As Foothill students, many of us look to transfer to a 4-year university. Yet, life as a transfer student is substantially different from that of a first-year student. Transferring is a difficult transition for many, with only 2 years to adjust to the new rigor, find a community, and prepare for life after undergrad. Amara Singh, a senior studying cognitive science at UC Berkeley and a Foothill alum, gave her view into the transfer life, and shared helpful tips that can ease the transition.

For Amara, the biggest differences she found at Berkeley were the academic intensity, the size of the social scene, and just how long it takes to walk across campus. “My first experience on campus was really overwhelming, honestly,” Amara said. ”The campus was huge, I thought my sociology class was within walking distance, turns out it took 35 mins to walk there.”

Yet, she still misses the friendliness and the calm, close-knit feel of Foothill. “You go from a place where your professor knows your name to a lecture hall with 400 people,” Amara said. “It felt pretty isolating.” The transition to Berkeley, “was honestly one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.” Now with a year at Berkeley under her belt, Amara has found her groove. She loves the energy of the students around her and the RSF, Berkeley’s massive rec center, which, in her words, “made the experience more enjoyable.” The new friendships she’s built and the sheer scale of campus, with its clubs, events, and opportunities around every corner, have all made her transfer experience more enjoyable.

But not everything has been smooth. She doesn’t love the huge class sizes or the competitive atmosphere that can make it hard to connect with professors the way she could at Foothill. She said you have to take initiative and “go out and do stuff yourself.” So she started showing up to office hours regularly and found the Student Learning Center (Berkeley’s main tutoring hub) to be a lifesaver. “Even if you don’t need help, go!”

She had a word of advice for students who avoid the harder classes at Foothill: don’t. “I used to think taking the easier route would protect my GPA, but honestly, the classes that pushed me were the ones that made Berkeley feel doable when I got there.” When asked how Foothill helped prepare her for Berkeley, Amara pointed to Math 2B with Jeff Anderson as the class that made the biggest difference. “That class was time-consuming, but it taught me how to put time into classes and taught me a lot of life skills that I still use,” she said. She also wished she had taken more advantage of Foothill’s Transfer Center while she had the chance. “I didn’t realize how much free support was just sitting there,” she said. “Use it while you can.”

Amara’s advice for prospective transfers: “Don’t spiral over where you end up. You will get to where you need to be, and when you do, just go to office hours. Even when you think you don’t need to, just go.”