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Taking a Leap: Transferring
is NOT Impossible!
Leila “BANZAI” Wilhelm
Lambda Psi
California has been hit
pretty hard by the economic crisis.
Educators are forced to take furlough
days, families have a smaller
budget, hours and wages are being
cut at work, and many of our usual
luxuries have been cut in order to
save us a little bit of money. I know
that my family was hit pretty hard.
I live with and am supported by
a single parent household who is
paying for me to have an education.
As a student of San Diego
State University and living in the
dorms, the cost was too much for
my father to handle on his own. I
made a decision that I knew would
help my family and would help
myself. I decided to move back
home. Though it was difficult for
me to leave my friends and my
sisters of Zeta Xi, I knew what had
to be done.
The transfer process sounds
so much more difficult than it actually
is. Remember filling out your
college applications as a senior in
high school? I remembered using
CSU Mentor a lot, and went back
to that site. I filled out an application,
but before submitting, I went
to the Student Academic Advising
Center. They printed out a copy of
my transcript and sat down with me
and explained the process. What
I needed to do in order to transfer
was to finish my lower division
General Education requirements,
have a total of at least 60 units, and
not have a grade lower than “C”
in my four core lower GE requirements.
I checked that I was in the
process of getting all of this done
and submitted my application online.
By about February I received
an email stating that I had been
granted temporary admission based
on the grades that were pending. I
sent them my final transcript from
the fall semester and waited for my
final spring grades to come in.
After spring finals, I ordered
a final transcript to be sent to
San Jose State. Before the school
could receive my final spring transcript
and grant me admission, I
received a letter in the mail. It said
that I was no longer granted admission
to the university because I had
only completed 52 units and was
no longer eligible for admission.
I panicked. I had already
moved home and school was over
for the summer. I had no plans
whatsoever if getting into San Jose
State didn’t work out. I called the
advisors at SJSU in a panic asking
what had happened. They told me
that they had no evidence of me
taking any spring classes at SDSU.
I told them that I did take spring
courses, and they reminded me
that they had only received my fall
grades, but no proof of my taking
courses in the spring. I sent them
a transcript through email to prove
that I had taken spring courses
and my status returned to admit-
TableofContents
ted. My advice to those thinking
of transferring, DON’T FORGET
ANYTHING! If you don’t turn in
your documents on time, you’re out
of luck. Keep all of your dates in
mind!
Now I am settled at home
and in a new school. It’s strange
because I don’t really know anyone
in my major. At San Diego State
I knew tons of people from the
Psychology program because we
had a lot of the same classes. Now
I have this fresh and new academic
start which is a really nice feeling,
but I also feel a bit like I’m back in
high school again because I’m living
at home. It can prove to be very
stressful going from living independently
to living at home again,
but I remind myself that I’m here
to help my dad out. I’m an Associate
with the Lambd
a Psi chapter and I am very
happy to say that I’m serving a
whole new band and really enjoying
it. It is interesting to be involved
in a new chapter after being
so closely involved with another
that works in a different way. It’s
all new and exciting and I love being
involved with both the brotherhood
and the sisterhood. I hold
both organizations near and dear
to my heart and am glad that even
though I had to leave my sisters behind,
I gained a chapter of brothers
and continue to provide service to
my university band.