“I wish someone had told me that transferring isn’t like redoing your freshman year,” said Alexandria McKay, a peer mentor for the Summer Advantage for Transfers program. The program is hosted by WSU Summer Session.

McKay transferred from Central Washington University after her first year of school to get the “true college experience” at a larger institution.

This summer, the Summer Advantage for Transfers program ran from July 6th to July 31st. The program aimed to help transfer students acclimate to Pullman life and to get a head start on their academic career at WSU.

By offering peer mentors, Coffee and Academic lectures, social programs, and a few courses, the Summer Session staff hoped that the students would gain invaluable insight of the college experience at WSU.

Similar to first-year students, many transfer students have a hard time transitioning to university life despite their prior experience with post-secondary education.

Ivan Ibarra, another Summer Advantage Transfer peer mentor, had a challenging time getting accustomed to a new school setting and struggled to find resources.

Ibarra transferred last year from Big Bend Community College to WSU in order to attend the business school here.

“I come from a community college where they help you a lot. They tell you where resources are at. The professors if they see you struggling, they will send you to these resources,” said Ibarra. “Over here, you have to find the resources. Just the bigger school setting just kind of shocked me. And I came from quarter-based so adapting to semester-based, I wouldn’t say was challenging, but different. It was different.”

Out of the twelve Alive! sessions, two sessions were dedicated to transfer students. In a span of two days, Alive! transfer students attend various workshops to learn about the different resources available on campus.

This summer, the transfer Alive! sessions held informational workshops about things like financial aid, global learning, student involvement, living options and Greek life.

While Karla Rios, a peer mentor from Everett Community College, found these sessions to be helpful, she wishes that there were more social programs during Alive! to help transfer students interact.

“I feel like during Alive! they did a great job getting us all together, but I felt like we all just drifted apart right afterwards,” said Rios.

“From the transfer students I’ve talked to, we kind of just went our own way. We kind of felt isolated because we didn’t know anybody or the people we were talking to had their own clique. And we were trying to figure out or find our own clique.”

McKay, Rios and Ibarra agreed that one of the most difficult parts about transferring schools is making new friends and connections and adjusting to a new school setting.

While there are many resources and programs to help first-year students adjust to WSU, the general consensus from transfer students is that there are not enough transfer-student-specific programs.

With the pilot run of Summer Advantage for Transfers program, the peer mentors hoped that the transfer students took opportunity of the available programs to facilitate a smooth transition.