Mary MacIntire
Contributing Writer
On average, 300 Northampton Community College graduates transfer to ESU each year.
That statistic was from 2021, when ESU and NCC originally announced their partnership. This is a great partnership for students, and besides NCC, ESU usually works with other schools’ transfers as well. However, transfers are not always as seamless as students hope.
I am a transfer student from NCC, and I graduated from there last Spring. I have met a lot of other transfer students on campus and have found that a lot of them deal with the same issues when it comes to their credits.
Normally you can see a conversion chart-style page on Degree Works to show you how your credits match up to ESU’s. Of course, not every single credit may transfer or count towards your ESU degree. That does not mean, however, that students should just trust the system to account for all the credits they are supposed to have. If you are someone like me and hundreds of other transfers who graduated from NCC, you could be missing some of the credits you are guaranteed.
No matter how this happens- whether by technical or human error, it can cause a lot of issues for students. A lot of times it can feel like we are forced to take whatever the school tells us is correct, especially if deadlines are approaching or finances come into question.
In the middle of the fall semester and after talking with a fellow transfer student, I realized I was taking classes I did not need to take. Luckily, one call to registration fixed my Degree Works for the future. Nonetheless, I was already halfway through classes that I thought I had not met the requirements for. I have heard the same stories from other students whose issues were not resolved so easily.
Having an advisor is extremely helpful, but even finding the correct one to contact was a hassle for me as I was transferring. Something that is different about ESU (compared to NCC at least) is that most, if not all, advisors are professors too. It is not always the case, but NCC had many advisors who had their complete focus on advising. This has presented itself as more of a challenge for me at ESU because on top of being advisors to several students, they are teaching classes every other day of the week. I can only imagine how they must feel about trying to remember all that I have going on in school on top of everyone else, and their next lesson of the day. I get enough of a headache trying to manage my own curriculars.
With everything going on concerning classes, advisors, and graduation requirements, feeling like you are on your own can be overwhelming. Thankfully, there is usually at least one option to reach out to (which may lead to several others). This could be a fellow student, a professor, an old advisor, a new advisor, or someone at registration. One thing I have learned while being at school is to not be surprised if you end up having to send a few e-mails to get what you need.
Every student faces issues with school at some point in their education, whether they are financial, motivational, or credit-transfer-related. I think one of the best ways to face these troubles is to be open to talk about it with other students or faculty. A lot of people you know, or even friends of those people, have faced the same issues. Depending on who you happen to tell, they could hold the solution to your issue. If they don’t, do not give up on finding out what the answer is to your questions. Let’s end the troubles for transfer students!
