Lessons for Transfer Students from Barack Obama

This article in US News & World Report describes Barack Obama’s experience as a student transferring from Occidental to Columbia and offers tips to students considering making a switch.

All four of my daughters have attended more than one university–and my second daughter, Tara, was enrolled in SIX universities in FOUR countries in THREE languages, and still managed to graduate (with honors) more than a year ahead of her classmates. (She writes the section in the book on how to get credits transferred.) And I am a big fan of the idea of change for the sake of change–students who have to shift gears become more flexible and more confident in facing other changes in the future.

Of course, the common notion regarding transferring credits is that it’s difficult, time-consuming, and that the student always loses in the process. Well, that’s Old School. The Bold School approach ensures that students get credit for every class they’ve taken and leverage these to get the major they want–and on their own terms and time lines.

Now, it’s true that the Ivies aren’t particularly interested in accepting transfer students, and you shouldn’t count on community college to launch you into Harvard (possible, but not likely). But students can save a tremendous amount of both time and money by getting general credits out of the way at a lower-cost institution (community college, state university or college abroad) and trading up. Of course, sometimes students switch from private schools to state universities, and that can work out very well, too.

The trick to getting things to go smoothly is not about expecting it to be hard but doing your homework and being persistent. Most students, when presenting their credits from a previous institution in the US or abroad simply accept whatever the admissions officer tells them they’re worth. They roll over without a fight. As Tara explains in her section of The New Global Student, colleges almost always low-ball it, and the pricier the school, the less likely it is to offer credits for previous courses. But you can get around that with the right attitude and the right strategy.

Just as it’s not true that moving during high school is necessarily detrimental to a student’s education and social life, it’s certainly not true that staying at one college for four (or five or six years) is necessarily more beneficial than “swirling”–earning a degree by attending more than one institution. The more flexibility and confidence students can develop during their undergraduate years, the more prepared they will be for an ever-changing global economy.

For students who seek a better fit and more challenging educational opportunities, a transfer can lead to greater things and a whole new world of possibilities–just like it did for Barack Obama.

Tagged as: Barack Obama, Bold School, Columbia University, community college credits, Harvard, Maya Frost, New York, Occidental, Old School, private university, state university, student debt, student loans, Tara Frost, The New Global Student, transfer credit, transfer student, US News & World Report