QU’s enrollment numbers have continued to grow over the last five years. So have aspirations to add new campus buildings in order to fulfill that need. While enrollment is typically focused on new freshman, let’s not forget an increasing number of transfer students coming to Quincy. 

As many college students understand the initial feelings of entering freshman year, not many know the struggle of starting over at a new place. No connections to work from and feeling behind on information compared to the rest of the class. 

These factors not only add stress, but potentially time on to a bachelor’s degree depending on which credits were able to transfer from their previous school.

Freshman, Ross Huskey, explains how there can be many hoops to jump through to stay on track with other students. 

“ It was frustrating to realize after my decision to transfer that the classes I took first semester would not count when I started school here, and it took three weeks of appeals in order to receive credit in one math class. I’m now making some of those same classes up this semester,” Huskey said. 

While Huskey and many other transfer students spend their initial time catching up to the rest of the students, they are also keen on finding opportunities for social connections made on campus. 

Many circumstances can force a student to switch schools. Every transfer has a different story to share about thir unique experience. Sophomore and pre-med major, Christian Czarny, explained how there were not many options left for him.

“ I was at Lincoln Memorial in Tennessee… I transferred because our coach ended up getting fired from his job the first couple days of school, so a lot of the guys on the team ended up transferring away and the seniors told me to enter the transfer portal. Being closer to home has definitely been better for me, I kinda missed home,” Czarny said. 

Czarny’s week contains a 15 credit schedule along with practice. He has felt welcomed by his teammates and fellow students on campus. 

Other transfer students find opportunity to reshape their priorities and begin to focus on their post-graduation life. Junior, Vinny Ianiero, shares the benefits of having experience in various school environments and what is best for him.

“My circumstances transferring from Arkansas to Quincy was a change for me more mentally, and on a maturity level as I was getting older to get my priorities straight and realizing that there’s more to life than being at a big university and partying… I needed to get my school work done and being in an environment like Quincy has put me in a spot where I’m able to be more successful,” Ianiero said.

While transfer students end up going through very similar schedules to traditional students, they also have a journey that led them from their initial school to now. You can learn a lot about a person from the obstacles they persevere through.