraduate students in Fall
2018. That means transfer students currently account for approximately 36% of
the undergraduate population.
One-third is a significant fraction of the
population, but Kurilla says it doesn’t matter: “You’re basically just another number to
the administration.”
When
asked if he feels appreciated as a transfer student, O’Brien says, “I really do
not. It definitely feels like I wasn’t welcomed in the same way [as freshmen]. I
didn’t have this big orientation. I didn’t have these group activities. It’s
kinda like, alright, you’re on your own.”
But
this celebration is a step in the right direction. Kurilla says, “I guess this
week shows that NJIT at least knows they forgot about transfers.”