Marketing freshman Danny Savard, right, who transferred to MSU this semester from Schoolcraft College after one semester, watches a football game with his childhood friend, accounting freshman Chris Shim in McDonel Hall on Jan. 6, 2013. Savard said he always wanted to be a Spartan but wasn’t able to get a room on campus last semester.
Marketing freshman Danny Savard had high school aspirations to attend MSU. Although his dream has been fulfilled, it started a bit later than he anticipated.
When he was admitted to MSU, campus housing was filled and Savard’s admittance was deferred to the current semester. Therefore, Savard attended Schoolcraft College last semester and now is looking forward to becoming acclimated to life at MSU.
“I’m pretty confident because I know some people up here, and they’ve been helping me out,” he said.
Professional writing sophomore Kayla Putz, who was a transfer student in spring 2012, said the adjustment from community college to university isn’t easy.
“It’s definitely a hard transition just because you are used to one way of going to school on a different campus,” Putz said.
Though she started her college education at Macomb Community College, she said she aspired to attend MSU since her high school days.
“I visited my sophomore year to see my best friend’s sister, and I fell in love with the campus,” Putz said. “I got deferred to spring semester, so I had to decide if I wanted to wait or if I wanted to start (college) somewhere else.”
Savard said beyond the people he already knew here, he hasn’t met a significant amount of people yet.
“A lot of people in the dorm know each other, so (I’m) the new kid,” he said.
According to resident assistant, or RA, and social relations and policy senior Austin Muir, one of the tasks RA’s try to do is attempt to make students who are new to campus feel at home.
“(We try to) make them feel like a part of a community,” Muir said.
As a third-year RA, Muir said he has seen a variety of transfer students come and go. He believes transfer students battle a different sort of issue in regards to getting used to campus.
Coming in a semester late, Putz said she felt like the other freshman already were affiliated with the campus, and that was a challenge for her. However, her roommate was also a transfer student, and it helped ease the transition.
“We went through it together,” she said. “After a while, I felt really welcome on the campus.”
She said that she initially felt like she missed out on several events, such as freshman move-in and football season. However, she no longer has any regrets.
“I know years down the road, it’s not (going to) matter,” she said.
To ease the transition, Savard plans on getting involved in a few of the offerings on campus, such as intramural sports and the St. Johns church group.
Putz recommends transfer students involve themselves in campus life.
“Just get involved with anything you can do,” she said. “Clubs, Greek life — do anything you can do to make the campus feel a little bit smaller.”
Though Savard has several challenges in front of him, he said that he isn’t worried.
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“I don’t think (there’s a stigma against transfer students),” he said. “Everyone has the adjustment process. It just happens to different people at different times.”
