In­ter­view with Trans­fer Stu­dent Syd­ney Dark

Maryville is home to many stu­dents who trans­fer from lo­cal com­mu­nity col­leges, but it also ed­u­cates many who are from out­side of Mis­souri and Illi­nois. Syd­ney Dark, a ju­nior at Maryville Uni­ver­sity, talked to me about what it was like trans­fer­ring to Maryville from Ken­tucky.

Amelia: What made you trans­fer schools? Why did you choose Maryville?

Syd­ney: I was in a rural small school in Ken­tucky, and it just re­ally was­n’t for me. I went there with the in­ten­tion of trans­fer­ring when I got the grades to do so. And I chose Maryville be­cause it’s across the street from my house and I like that the class­room size and cam­pus size is more per­sonal. Plus, I could go about my nor­mal life and job and every­thing while pop­ping in and out of cam­pus for classes su­per eas­ily.

Amelia: I can imag­ine trans­fer­ing was a big change. What are you most ex­cited about now that you’re at Maryville, or what do you like the most about Maryville?

Syd­ney:  I’m most ex­cited about how stu­dent fo­cused it is. Maryville ac­tu­ally cares about peo­ple and wants you to grad­u­ate, you’re not just a num­ber. I also just like that every­one kind of does their own thing. And the sports!

Amelia: I agree! Com­ing all the way from a school in Ken­tucky must’ve been hard though. What did you find easy about the process of trans­fer­ring to Maryville? Were there any ad­vi­sors or staff at Maryville that made the tran­si­tion eas­ier?

Syd­ney: The Life Coaches made all the dif­fer­ence. They were so ac­ces­si­ble and help­ful! I’m some­one who is not a fo­cused per­son and hav­ing con­stant re­minders of dead­lines and every­thing made the tran­si­tion su­per easy, so I did­n’t miss any­thing. Some­thing that was dif­fi­cult at first was tech­ni­cally be­ing okay with be­ing be­hind in school for my age, but again the com­mu­nity is per­fect for what­ever age I’ve found. And none of my ques­tions went unan­swered.

Amelia: That’s great that you had such a con­nec­tion with your Life Coach! Did you en­joy ori­en­ta­tion? If so, what did you like? If not, what would you change?

Syd­ney: I’m not go­ing to lie, I did­n’t at­tend ori­en­ta­tion be­cause I was out of town un­til the day be­fore classes. But I had peo­ple from my high school and my Life Coach who helped so much. I don’t know what I missed, but I fig­ured it all out with help at some point.

Amelia: I felt the same. For me, I still had stuff af­ter ori­en­ta­tion that I had to fig­ure out on my own. What is one thing you like about Maryville?

Syd­ney: Biggest thing I like is the size for sure. For the most part every­one is a fa­mil­iar face. And the classes are very high school and fa­mil­iar in a good way

Amelia: That’s very true. How would you de­scribe your trans­fer process over­all?

Syd­ney: Le­git the eas­i­est thing I ever did was trans­fer­ring to Maryville is how I would de­scribe it. One other thing I’d say is that Maryville did only ac­cept half of my cred­its from my orig­i­nal col­lege…but that’s my fault for not get­ting above a ‘C’ so I can’t be too mad, it just set me back a lit­tle.

Amelia: I’m so glad you had such a great ex­pe­ri­ence! Do you have any ad­vice for Maryville trans­fer stu­dents, or stu­dents think­ing of trans­fer­ring?

Syd­ney: My ad­vice would be if you’re look­ing for like a party col­lege ex­pe­ri­ence or like a real col­lege town, Maryville may not be for you. But if you’re look­ing to just go about your day-to-day with more re­laxed en­ergy, I could­n’t rec­om­mend trans­fer­ring to Maryville enough.

Amelia: Thank you so much for tak­ing the time to talk with me!

Syd­ney: Of course!

It’s awe­some to me that Syd­ney had such a pos­i­tive ex­pe­ri­ence trans­fer­ring to Maryville! I’m so glad she found a school that works so well for her. If you ever have any ques­tions or con­cerns, please reach out to Maryville staff and Life Coaches for guid­ance. Thank you, Saints!