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TRANSFERRED: New to MSU in 2007 by Marilyn King
It’s a month into the second semester of the 2006-2007 school year, and by this time most students, whether they are freshman or returning sophomores, juniors or seniors, feel at-home here in East Lansing. By now they are comfortable in their second semester classes and are all-around settled in here at Michigan State University. But what about if you had just started school here at MSU on January 8th, the first day of second semester? Would you know what to do at all? For transfer student Sean Walsh, coming to MSU for spring semester was a whole new experience. First things first when you are new to MSU: find a place to live. Luckily for Walsh, finding housing wasn’t too complicated. Walsh moved into Abbot Hall for two reasons. “It’s[dorm life] kind of part of the college experience,” Walsh said. “I don’t have money to get a place of my own.” Walsh’s friend Dane had also been accepted for the spring semester, so they decided to room together. Next, transfer students needed to pick classes for their schedule. For new students like Walsh, the decision was a bit limited: transfers had only four days before classes actually started to choose which ones they’d like to take. “My classes are still unfolding at the moment,” Walsh said. “I’m still not sure what to expect or how to handle some of them.” Sean also has a mix of class sizes: 500 students in some, 20 in others. “As the number of students [in the class] decreases, be it by initial class size or attendance, I tend to enjoy the class better,” Walsh said. For new students, the workload can be tough; not only do they have to balance out study/class time, but they also need to maintain a social life in addition to keeping up with their education. Sean already knows that it is necessary to stay on the ball up at college in order to keep a good academic standing. “To be successful, it comes with a lot of reading and studying,” Walsh said. “Add in time actually at class and studying, and then the complications of trying to start up a brand new social life and find a job, the work load can seem a little daunting.” Walsh was already used to living independent though, so being on his own wasn’t too much of a shock. “For most people, I think the world kind of opens up for them at college; they’re on their own, in a big campus all to themselves,” Walsh said. “But for me I was already kind of living independently, so it was a little bit of a downsize.” So is college life what Sean expected it’d be? “I expected the tough classes, the ups and downs about living in a dorm, I even expected it would take time to get accustomed to it all,” Walsh said. “What I didn’t expect was how quickly the campus would feel like home or how easy it would be to break into new groups of friends in my hall or classes. I actually expected that to be a lot harder.” The main difference for Sean in college life compared to home life (in Oakland County, where he and his family moved around a lot) is not having a car. Walsh was used to driving nearly an hour to school and work. “My world has shrunk to more of a loose academic island of buildings,” Walsh said. What advice did Walsh give to other MSU-newbies? According to him, it’s just a matter of time. “I'm sure everyone who just got here, from wherever they were, is feeling the same way. Everything is new, and even if you’re coming into MSU with a lot of credits already, or you have tons of friends up here, or you’re like me and knew nothing and no one, it's still a change,” said Walsh. “It just takes some getting used to. I rest easy with the fact it's a change for the better. Or I would rest easy if the mattresses here didn’t suck so badly.” |
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