From the newsstand: This article appeared in the April 2024 print edition of The Eagle.You can find the digital version here.
About three months into my freshman year of college, I realized I was in the wrong place. It was heartbreaking. I spent all of my high school days daydreaming about college, dreaming about how great it would be, and working tirelessly to get there. It felt like it was all for nothing.
I filled out my transfer application feeling pretty hopeless about everything. I was accepted to several other schools, but ultimately chose American University. Despite the uncertainty of the transfer process, I allowed myself to feel excited. As a first year student coming to a new school, everything is made for you. Coming from a less traditional path, such as transferring schools, I knew it wouldn’t look quite the same and I was worried that I wouldn’t feel like part of the AU community. So I decided to live on campus.
When I filled out my housing application, I realized I was in the “relocated” category. Okay, so that means you can get second year housing or some sort of priority, right? I was a little confused that you didn’t fill out anything about your roommate preferences like sleeping habits or cleanliness. But this is typically done by his first year students. I marked Centennial Hall as my preference, but since I wasn’t a freshman, I was sure I would get in.
Imagine my surprise when I found a place to live. That is Let’s Hall Terrace.
Letts are listed in AU housing Website As a hall that only accommodates first-year students and transfer students. This in itself is a problem. Why are transfer students, who are almost exclusively sophomores and juniors, given the same housing status as freshmen? Only two halls, Letts and McDowell, are listed as having a high number of transfer students. It is generally recognized as the worst hall on campus and the most outdated. Why would we allow a transfer student to mark his or her first choice, knowing that he or she will be placed in the least desired one?
It felt like an afterthought. His two floors, all mobile, are Lett’s Terrace and his one at McDowell, but it felt lonely being confined to such an undesirable space.
Ruth Gebremichael, a second-year transfer student, felt “alone” and feeling “alone” as she prepared for housing.[transfer students] We grabbed whatever leftovers we had. ”
Transferring to a new university is extremely difficult and isolating, and having the least desirable living spaces on campus only exacerbates this problem, making transfers feel even more neglected. I’m glad I ended up at American University, and if I could go back in time, I would come here again, but that doesn’t absolve the university of wrongdoing. Or it could mean that some of your new friends don’t feel the same way they did before.
AU should offer transfer students a wide range of options available in residence halls across campus, rather than isolating them in the living spaces of all freshmen. But first and foremost, AU needs to make it clear to transfer students what housing looks like.
Julia R. Cooper is a second-year student in the School of International Services and a columnist for The Eagle.
This article was edited by Alana Parker, Jerinda Montez and Abigail Pritchard. Copy editing was provided by Luna Jinks, Isabel Kravis, Sarah Clayton, Ariana Cavossi, and Romy Hermans.
opinion@theeagleonline.com
