Lizzie's Transfer Story

My transfer experience wasn’t exactly the “traditional” experience. I started at a private 4-year university in San Antonio and transferring wasn’t something that was ever mentioned. I started college thinking I wanted to become a lawyer, but after several semesters I realized that wasn’t the path for me. I decided to change my major to education, but there wasn’t a degree plan that would allow me to graduate with a teaching certificate, so I left the university. I looked at several different universities before I stumbled onto SFA. I had a chance to visit campus with an old friend and made an appointment to meet with my now advisor to talk about what a degree plan at SFA would look like. I was blown away by the time and care he put into helping me develop a plan before I’d even applied, and I submitted my application minutes after leaving his office. I also fell in love with the campus and the small school feel.

After I was admitted, I left my entire support system behind in San Antonio and moved to Nacogdoches. The first couple weeks of classes I felt very disconnected from SFA and the campus community. Because I transferred from a private school with different core curriculum, I was missing several freshmen level classes and I felt really out of place with a bunch of 18-year olds. It wasn’t until I connected with the Transfer Student Ambassador program and the SFA 301 class that I really started to feel at home at SFA. Since then, my SFA experience has been wonderful, I’ve met interesting people and had opportunities to get involved on campus. Even though there have been stressful moments, if I could go back and tell myself one thing before I transferred it would be to transfer sooner!