Not all students attend a state university such as UMass Lowell straight out of high school. Many students attend community college and get their associates degree and then proceed to transfer to a state university to get a bachelor or master’s degree.

“Adjusting to new obstacles in life can be difficult to get used to, especially ones we are not comfortable with. I am a transfer student and found it difficult to find my way around, I felt like a newbie yet I was almost finished with my degree, and it was an un- comfortable feeling at first. But, I did reach out to an advisor who helped me tremendously” says senior John Doherty majoring in business.

Knowing that it can be difficult for new students to adjust from leaving one school to another UMass Lowell helps with the transition. “Every transfer student is required to attend or complete Transfer Registration, which is a more streamlined version of Freshman Orientation. As part of this event, transfer students are exposed to other offices on campus, resources, and opportunities for them to participate in student life while here at the university” says Assistant Director of Transfer Admissions Brendan Stamm.

“We also have a Facebook group that is open only to admitted transfer students. We send them a link to the group along with their acceptance information. This provides another opportunity for incoming students to meet their peers and interact with each other before the start of classes. Says Stamm.

“I went to Middlesex Community College and received my Associates Degree before coming here to UMass Lowell. I did not know anyone at first, but at orientation I heard about the Facebook group. I joined the group and met many connections, making my time here at UML a lot easier”, said Brianna Mahoney, a senior business major at Lowell. Mahoney also added “My community college was much smaller than UML so it was easy to find my way around. All the buildings were walking distance from each other and my class size was very small at Middlesex, making it easy to establish relationships with classmates and professors.”

UMass Lowell provides many opportunities to join academic clubs, sports and even internships. How do transfer students find out about these opportunities given to them given the fact that they are new and don’t have many connections? “I am a transfer student from Middlesex Community College and on my orientation day, my adviser told us about clubs I could join to meet other students with the same interests as me. Later that night I went home and went on the UML website and found many different clubs that I could join and I was very impressed with the selection.” Stated Stephanie Wu majoring in nursing.
“It takes time for any student to adjust to a new school, but UML makes it easy for transfer students who had to adjust already once before to do it again. After I reached out to different programs offered I was able to fit right in” says Mahoney.