{"componentChunkName":"component---src-templates-article-tsx","path":"/primedoubletransfers","webpackCompilationHash":"3768132d12cb2a4b1bfd","result":{"data":{"primeArticle":{"headline":"Third Time’s The Charm","author":"Delilah Brumer","authorbio":"","authoremail":"","authortwitter":"","coverimg":"http://oink.dailybruin.com/packages/prime.doubletransfers/image/12gtNf3A6wJmO13XHCdJjaObPKk-4Zatp/","covercred":"Illustrations by Julia Xu","coveralt":"An illustration of a map overlaid with a drawing of Royce Hall in the center.","articleType":"article","updated":"","content":[{"type":"text","value":"Despite being a third-year student, I cannot describe the typical UCLA experience based on firsthand knowledge."},{"type":"text","value":"I have heard it involves cheering on athletes, staying up late in friends’ dorms, taking photos in front of historic buildings and cramming for finals in one of the libraries. Exploring cafes and perusing thrift shops on the Westside are also tenets of being a Bruin, I’m told."},{"type":"text","value":"I can, however, share information that many undergraduates may not know: The time it takes to commute from the San Fernando Valley to campus during rush hour traffic (45 minutes to an hour). How to convince the registrar to accept credits from an out-of-state private university (several lengthy emails). The reactions from first-year students when I tell them about my college journey (generally over-the-top)."},{"type":"text","value":"By the time I started class on my first day at UCLA, I was already somewhat jaded. This was not my first day of college. It was not even my second-first day of college."},{"type":"text","value":"After high school, I moved away from my lifelong home of Los Angeles to attend Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Less than a year in, I deeply missed my community and family, as well as LA’s warm weather, so I decided to leave Evanston and move home. I then attended Pierce College, a local community college, for a year and a half. Pierce allowed me to earn the credits I needed to transfer to UCLA, and I led the student newspaper and developed close friendships during my time there."},{"type":"text","value":"Once I began classes at UCLA as a transfer student, I had only been out of high school for two years. But I felt like a completely different person than the nervous, sheltered teenager who graduated from a tiny public high school in 2023."},{"type":"text","value":"I thought no one else would be able to relate."},{"type":"pull","value":"{\"caption\":\"My standard answer to the common question, \\\"Where did you transfer from?\\\" sounded more like a monologue than a sentence.\\\"\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"Beyond academic exploration, I did not have much of an expectation that I would particularly enjoy my time at UCLA, find the same level of community I had at Pierce or participate in the college experience. It is through my interactions with other transfer students that I discovered I was wrong."},{"type":"text","value":"More than 90% of UCLA transfer students come from California community colleges. The transfer journey is often more complicated, however, than graduating high school, spending two years at a local community college and then enrolling at UCLA as a third-year student. Just 19% of California community college students who plan to transfer to a university do so within four years, according to a 2020 report from the Public Policy Institute of California. The challenge is not that transfer students are any less driven to attend UCLA – it is that costs, jobs, family responsibilities, evolving circumstances and complex course requirements can get in the way. Even so, transfers make up more than a third of the UCLA undergraduate student body."},{"type":"text","value":"At first, I believed that as someone who attended more than one college prior to UCLA, I would be an anomaly, even among transfer students. My standard answer to the common question, \"Where did you transfer from?\" sounded more like a monologue than a sentence. However, I learned from peers that my situation is so common, it even has a name: \"double transfer\" or \"reverse transfer.\""},{"type":"image","value":"{\"alt\":\"A collage of a name tag, graduation cap, and letter.\",\"url\":\"http://oink.dailybruin.com/packages/prime.doubletransfers/image/1ztBWLcBSGNkr524ZIQnTGBskcyA2G3WU/\",\"credit\":\"Julia Xu/Daily Bruin\",\"caption\":\"\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"Ryan Shad, a fourth-year political science student and double transfer, graduated high school in 2020 during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the fall of that year, he attended UC Irvine on the pre-medical track and quickly found that COVID-19 protocols had hampered social aspects of the college experience. Amid the isolation of the pandemic, he realized he did not have a passion for medicine, making it challenging to stay motivated in his STEM classes."},{"type":"text","value":"So Shad left."},{"type":"text","value":"He then attended Santa Monica College, where he deepened his interest in public speaking and politics. He applied to transfer to universities as a political science student, and in the fall of 2024, he embarked on the final chapter of his college journey – at UCLA."},{"type":"text","value":"\"After Irvine, I realized that I need to start thinking about myself and not just what other people wanted from me,\" Shad said."},{"type":"pull","value":"{\"caption\":\"Leaving, then, was like crumpling the map and tossing it in the trash.\\\"\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"Like Shad, I am familiar with both the fear and joy of defying expectations. Growing up, the pressure largely came from within. I do not have overbearing parents, nor did I attend a competitive high school. But I have always been a high achiever and overplanner. Throughout high school, every facet of my life was a pin on a map leading to Northwestern."},{"type":"text","value":"Leaving, then, was like crumpling the map and tossing it in the trash."},{"type":"text","value":"At Pierce – and now at UCLA – I realized the best way to guide myself through college is not by a strict map but by gratitude. As a part of Pierce’s newspaper, I had peers who were parents to kids about my age and fellow editors pursuing trades unrelated to journalism. We all collaborated to tell the stories of our campus, and our varied life experiences added to the richness of our perspectives. And I am so thankful for these peers, many of whom I now call some of my closest friends."},{"type":"text","value":"The connections I have made do not mean I have not faced obstacles. For one, I still dread the commute to UCLA. But I find ways to make attending UCLA work, which Pilar Fredrickson, a fourth-year political science student and reverse transfer, understands firsthand."},{"type":"text","value":"When Fredrickson graduated from high school, she left her Oregon hometown to attend the University of British Columbia in Canada. The high cost of the university, paired with lasting COVID-19 protocols, led her to move back home after less than a month."},{"type":"text","value":"\"I felt like the courses I was taking at university were identical to the courses I had taken at community college (while in high school) – but so much more expensive,\" Fredrickson said. \"I had a freak out, and I was like, ‘OK, I have to make a decision to pay or leave.’\""},{"type":"image","value":"{\"alt\":\"A collage of illustrated postage stamps.\",\"url\":\"http://oink.dailybruin.com/packages/prime.doubletransfers/image/1oCUTeuyISnG9f4cyRf4q7c2DvmcyoR8H/\",\"credit\":\"Julia Xu/Daily Bruin\",\"caption\":\"\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"Once she left, she attended a local community college in Oregon for about a year, before moving alone to San Francisco, the city in which she was born. While attending City College of San Francisco, she encountered a convoluted process when it came to transferring her course credits from prior colleges, she said."},{"type":"text","value":"Fredrickson then applied to transfer to several UC campuses. While UCLA was Shad’s dream college, Fredrickson and I were more hesitant, although for different reasons. Accustomed to the climates and greenery of Portland and San Francisco, Fredrickson said she would have preferred staying in Northern California. But once she toured UCLA, she realized the campus and academics of the university were what she wanted."},{"type":"text","value":"She committed to UCLA, not realizing the most significant hurdle to her attendance was yet to come. Fredrickson had been financially independent from her parents since the age of 19 and had lived in California long enough to be considered a resident. But she was under the age of 24, meaning she was tied to her parents, who still lived in Oregon, for tuition and financial aid considerations. According to the admissions office, UCLA’s cost of attendance for an out-of-state student who does not live in university housing is about $75,000 annually, which was prohibitively expensive for Fredrickson, who supports herself by working in restaurants."},{"type":"text","value":"Still, she was confident she could attend by proving her complete financial independence. She gathered bank statements, taxes, pay stubs, voting records, moving date documentation and more, submitting them all to UCLA."},{"type":"text","value":"The university denied her request."},{"type":"text","value":"As the first day of class crept nearer, Fredrickson eventually found another option."},{"type":"text","value":"\"So my options are, don’t go because I cannot afford out-of-state tuition – it’s ridiculously expensive – or pay out-of-state tuition for my first quarter, which is still ungodly expensive,\" she said. \"And then get married.\""},{"type":"text","value":"I believe transfers are some of the most resilient people I have met. Fredrickson’s version of resilience involved platonically marrying her childhood friend as a last-ditch effort to attend UCLA since the university considers married students to be independent for residency purposes. The marriage worked, and she and her spouse plan to host a divorce party with their friends once she graduates this spring."},{"type":"pull","value":"{\"caption\":\"I believe transfers are some of the most resilient people I have met.\\\"\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"Sarah Molitoris, the associate director of the Transfer Student Center, said in an emailed statement that students are encouraged to work directly with UCLA’s financial aid and scholarships office if they have questions about residency status or financial aid. This and other offices review each student’s circumstances based on university policies, she added."},{"type":"text","value":"\"UCLA is deeply committed to supporting transfer students throughout every stage of their journey, from the moment they are admitted, through their time on campus, and beyond graduation,\" Molitoris said in the emailed statement."},{"type":"text","value":"UCLA offers several resources for transfer students, including Transfer Bruin Day, the Transfer Summer Program, a two-year housing guarantee, transfer-specific scholarships, the Transfer Student Center and the Transfer Student Alumni Network, Molitoris added."},{"type":"image","value":"{\"alt\":\"A collage of illustrated letters with stamps inspired by the schools of the sources in the story.\",\"url\":\"http://oink.dailybruin.com/packages/prime.doubletransfers/image/1BI6hkP1wcK28miArqUrCldI2G2LYYlcJ/\",\"credit\":\"Julia Xu/Daily Bruin\",\"caption\":\"\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"Caitlyn Kim, a fourth-year English and sociology student, became accustomed to frequently moving even before she became a double transfer student. Kim, who transferred from UC Riverside to Pasadena City College to UCLA, said her family moved five times while she was in high school. She is originally from the Koreatown neighborhood of LA, but she also lived in China and the San Gabriel Valley throughout her childhood."},{"type":"text","value":"\"It’s an accumulation of experiences that make me unique,\" said Kim, who is the vice chair of the ASUCLA Communications Board – which publishes the Daily Bruin. \"It gives me new perspectives.\""},{"type":"text","value":"Beyond the stressors of securing financial aid and working full-time while attending UCLA, Fredrickson has embraced the college experience by fully engaging in her classes and bonding with other transfer students. She said she hopes to pursue graduate school after graduation."},{"type":"text","value":"Shad said the people he gravitates toward are often transfers, even if he doesn’t know that they are when they meet. It is also easier for him to relate to other transfers because he is 23 years old and sometimes feels awkward around students who are fresh out of high school, he said. He even met his best UCLA friend at transfer orientation."},{"type":"text","value":"\"To be here and meet people who are in the exact same situation, it’s extremely important,\" Shad said. \"Just for fun, I was looking into a transfer to Harvard, and I saw that they admit like two transfers per year. If I was one of two transfers, I think it would be really, really difficult to meet people.\""},{"type":"text","value":"Shad said he is finally finding his college experience, and it happens to be at his longtime dream school. He embraces his double transfer experience, including using the fact that he has attended three colleges as an icebreaker."},{"type":"text","value":"Over time, I have learned to let go of my dread surrounding icebreakers and introductions in class. I no longer exclusively say \"I left\" Northwestern, instead opting for \"I dropped out.\" This change in framing reflects how I no longer feel embarrassed for realizing that Northwestern, no matter how fancy or prestigious, was not the place for me. I bring up that I am a transfer early and often, hoping to meet others in a similar situation."},{"type":"text","value":"I almost always do."},{"type":"text","value":"Kim said her advice to prospective transfers and double transfers is to make the most of their time at UCLA and avoid comparing themselves to others. For Shad, it is equally important to find out what doesn’t work for you and what does, and there is no shame in changing your mind. Fredrickson said there is not much she would change about her UCLA experience, other than that she would seek out resources sooner."},{"type":"text","value":"\"It’s important to realize that you belong here,\" Kim said. \"You deserve to carve out your own experience here and be confident in your story as a transfer.\""},{"type":"text","value":"I have yet to take the classic LinkedIn headshot in front of Royce Hall, nor have I ever stepped foot in a UCLA library after about 6 p.m. or attended a UCLA football game. But maybe the point of the college experience is more than a series of activities typical of a coming-of-age movie."},{"type":"text","value":"I would argue that college, above all else, is about growth. We might be commuters, or working full-time or have our identities stretched across several campuses and experiences. Some of us are even married. Although I first heard the term \"double transfer\" just eight months ago, I have found pride in my cluttered, sprawling and, at times, exhausting college experience. And I have found pride in being a Bruin."}]}},"pageContext":{"isCreatedByStatefulCreatePages":false,"term":"spring26","slug":"prime.doubletransfers"}}}