Potential transfer students weigh all of their options

Students contemplating transferring into or out of GCSU can spend a lot of time thinking, planning and preparing for a big move in their lives.

Kay Anderson, who works in the Registrar’s Office, has taken on the responsibility of working with potential students that want to transfer into GCSU.

“I only deal with the students that want to transfer into our school,” Anderson said. “I work with them on making sure as many of their credits transfer as possible and getting them set up as a GCSU student.”

For many, transferring can be a difficult and stressful act.

“Most students will transfer going into their junior year,” Anderson said. “By that time most students have completed their core classes and those classes are the easiest to transfer between schools.”

Morgan Harbin, a sophomore art major, transferred to GCSU at the beginning of this semester after a year at Chattahoochee Technical College.

“I knew that I wanted more than an associate’s degree,” Harbin said. “At the time I wanted a degree in business administration, but that has changed since I’ve been here.”

Students like Harbin that transfer from technical colleges can find GCSU very appealing.

“I didn’t really look at GCSU when I was first applying to colleges,” Harbin said. “I didn’t really know what I wanted to do and my grades weren’t where I wanted them to be – but I still liked the school.”

GCSU has a strong reputation for its students’ high SAT scores, according to Collegeboard.com. As the years have passed, it has gotten harder for high school seniors to get into GCSU, and that has meant more students want to transfer into the school.

According to the University System’s Web site, 352 GCSU students transferred to other University System institutions in 2007. There were 360 students from other University System institutions, 186 students from other in-state institutions and 77 students from out-of-state institutions that all transferred into GCSU in 2007.

Avery Christian, junior mass communication major, came to GCSU her sophomore year from the University of Alabama.

“‘Bama was too big,” Christian said. “I liked that GCSU was smaller and had more down-to-earth people.”

A university-to-university transfer can be easier than a technical college-to-university transfer.

“I was really lucky to have all my class credits transfer,” Christian said. “It was such a relief, but the requirements were very different so I had to take more math classes than I had to at ‘Bama.”

Harbin on the other hand was not as lucky to have all his credits transfer.

“The transferring process was semi-easy,” Harbin said. “After I was accepted and enrolled in, they said they weren’t going to take one of my classes – which in the end was better than I was expecting.”

However, not everyone is trying to get into GCSU.

Olivia Bentley, a sophomore accounting major, has been thinking about transferring to the University of Georgia.

“There are better opportunities and more networking,” Bentley said. “GCSU is a great school, but UGA is very prestigious.”

Some students like Bentley had UGA as their top choice when it came to going off to college initially, but ended up at GCSU.

“Transferring would be uncomfortable for a while at first,” Bentley said. “My plan is to apply for transfer during the summer, but in the long run it’s definitely worth it.”

The process of transferring, whether it’s to GCSU or another school, is a big decision and the Registrar’s Office is there and ready to help.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Oct 30 2009. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry