Vanderbilt Transfers: BEWARE

HorseDoc
Sat, 07 May 2011 18:26:04 +0000

Hello everyone. I lurked on this site a few years ago when I was first applying to schools, but never made an account. I’m now a junior Vanderbilt student (class of 2012) and I decided to take the plunge and share my experience as a Vanderbilt transfer. I already posted this in the Vanderbilt forum, but I realized most transfers check this forum more anyway. So here’s a copy of the post:

I am making this thread to warn potential Vanderbilt transfers about the experience I’ve had at Vanderbilt as a transfer student. I hope this helps those of you on the fence between Vanderbilt and other schools in making your decision. I don’t want anyone to go through what I have for the past two years.

First, many students seem to resent you. Transfer students are seen as lower caliber students who found a back door to get into the school. Anytime the fact that I’m a transfer comes up, the attitude of the person I’m talking to changes completely. If it doesn’t come up, and they assume I’m a freshman admit, eventually it comes up talking about other students. (Yeah, he made a 60 on the test…what do you expect, he’s a transfer!). I honestly feel like I’m second rate all the time - and I’m not the type to let thinks bother me. It just really hurts.

Second, it seems even professors play into the stereotype. I was in a class once that divided us up into teams for a group project. In the criteria for making the teams, she wanted to make sure “no team was made up of all transfer students, so as not to disadvantage one team compared to the others.” I couldn’t believe when she said that…some in the class snickered, and she split us into groups based on information from a card we filled out at the beginning of the year, one of the questions being “Are you a transfer student?”

Finally, I’ve had a hard time making friends. Vanderbilt seems to be very clique-ish, and they seem to form freshman year. As such, it took me a long time to find a good group of friends. I have a few close friends now, but I still sometimes feel like I’m in high school with the cliques, and I regret not being a freshman admit. I just feel like a second class citizen as a transfer.

Vanderbilt is a great school, and I will be proud when I graduate next year with my degree, but I just want everyone to hear my experience. Please don’t bash me for this post - it will just prove my point even more. One of my best friends here at Vandy is a transfer, and her experience has been the same as mine. I turned down a number of good schools to come here, and I really do regret it. Just some advice to transfers out there who haven’t made a decision. Either way, I wish you luck. If you do come here, make sure you have a tough skin - you’ll need it.

-Amber