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In­ter­view with a Maryville Stu­dent from MOBAP


At sev­en­teen, it can be ex­tremely dif­fi­cult to fig­ure out where you want your life to go. Choos­ing a col­lege to at­tend can play a big role in this de­ci­sion, and some­times the first school is­n’t a right fit. To­day, I’m speak­ing with a Maryville sopho­more about her ex­pe­ri­ences at Maryville so far this se­mes­ter. It is her first year here, but she has lots of valu­able in­sights.

Amelia: What made you switch from MOBAP? When you were look­ing at other schools, why did you choose Maryville?

Anony­mous: I switched from Mis­souri Bap­tist be­cause I de­cided to stop play­ing my sport and wanted a dif­fer­ent at­mos­phere. I chose Maryville be­cause it was in the same area as MOBAP and I had only heard good things about the school. It was close and I could af­ford it with fi­nan­cial aid, plus most of my cred­its were able to be trans­ferred here. It was a pretty easy de­ci­sion.


Amelia: Seems like Maryville was a good idea! What did you find easy or com­fort­ing in the process of trans­fer­ring to Maryville? Were there any ad­vi­sors or staff at Maryville who made the tran­si­tion eas­ier?

Anony­mous:  I felt that it was very easy to trans­fer to Maryville mainly be­cause the staff is very help­ful through­out the whole process. If I had any ques­tions, there was al­ways some­one who was able to help me. I re­ally don’t see how trans­fer­ring schools can avoid be­ing a to­tal headache, but I thought the staff at Maryville made it as easy as pos­si­ble. 


Amelia: That’s awe­some that staff were able to help you! What did you find dif­fi­cult/​con­fus­ing about trans­fer­ring to Maryville? Did you have any ques­tions/​frus­tra­tions that were left unan­swered or that weren’t clear at the start?

Anony­mous: The only thing that I found dif­fi­cult was learn­ing my way around cam­pus be­cause MOBAP is a much smaller school. Maryville is­n’t a huge school, but it is def­i­nitely big­ger than I’m used to. Even though I was able to get a tour or two of the cam­pus, it took me a long time to fi­nally get a hang of the lay­out. It took me more time than I would like to ad­mit just to fig­ure out where the li­brary was.


Amelia: Hon­estly, me too. My cof­fee ad­dic­tion squeals each time I have to walk through Star­bucks, but I’m not mad. Did you en­joy ori­en­ta­tion? What would you change about it, or keep the same?

Anony­mous: I en­joyed ori­en­ta­tion but I wish we had a lit­tle more time to meet oth­ers. There were ice­break­ers which helped, but not much. Every­one is al­ways un­com­fort­able and awk­ward with ice break­ers. Part of me wishes we had been bro­ken up into groups by our ma­jor so I had to op­por­tu­nity to get to know peo­ple I al­ready had some­thing in com­mon with. 


Amelia: What is your fa­vorite thing about Maryville? 

Anony­mous: My fa­vorite thing about Maryville is the re­la­tion­ships you can form with pro­fes­sors. The class sizes are small, which makes it much eas­ier to be able to have con­ver­sa­tions with the teach­ers. They know me like pro­fes­sors at a larger school would­n’t be able to. 


Amelia: What is some­thing you like about Maryville that is dif­fer­ent from MOBAP?

Anony­mous: I like that Maryville has a more ac­cept­ing at­mos­phere, es­pe­cially when it comes to gen­der or race. I know Maryville is tech­ni­cally Catholic, but it is much more tol­er­ant than MOBAP, which is ob­vi­ously Bap­tist. The stu­dents there were pretty ho­mo­pho­bic and racist, at least from my ex­pe­ri­ences com­pared to Maryville. I re­mem­ber dur­ing one of my first classes at Maryville, a stu­dent men­tioned to the class that they were gay, and I was stunned. No way would she have been able to say that at MOBAP. It shocked me that she felt so com­fort­able here to be able to say that, and that no one else even bat­ted an eye­lid. 


Amelia: Do you have any ad­vice for cur­rent/​fu­ture Maryville trans­fer stu­dents?

Anony­mous: The only ad­vice I can of­fer so far is to pay at­ten­tion at ori­en­ta­tion and meet as many peo­ple at events. Be­ing a trans­fer stu­dent makes it ex­tremely dif­fi­cult to meet new peo­ple when every­one ex­cept for Fresh­man have al­ready found friends. Get­ting in­volved quickly and a lot makes it a lit­tle eas­ier.

Amelia: Last ques­tion! If Maryville had a mas­cot that was­n’t the St. Bre­nard, what would it be?

Anony­mous: The first an­i­mal that came to my head was a Ger­man Shep­ard. I’m not sure why, but the dog idea just fits with our school. Prob­a­bly be­cause there is so much out­go­ing en­ergy on cam­pus. 

Switch­ing schools can some­times feel like switch­ing cul­tures; new ideas, iden­ti­ties, and val­ues spring up with each col­lege cam­pus. Every­one is unique! Staff and stu­dents at Maryville are avail­able to help you with the tran­si­tion, and of­fer a help­ing hand if you need one. To learn more about how to get in­volved at Maryville, talk to your Life Coach or visit https://​maryville.cam­pus­labs.com/​en­gage/. ​If you have any ques­tions or con­cerns, please reach out to Maryville staff and Life Coaches for guid­ance. Thank you, Saints!

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