What’s new at NU: Transfer students talk about navigating their new school. What’s New at NU: Stories of Transfers

National Transfer Student Week takes place October 21-25. The Daily explores the experiences of new and old transfer students and what it’s like to be part of their unique community.

SHAE LAKE: When I first transferred here in the fall of 2023, I remember several transfer PAs telling me, “Nobody loves Northwestern as much as a Northwestern transfer loves Northwestern.” During my experience integrating into the community I thought about this sentence and wondered how my transfer colleagues’ experiences impacted being a transfer student. I decided to listen to the stories of some of the transfers on campus, from the newest, fresh from The Arch, to the oldest, less than a year away from graduation.

According to The Daily Northwestern, I’m Shae Lake. This is What’s New at NU, a podcast that covers everything happening on campus. Today we’re taking a deep dive into the experiences of some of Northwestern’s transfer students.

SARAH TALBERT: I was terrified of transferring and going to a new school. It’s just a daunting experience to pick up your life and start over.

SHAE LAKE: That was Sarah Talbert, a Weinberg graduate transferring from Boston University in fall 2022. She has been a transfer PA for two years and serves on the board of the Transfer Student Organization (TSO). Talbert said she wanted to be part of a smaller student body than at BU. She also wanted more freedom to try new courses and figure out what she wanted to study.

SARAH TALBERT: Something that really worried me was that I would be mistaken for a transfer and I never really felt that, which kind of surprised me, especially since I didn’t make it my first time. I had a bit of a feeling that maybe I didn’t belong.

SHAE LAKE: Talbert said when she arrived at NU, she never felt judged as a transfer student. She explained that Wildcat Welcome helped her realize that she could have a positive college experience, and she wants to help other transfers realize that as well.

NOELLE TERRELL: By the end of Wildcat Welcome, I was ready to sacrifice my life for this school. I’m not going to lie, purple was in my blood at this point.

SHAE LAKE: That was Noelle Terrell, a Weinberg junior who transferred this fall from Baruch College in New York. Terrell said there wasn’t much of a community at her old school because it was a commuter school with only three buildings. Terrell said her Wildcat Welcome experience was overwhelmingly positive. However, other transfers, like Weinberg junior Ariba Vohra, had mixed feelings.

ARIBA VOHRA: Since there were a lot of freshmen, I felt really lost during the Wildcat Welcome. It was definitely discouraging because I didn’t know who to talk to or be with unless I was in my PA group.

SHAE LAKE: Vohra, a Rogers Park native, always saw the intercampus shuttle passing through her community. When she graduated high school, she chose Harold Washington College, a Chicago community college, for financial reasons to find out what she should study. As she began looking for schools to transfer to, she realized that NU was a good fit for her.

One of the biggest challenges for transfer students is adjusting to the quarter system, especially since many come from universities with semester systems.

NOELLE TERRELL: It feels like I just landed here and everyone’s like, “Have you done your midterms yet?” I’m like, “Hello, I’ve only been here for less than a month, man, and it’s piling up at my door The intermediate exams are already happening.”

SHAE LAKE: What makes NU’s transfer community so unique is its size. Compared to many other top schools, the university has a higher transfer acceptance rate. NU typically accepts less than 15% of transfer applicants, as opposed to less than 10% accepted by most Ivy League schools.

The university admitted 286 transfer students this year, one of its largest of its kind.

ARIBA VOHRA: I see transfers everywhere. I think no matter what room I go into, I meet a transfer, which is really nice because if you walk in and say, “I’m a transfer,” and someone says the same thing, you automatically connect.

SHAE LAKE: These transfer connections can create lasting friendships. Haley Tuohig, a Weinberg graduate who transferred from the University of California, San Diego in fall 2022, said many of her best friends and all of her roommates are transfer students.

HALEY TUOHIG: I feel like we are all very down to earth because we have all experienced humility at least once.

SHAE LAKE: Tuohig is one of TSO’s co-presidents and explained that she wants TSO to become more of a social organization where transfers can come together through various events.

Talbert, the senior who transferred from BU, said most NU transfers are open to talking about their experiences and the schools they came from. She said that last year the transfer PAs held an evening where they all wore swag from their old schools.

SARAH TALBERT: I think if I had gone to a school where there wasn’t such a big transfer community, I would have tried to say, “Oh yeah, I was here the whole time” and just act like I wasn’t a transfer. But here it is, because there are so many of us that it has become a kind of pride.

SHAE LAKE: According to The Daily Northwestern, I’m Shae Lake. Thank you for listening to another episode of What’s New at NU.

The episode was reported and produced by me, Shae Lake. The audio editor is Edward Simon Cruz. The digital editors-in-chief are Carlotta Angiolillo and Sasha Draeger-Mazer. Editor-in-chief is Jacob Wendler.

Our theme music is “He’ll come and get you, baby” by Xennial, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License and provided by the Free Music Archive.

Keep following us X And Instagram @thedailynu.

E-mail: [email protected]

X: @lake_shae53899

Similar stories:

— Digital Diaries Episode 5: Redefining what it means to “catch up” as a transfer student.

— Transfer students are considering introductions to NU

– Profs lead initiative to make NU more accessible to community college transfer students