Approximately one in three students will transfer at some point in their college experience, making it a common process. While it may be a smooth transition for some, others find the college experience to be a hard, painful adjustment. Uprooting your life from one environment and planting it in another takes courage, effort, and lots of time.

“I transferred because I felt like something was missing from my college experience, I just couldn’t figure out what it was” said Erika Hiple ’18, a transfer student from St. Michael’s College in Burlington, Vt. For some students, their initial choice in a college is just a poor fit, but many stay because they would rather not put in the effort that transferring requires.
Some people see transferring as a sign of weakness, quitting, or giving up on a school. However, “college is a huge investment, and we might as well try to find the best environment for ourselves,” said Sydney Fallone ’17, a student who after transferring from St. Lawrence to Cornell University, chose to return one semester later. Transferring is not a sign of weakness, but rather an individual’s desire to feel more comfortable at their home away from home.
Students transfer for a myriad of reasons. “Some of the things they knew they would find at St. Lawrence they are missing at their current school, said Tonki Downs, director of transfer admissions. “Or sometimes people are looking for a program in which they know St. Lawrence excels. People really come from every type of environment”. Transfer admissions can be extremely competitive, with less spaces available than that of a regular first year class. According to Downs, St. Lawrence usually receives anywhere from 100 to 150 transfer applications per year, accepting only 20, which comes out to a 12 percent acceptance rate.
More often than not, transfer students believe that they made the right decision in choosing a new school and environment. “Ultimately I do believe I made the right decision in transferring,” said Hiple. “Inevitably, I do miss some things about my old school and I do miss my friends there, but you really can’t have it all.” For the 19 students who arrived as transfer students this fall, the past two months have seemed to be a happy in-between, listening to the welcome-to-college lectures, having already lived through them once before, while still experiencing SLU transitions like Peak Weekend and dinners at the Pub.
Transferring can be a hard, emotional experience. But being at a school that may not feel like home “helped me develop as a person and showed me that I could be successful in any environment I can put myself in”, said Fallone. Transferring takes courage, heart, and the desire to achieve something more for yourself than just a diploma.