The Tale of a Transfer Student

Adjusting to college life isn’t easy, especially when you are at a school that you know is not the one for you. There are so many factors that go into choosing the right school. What you may have found as your “dream school” senior year of high school, may not have exceeded your full expectations after the first months of college.

In a nutshell, that is how I found myself here at Temple University today. The people I went to high school with were the people I grew up and went to school with my entire life. Come senior year, I was more than ready to pack my bags and explore a new city with unknown people. After only two college tours, I was completely set on the school of my dreams. In the Summer of 2015 I decided that I was going to attend Loyola University Maryland. I was in love with the idea that I already knew where I wanted to spend my four years of college before my senior year of high school even began. Loyola stole my heart. It was a school located in a foreign city to me and a school that not many of my friends or classmates knew of. After weeks of watching the mail, I received my acceptance letter in January of 2016. I was ready to take on a new city and begin my college journey that Fall. Although everything was going good, I couldn’t help but feel that something huge was missing from my college experience.

I became too afraid to admit to myself that my “dream school” was no longer the one for me. I quickly became lost in the crowd of the 4,000 students who attend Loyola and felt that I lost who I truly was. I found myself staying at school on the weekends less and less and visiting friends at their colleges more and more. I quickly became in love with the big school atmosphere and roaring student section at the football games. After many weekend visits and hours of social media stalking, I came to the conclusion that my friends were having the time of their lives. They were living the college dream that I have always sought out to have.

I spoke to my parents about the idea of me leaving Loyola and they gave me two options: I could stick it for the rest of the year and see how it goes, or, I could follow my gut feeling and begin at a new school the following semester where I would be truly happy. I found my new home at Temple University. Even though I have many friends that attend Temple and is in a city that I was very familiar with, it was everything that I could have asked for in a school. Needless to say, I was accepted and now am living out my college days happily.

Would I call attending Loyola a mistake? Absolutely not. It was a learning experience that I feel was much needed. In those few short months that I attended school in Baltimore, I learned how to live on my own, make new friends, and experience a brand new city.  Although, I could not be happier at where I am today. Temple has opened me up to so many new opportunities and I am forever grateful for that.

This blog post was written by Account Associate Courtney Givnish.