Difference between transfer and newcomer
Will there be any difference between transferring and applying the university as a new student?
I transferred to the university two years ago as a sophomore (second year in the university). But actually I feel like a newcomer as there are a few differences between freshmen (first year in the university) and transfer students.
Difference1: Starting in the middle of the university curriculum.
One difference between the transfer and freshmen student is, definitely that the transfer student has more credits (which are acquired at the previous university) so that they get to start in the middle of school curriculum, graduating earlier than freshmen. The credits which the transferred student had acquired in the previous university are mostly accepted (that’s what happened to me).
Going back to the merit of transfer students, graduating early can be a merit for international students, as the tuition fee for international students are very expensive compared to national students. But for my case, it was not perfectly good. I was accepted to Korea University in the year 2002 and attended three semesters. After that, I had to serve military service for about two and half years. I transferred to the university as soon as I finished my military service. So there was lack of study for about three years. In this case, starting in the middle of curriculum can be a challenge. In my case, I forgot everything that I had learned in the previous university, so I suffer with that sometimes for skipping basic physics course and calculus courses.
Difference 2: Preparing housing
Another difference between newcomer and transfer student is that the university tries its best to provide dorm for freshmen, but there is not a lot space for transfer students. I did not know that, and I had to find my room off campus (which was expensive and had a lot of defects) after arriving to the Minnesota. So, the transfer students must be a bit more prepared to the university before they come to the Minnesota.
Hmm. That’s what I can think about for now. I should add some more information later. Actually the housing thing has its own major topic so I should talk about it later, too. Stay tuned~