The decision to transfer changes the familiar pace of the first few years of college, spinning what should be a joyful experience into confusion.

After the typical college student’s first two years in higher education, he or she will more than likely have accumulated a pocketful of college credits. But they may want some change and will decide to switch colleges. The decision to transfer changes the familiar pace of the first few years of college, spinning what should be a joyful experience into confusion. 

We have all experienced bouncing between schools in our early education, but the process becomes much more difficult when it comes to secondary schools. Flagstaff was my third stop in my approximately four years in college. Before NAU, I attended Black Hills State University in South Dakota for my freshman year and transferred over a dismal 20 credits to Northwest College in Powell, Wyo., where I spent two years. Then I chose NAU, 966 miles away, just to encounter the biggest challenge of my collegiate career — transferring to a university. 

As I met with an NAU adviser for the first time, I dreadfully listened to her deny my incoming credits left and right. I went into the meeting expecting to be a senior, yet poor articulation labeled me a junior. 

Articulation is a stressful step university administrators must deal with to make sure incoming transfer credits match up with the almighty catalog of classes offered by the untouchable university’s curriculum. There is no way to know, before meeting with an adviser, if your incoming credits can match up with classes offered. It’s like going upriver with a fun noodle as a paddle.

General education requirements and some major requirements below a 300 level will almost automatically be unrecognized by any given university. For example, at NAU, I attempted to transfer NWC’s MAT 100 course — problem solving. This class had no chance for survival at NAU, and I was quickly told to enroll in NAU’s MAT 114 course — quantitative reasoning. I noticed all the material covered so far includes the exact same lessons I learned at NWC.  I was pleased to see all of my English credits transferred over, but they happened to be from BHSU, another university. However, when I tried to transfer another general education course — science with a lab from NWC — that did not transfer. NAU told me a 100-level science course from an out-of-state community college — which is totally equivalent to any university’s general education requirements — was not sufficient for this university. How embarrassing. 

Yeah, embarrassing that I’m a junior taking Biology 100 this summer at NAU. What a waste of time and money. For me, transferring added one more year, one more notch on my belt and an annoying $12,000 in tuition.

To save this time and money a college student really doesn’t have, universities must begin to have some much-needed conversations about articulation. Granted, schools already have these in-depth talks, but it happens mainly in-state, and out-of-state efforts are a rarity. 

To counter this, I believe universities must articulate on a national scale. If this takes even more government involvement, so be it. At least government officials may start caring a little bit more about education. If universities had stronger articulation with community colleges, more students would be willing to attend any given university, which would help these large schools in this rough economic turn. 

A national articulation would boost a lot of needed things, but poor communication always seems to surface quicker when it’s among competing entities. Let’s throw all the politics aside and come to an agreement that will let students into colleges and pump them out quicker. With a higher turnaround, prestige will go up, and when prestige goes up, the dollars go up. NAU, please make this process easier because — and I know every elder at this school has heard this before — we don’t have the time for this.