For those who plan to graduate from Mercer with an Associate’s degree, completion within two years may be your goal at first but isn’t always realistic for a variety of reasons like inability to take summer classes or too many hours spent working.
Whether you end up at Mercer for one extra semester or three it’s entirely possible that you will end up graduating in December rather than May, and it can often feel like you’re the only one.
The spring transfer process happens every year, yet not a lot of information is available both online and on campus. When researching how to prepare for a transfer, there are countless articles out there geared towards those following the traditional pattern of entering in the fall but very little info for students transferring mid-year.
One thing that remains the same is the required paperwork. All students, no matter the semester, always have to submit their application, college transcripts, financial aid papers, etc. depending on the number of credits they’ve taken.
Due to this, some may argue that the time of year does not matter, that the information provided in these articles can apply to both types of transfer students, but that’s not really true. Spring transfers face specific issues.
Deadline dates are different. Some schools only accept for fall admission and admitted spring students can be ineligible for certain scholarships.
For example, Rowan University, a four-year public university located in Glassboro, NJ, has a specific scholarship titled as their Transfer Trustee Scholarship, with special consideration given to students from New Jersey’s community colleges.
For this specific scholarship, as stated on their website, “Students entering during the spring term are not eligible for scholarships.”
In addition, there’s the stress of trying to finish class assignments during the fall semester while filling out these transfer applications. There is no summer break to make preparations for the next transition. The paperwork is the same, but has to be submitted in a short amount of time. Jumping to a new school mid-year is particularly intimidating.
Julia Nemec, a Communication Studies major at Mercer, says she believes there is definitely a time crunch.
“When you transfer in the fall, you have the entire summer to make arrangements for housing, with lots of time to plan out finances and apply for financial aid. For the spring there is more of a sense of urgency and deadlines approach quickly,” Nemec says.
Laurene Jones, the Director of Transfer Services at Mercer, says, “Well, it is true. You only have about three weeks or so in between semesters so it requires you to get things done a lot faster. So you finish here and you have to pick your classes and get school started…”
This feels especially true for community college transfer students, who may not be used to large four-year universities, for example.
If they are moving on campus, they need to know what to pack and which supplies to get. It is vastly different than being a commuter at Mercer.
Jones does recommend trying to find people within your major. It can make a student body of 15,000 feel as if it’s been reduced down to just the people in your classes.
If you’re the type of person comfortable in joining a club or organization, doing that can also enable you to find people like you due to shared interests.
Spring transfers need to feel assured in their choices and ready to move on. It can be hard if they feel rushed or underprepared. It can be why some students opt out of the decision.
Jones says, “For some people, they sometimes will say to me, ‘I’m gonna wait for the fall just because I wanna start when most people start’…but that’s not everybody.”
In Nemec’s case, she also has had doubts.
She states, “Spring transfers really only have the end of December and beginning of January to make big, important decisions about the next 2 years. Because of this extreme time crunch, I might have to defer transferring until next fall. It’s just not enough time to get everything sorted! But I’m trying my best to make it work.”
There is also the question of graduation and leaving with a diploma. For those who finish their degree and transfer in the spring, they do not close the Mercer chapter in their life with a cap and gown ceremony in January.
Mercer does offer the option for spring graduates to participate in the commencement ceremony in May, but it is not required. For some students like myself, it can feel too detached once you’re already at a new school.
Jones states, “I think that’s a personal decision because you will have moved on, you’ll be at another school and then you have to say, ‘Well I wanna go back for my graduation,’ so it’s up to you if you think that that’s an important thing to you…but a lot of students do go.”
Nemec is also thinking about the decision she will have to make.
She says, “I am planning to come back for the big ceremony in the spring, but I’m not sure if it will be as impactful since I will already be studying at a new institution. I think my parents will want me to walk more for their own sake than mine.”
The concept of transferring in the spring can seem daunting, but students should not have to feel as if they are the only ones going through it. Building a support system of family and friends can help, and contacting your school’s transfer services as early as possible can help make the process easier.
