Cal Poly transfer students struggle with limited in-person time after the pandemic

By Torstein Rehn

After more than a year of virtual learning, many Cal Poly students arrived on campus for the very first time for fall quarter. 

One such group of students are transfers who will only have one or two years to live out their college experience.

For material engineering junior and transfer student Erika Szaldobagyi, this will be her only year in person.

That leaves a limited amount of time to work with her professors in person and have a truly hands-on experience at Cal Poly, she said.

One difficulty Szaldobagyi said she faces as a result of her lack of in-person experience is that she doesn’t know how to operate certain machines. “Everyone basically assumes that because I am a fourth year that I know everything about the machines which I don’t,” Szaldobagyi said.

Although there is pressure on transfer students to operate at a level higher than what they are used to, Szaldobagyi believes transfers are capable of adjusting. “Transfer students are the most adaptable because we have to go from one school to another school and somehow go from semester system to quarter system without having any issues,” she said.

For some transfer students, pressure extends beyond the classroom. Business junior and transfer student Nader Hussain says that he wants to do as much as he can in the time he has at the university. “I feel like right now I don’t know if I’m trying to fit four years of school into two because that’s all I have left,” Hussain said.

This cramming of multiple years into a few leads Hussain and other transfer students to fill their schedule with multiple clubs across the campus. “I signed up for many intramurals and I still wanna sign up for more,” Hussain said.

As the school year continues, transfer students must balance playing catch up to their in person programs with an extra full club schedule.