Transfer students ‘accepted’ at UD

Senior Nathan Allison said his social life improved once he transferred to Delaware from George Washington University after his freshman year in the fall of 2010.

He said he never visited or looked at the university as an option during high school but decided to check it out when he went home after his freshman year.

“Kids who go to [George Washington] and the kids they attract there are wealthy and pretentious, it’s not really like a friendly environment,” Allison said. “I wanted like what Delaware has, like a campus. A more standard college experience.”

According to Jeff Rivell, deputy director of the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, the university tries to make the transition for transfer students seamless. He said the university works with students during new student orientation to get them acclimated to their new environments and connect them with their college and academic advisor.

Some students who transfer join Registered Student Organizations and Greek organizations in order to fill their social calendars. Allison joined the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity during his second semester at the university, which he said immediately expanded his social network.

Senior Lindsay Goldberg took part in sorority rush her second semester at the university after transferring from the University of New Hampshire. She joined the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority and has been an active member since.

Goldberg said she transferred to the school because she knew a lot of people from her high school in New York who attend the university, but she tried to avoid people she knew at first so she could make new friends. She said she was intimidated at first because she was not placed in a residence hall primarily for transfer students.

“They kind of just threw me in to a regular upperclassmen dorm with a random roommate,” Goldberg said. “It wasn’t that hard because I was with a bunch of people who knew the area around here, where to go and what to do. Luckily, they were really accepting.”

She said she thinks the university should try to match transfer students with other transfer students for dorm assignments because it is nice to have a friend who is also not familiar with the university. However, she said living with a student who had already attended the university was helpful because she “showed her the ropes.” 

Both Allison and Goldberg said people at the university are friendlier than people at their previous schools. 

Allison said he knew a few people who attended the university before he transferred, but he tried to make new friends. He said the people he lived with in Cannon Residence Hall became some of his good friends.

“One of my best friends was a kid who lived in my dorm,” he said. “He’s not like my roommate now or anything but he is one of my closest friends.”

Rivell said he does not know of any specific organizations at the university that are tailored to transfer students, but it is the university’s priority to make them feel welcome. He said he thinks transfer students probably stick together until they become more comfortable at the university.

“Once they get involved in other things, there is less of a purpose to remain a group,” Rivell said.

Goldberg said she received e-mails from the Office of Student Life that invited her to social functions for transfer students her first semester at the university. She said the social atmosphere at the university is more welcoming than at New Hampshire.