Transfer Student Info from a Transfer Student

Have you met a transfer student at ICU? Or do you have such friends at ICU?

As you all know, ICU has various educational systems which give us opportunities to be active on many stages. College-transfer system is exactly one of the systems at ICU, and I am a student who made use of this system. 

So today, this article will give you some transfer student information from a transfer student(ME!).

Who is a transfer student?

*A Transfer Student is a student who comes to ICU from different universities.

Of course, ICU is not the only university in Japan that welcomes transfer students, but the system seems a little different here.

(Her Campus ICU Dictionary, 2022)

More than three academic years at ICU

ICU transfer students must have completed at least one academic year at other universities in Japan or abroad. Even if we have studied for more than two years in other universities, we must complete more than three academic years at ICU. 

Same entrance examinations

Transfer students are required to submit extra documents when applying for admission. However, we take the same examinations as regular students.

Credits-transfer system

In most cases, transfer students get credits at their previous universities. After entering ICU, we can transfer those credits that meet the ICU requirements. Here, we need to submit various documents, such as our syllabus and grade reports, making sure whether the credits meet the requirements. It’s hard work, but extremely important for our graduation.

Sure, we also take required courses as well!

Transfer students must take required courses as well as regular students. We take ELA classes, PE classes, and of course, decide a major(majors). I took ELA classes with 24(*ICU vocabulary for students that will graduate in 2024), which gave me a chance to meet wonderful friends! (Thank you, 2020’s 3Q classmates and professors!) We need to decide which majors we take by the end of the fall semester in our first year at ICU.

ICU usually welcomes 20 to 30 transfer students in a year, so you might meet us somewhere on campus or on zoom.

Some things I wanted to know before college-transferring

Time flies!

Transfer students have only three years at ICU except for taking a leave of absence. So time really flies faster than I’ve expected.

Hard class schedules

For students who cannot transfer many credits, it’s hard to meet graduation requirements and to decide on a major(majors). For example, although we can only take a few foundation courses, we are required to decide on a major/majors in the first year at ICU. So I always took a lot of time looking through the major requirement list during a registration term, thinking of what class I should take.

Pandemic!!!

For 23(*ICU vocabulary for students that will graduate in 2023) transfer students, we’ve never expected to have an online campus life! We had fewer opportunities to meet friends, attend classes, or even proceed with some applications related to credits-transferring, face-to-face.

Thanks to ICU Transfer System

Of course, we(especially 23 transfer students) had so many unexpected situations, but at the same time, we are having so much fun at ICU with wonderful friends, professors, and courses. I guess we are also part of the diversity of ICU. 

I hope this article provided useful Transfer-Student Info!