The first week of class brings excitement and a new beginning for many students, but transfer students have experiences marked by the challenges that come along with learning the ins-and-outs of a new university.
Sidney Boaz, a first-year transfer student studying fisheries, wildlife and conservation, said she’s had trouble navigating campus, especially with ongoing construction.
“Campus right now is a lot of construction, so there’s a lot of detours I don’t know about, that Google Maps doesn’t know about,” Boaz said. “And the halls are only labeled on one side. There’s back entrances to the halls that I don’t know.”
Boaz also expressed her frustration with learning how to operate NC State’s learning platforms.
“I’m in 300 and 200-level courses; a lot of professors just assume you know how programs work like Moodle,” Boaz said. “And then I have professors talking about programs I don’t know. And I’m lucky to have friends that go here already, so I ask them, ‘What does this mean?’ and, ‘How do I use this?’ But other than that, I would have no clue how to navigate any of the online stuff.”
Anna-Drew Regan, a first-year transfer student studying business administration, said along with the large class sizes and cars not yielding to pedestrians, her main complaint was being expected to be familiar with Moodle.
“I didn’t even know what Moodle was until I got in my first class,” Regan said. “And the fact that some people were calling it WolfWare, and then some people were calling it Moodle — I thought they were different and I didn’t even know how to get to Moodle.”
In addition to learning how to operate Moodle, transfer students may be expected to be aware of any supplementary assignment software and websites where homework is assigned.
Rachel Gamewell, a first-year transfer student studying English, said they were blindsided by assignments due on platforms other than Moodle.
“My biggest thing with school this past week was all the different websites that the teachers are using for your assignment and your textbooks,” Gamewell said. “I just didn’t know that there were going be assignments due, and there’s no reminders.”
Transfer students are also challenged with deciphering which classes from other schools transfer over into credits for NC State. Gamewell had to tackle this issue without an advisor when registering for classes.
“The guy that was supposed to be my advisor, I contacted him over the summer because he was like, ‘Make appointments with me’, and then he never got back to me,” Gamewell said. “So I signed up for all my classes by my own scheduling and figured everything out.”
Despite her grievances, Regan praised NC State for its promotion of mental health resources on campus.
“I think they gave a lot of resources on where to go if you’re needing a specific thing,” Regan said. “A lot of shouting out smaller areas, especially for mental health and stuff like that. They did a good job talking about mental health and what they have for that.”
Boaz recognized the positive aspects of NC State that her previous school was lacking.
“There’s a huge sense of community, which UNC-Charlotte didn’t really have, in my opinion,” Boaz said. “So there’s huge sense of community, of everybody coming together. And at my old school, I didn’t see many people wearing as much college merch here. … Everybody here wears NC State shirts, so it’s just more college pride of having a larger college and people actually caring about it a lot.”
