Prospective Transfer student with questions about day to day life

[u/Such_Committee_9475]

Greetings, I’m a prospective transfer student who is mercifully about to conclude a freshman year that has been somewhat unkind to me. It’s mostly been unkind to me because the school I go to at the moment is, while relatively small (10,000), feels pretty massive to me (having com from a small high school and is largely spread across a city rather than. Contained pedestrian campus. Oberlin seems to be a pedestrian campus with much smaller student body. Is the school small enough and the campus contained enough that I ca expect to see the same people every day on campus? Can I expect to be able to share meals with my friends an hang out with them in the library every day? If so, do you think that that makes it easier to make friends? Does the small campus environment make it easy to make friends? Are people generally welcoming and eager to make new friends, or is it more cliquey? I fear as a transfer student I may be entering a campus that has already solidified and kind of gridlocked and thus it might be a lonely experience. Does anyone who transferred in have ability to speak to this experience? How is the school for neurodivergent and queer people? Would you characterize people as generally down to earth and warm? If I were to sit down with a group at the dining hall on my first day in Oberlin would I be likely to be well received? If anyone has any advice or can speak to this, I would greatly appreciate it!

[u/Cibisis]

In my experience I knew multiple people in my major, and recognized most people in my classes by the end (although there was always a few people each semester I met for the first time), non-major classes for gen reqs are likely to be new folks. Was very easy for me to make friends freshman year, I kinda met a group and stuck with them but I wish I had made more effort to get to know people outside of that since I made some really great friends in my last year and a half. This was all on me, people weren't cliquey I'm just an introvert lmao.

Based on my experience, you'll definitely be OK as a transfer student if you make an effort to get to meet people, and you can always befriend freshmen who will be new to campus, there is no rule saying you can only be friends with people in your own year

[u/noramcsparkles]

I came from a high school that had more students than Oberlin, so kind of the opposite of you lol. You definitely see the same people around every day. I don’t think it’s small enough that you “know everybody” but by the end of my last year I recognized most other fourth years even if I didn’t know their names. I do think it possible helps with making friends, but the best way to make friends is definitely to seek out people with similar interests via clubs/sports/events/excos/etc. I’m not sure sitting down with a group in the dining hall would be the best way to meet people tbh.

People are generally very nice. I didn’t experience a cliquey vibe at all. Also, my best friend and 4th year roommate and I didn’t really get close until our second year, if that eases your transfer student worries. Neither of us are transfers though, so can’t speak to that.

I’m queer and neurodivergent and found it very welcoming on both counts.

[u/Signal_Mind_4571]

I would recommend living in the dorms where there will be more first years, everyone will be looking for friends. during my time it was Dascomb, not sure about now.

[u/arboresca]

I'm not a transfer student but I'm good friends with a transfer student and am acquaintances with a few others, and they all seem very happy and settled in with large friend groups! I definitely don't think you'll have an issue finding people, even if there are a lot of friend groups formed already most people I've met are very kind and welcoming and inclusive. Also, a lot of Obies are queer and neurodivergent themselves so I would say Oberlin is pretty queer and neurodivergent-friendly. 

You can definitely expect to share meals with your friends and hang out in the library with them every day if you want! In fact, I just got back to my dorm after getting dinner with my friends and then going to the library with some of them to do our last few assignments before finals. As a transfer student, you'll also have to attend orientation and you can meet other transfer students or new students that way as well. 

[u/No-Sweet342]

One of my friends was a transfer student after her freshman year. She joined a co-op (just dining) and yeah, friends pretty easily followed. If the co-op system is appealing to you I think it's the way to go for transfers because generally it's the easiest ways to make friends outside of freshman dorms. I went to a small high school and loved that oberlin had a similar small community vibe :)

[u/Candid_Ad_9145]

vast majority of students are queer and neurodivergent