Blog Post 1-- Spring 2023 -- TRAIN Mixer

Hello!

So I went to the TRAIN mixer the last Friday, which was extremely worthwhile. However, I was tasked with speaking to some potential TRAIN transfer students about their anxieties with transferring to university, but I never managed to talk to any of them. The word around town was that there was transportation issues? And nobody was really sure who the very few community college students were (if any?) But I'm honestly not entirely sure. Either way, since I am unable to talk about their anxieties, I will talk about some of the anxieties I had when I transferred to ASU from Glendale Community College (GCC).

Before I get into that, though, I am super happy because I ran into one of my professors, and she's going to try and squeeze me in to do independent research with her so I can finish my last 3 capstone credits. So I hope it isn't too late in the semester to do that! I'm scared it's an opportunity that will turn out to be too good to be true, though. But she seems pretty confident! Either way, even if it does end up being too late, I am eternally grateful she's trying <3

Anyways, onto my anxieties as a transfer student!

When I was at GCC, I was required to spend 9 hours a week doing some type of research, whether it be in the biotechnology lab, on my own, or with the other computer science (CS) students. I chose to assist in research in the biotechnology lab, which I thoroughly enjoyed because I enjoy biology. However,  being in the lab 9 hours a week was still extremely stressful when I had around 15 credits on top of it. Instead of being able to go home and do homework or relax after classes, I would be in the lab. Thinking about doing that all through my time at ASU really stressed me out.

I was also stressed out because I thought I might have to come up with my own research topics at ASU, and I had no idea whatsoever what I would research.

I was also extremely stressed about getting accepted for the scholarship again upon transferring, because this scholarship was what I planned to use to pay for my tuition. I set a goal when I started college to graduate debt-free. So if I didn't get it, I didn't know how in the world I was going to pay for university without taking out loans.

In addition to those anxieties, I was just scared of university. I was scared of how much harder the classes would be compared to community college, and at the time, I thought I would be driving to Tempe every day which is VERY far from my house.

As it turns out, I had nothing to fear. At ASU, we just have to take the STEM success class rather than be in a lab 9 hours a week. We can do research instead if we want, but we don't have to. Also as it turned out, since I was already receiving the TRAIN scholarship at GCC, that meant I just needed to fill out the ASU application A SINGLE TIME (Not every semester! YAY!) and I would automatically receive the scholarship for the 2 years I attend ASU. And to top it off, my classes at university are possibly easier than my classes at GCC. However, to be fair, GCC was where I took my most difficult classes like the calculus sequence, and where I first learned to code.