College is a one-time experience for most students, and the first few steps can be the most intimidating. New students know few others on campus, if any, and socializing with new people can be a difficult prospect when there are so many students on campus. College is an entirely different world for freshmen. Students transferring from other schools here in the U.S. and across the globe can find acclimating to UW-Whitewater a difficult process.
Despite all of this, UW-Whitewater excels at assisting new students, both freshmen and transfers, to adjust to this internationally accredited university. This fall, UW-Whitewater admitted more than 800 transfer students and over 2000 freshmen, and prepared events for each and every one of them.
The Center for Global Education, Club U Dub Dub, Transfermation and Plan-It Purple are all designed to assist new students with everything, from getting their books and meal plans, to creating icebreaker games to help students get to know each other.
The transition from the atmosphere of a high school to a college is intimidating, and students who just graduated high school or graduated high school several years ago, will need to adjust to the new atmosphere. College is a completely different world from what new students are used to.
A transfer student, on the other hand, has already been through the college experience. They have already done things such as collecting their books, signing up for classes and getting meals. Transfers know what the schedule is like versus a high school schedule. Transfers basically know what college life is like. What they don’t know is what UW-Whitewater is like.
International students are not just transitioning from a high school or a different college. International students are transitioning from one culture to another. UW-Whitewater recognizes the needs of these students, and the Center for Global Education works with these students to make their transition to an American university as easy as can be.
UW-Whitewater recognizes the needs of these students and creates a team of peer mentors who want to work with freshmen and transfer students every fall and spring semester to help them acclimate to UW-Whitewater’s way of doing things.
New students coming to UW-Whitewater know few people already on campus. The organizations on campus have worked to help students meet new people and make new friends during their time on campus. Student Entertainment Awareness League coordinates events such as Sunday night’s magician, Daniel Martin, and S.E.A.L. also hosts movies played in the Summers Auditorium every weekend, from Thursday night to Saturday night. Then there are events such as Warhawk After Dark, a new event held on Saturday night which hosts games such as bingo, free food, karaoke and a hypnotist.
Last year, UW-Whitewater had a student retention rate of 80.3 percent. That means 80.3 percent of new students, both freshmen and transfer, did not drop out or transfer from this university. UW-Whitewater is doing something right. This is a university that is worth attending. This is a university that cares about its students and wants to build a community for them to thrive in from day one.