{"componentChunkName":"component---src-templates-article-tsx","path":"/transferretention","result":{"data":{"primeArticle":{"slug":"transferretention","excerpt":"UCLA is lauded as one of the best universities for transfer students. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, some transfers feels the school isn’t doing enough to keep them around.","headline":"They want us, they don’t want us","author":"Jamie Jiang","authorbio":"","authoremail":"","authortwitter":"","coverimg":"https://assets3.dailybruin.com/images/transferretention/transferretent1.1-d595d9334d78cb357ada6c587645006a.jpg","covercred":"Nathan Koketsu","coveralt":"Illustration of a student walking away from UCLA","articleType":"article","updated":null,"content":[{"type":"text","value":"Somehow, Tyler Szeto and I hadn’t crossed paths before I tracked him down for this story. Szeto is a transfer student, like me, and studies linguistics and computer science, putting him in my same department. I found him through the linguistics department Discord server, where he introduced himself as a UCLA dropout. He even worked with The Bruin before, but not during my time here."},{"type":"text","value":"Szeto, like others in the transfer student community, left UCLA to recuperate from financial, academic and social losses incurred during the pandemic. He’s working right now at a technology startup he interned for last spring and summer, researching and working on projects."},{"type":"text","value":"Instead of applying for deferment, Szeto chose nonattendance – an option that comes with consequences that deferment does not. A student who defers for a school year simply registers a year after their cohort. A student who chooses nonattendance for more than one quarter, like Szeto, will have to reapply and redo the entire admission process, meaning they face the possibility of rejection."},{"type":"text","value":"“I kind of took the easy way out,” Szeto said. “I would deal with the readmission process rather than doing the paperwork to defer a year.”"},{"type":"text","value":"Looking back, Szeto said he thinks he should have deferred for a year instead, but the pressure he faced from family and friends made him want to leave UCLA as quickly as possible."},{"type":"text","value":"“(Admission) is a very expensive process to go through twice,” said Alyssa Hemler, a former staff member at the UCLA Undergraduate Students Association Council Facilities Commission. “It is uncertain the second time just as much as it is the first time because you don’t know if you’ll get in twice.”"},{"type":"text","value":"Deferment, Hemler argues, is the safer and cheaper option for transfers to take time off to address their basic needs before enrolling."},{"type":"text","value":"However, deferment is much harder for transfer students than it is for direct-entry students, said Zuleika Bravo, an alumnus and the 2020-2021 USAC transfer student representative. She pointed to the UCLA Undergraduate Admission website, where the language used for freshman students is less restrictive than for transfer students."},{"type":"text","value":"“They give more leniency towards freshmen students.” Bravo said. “When we looked at transfer deferments, you are not allowed to defer unless there's extenuating circumstances or if you're a veteran.”"},{"type":"text","value":"The website using this language was taken down, according to staffers in Bravo’s office."},{"type":"text","value":"In order to track the impact of these deferment policies on transfer students, Bravo’s office circulated a survey to the transfer student community asking if students had applied to defer and whether their application was approved. The survey also noted the circumstances surrounding deferment and the demographics of respondents."},{"type":"text","value":"When I asked Bravo about the survey, she solemnly told me about the stories some of her respondents gave. Bravo was particularly struck by one student whose family member had been diagnosed with cancer. Their deferment was denied, leading Bravo to believe they did not fit the administration’s definition of “extenuating circumstances.”"},{"type":"text","value":"“And if it doesn't, then what does count?” Bravo asked. “They just don't define what that means. They just say ‘extenuating circumstances.’ You need to be more clear in your language.”"},{"type":"text","value":"But Szeto said he’s not worried about reapplying. He knew he should have done the paperwork to defer, but believes the readmission process to be a lot easier than people think. When I asked him about the costs of reapplying, he told me he was relying on his salary from his job, which would pay his reapplication and readmission fees."},{"type":"text","value":"Szeto is not alone in his choice to drop out. The transfer community at UCLA faces retention issues, Bravo said."},{"type":"text","value":"“I know a lot of transfer students who had to drop out or defer, because they didn't have the money that they needed, they don't have the technology that they need to keep up with classes, or they're taking care of children,” Bravo said. “There's a lot of barriers that got in the way, especially for transfer students, since we have a very diverse community.”"},{"type":"image","value":"{\"alt\":\"Illustration of the barriers  (money, technology, taking care of children) that transfer students may face.\",\"url\":\"https://assets3.dailybruin.com/images/transferretention/transferretent2.1-bac95179bf1c4f14ebbd528cd7e0957f.jpg\",\"credit\":\"Nathan Koketsu\",\"caption\":\"\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"Bravo’s office spoke with the UCLA Registrar’s Office to advocate for more leniency in allowing transfers to defer. According to Bravo, the administration agreed to allow more transfer students to defer for more reasons – especially COVID-related reasons – but censored her office from raising awareness about these accommodations."},{"type":"pull","value":"{\"caption\":\"I know a lot of transfer students who had to drop out or defer, because they didn't have the money that they needed, they don't have the technology that they need to keep up with classes, or they're taking care of children.”\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"“I don’t know if I’m allowed to say this,” Bravo chuckled, before continuing. “They’re telling me not to say anything because they don’t want to encourage people to defer.”"},{"type":"text","value":"Bravo and her staffers said a representative from the Registrar told the Office of the Transfer Student Representative that they did not want an event or any informational material posted about deferment. Bravo states the representative said the Registrar wanted to keep the news quiet for fear that matriculation numbers would be lowered, and the university’s revenue would take a hit. As a result, more transfer students could defer in the 2020-2021 academic year, but the school hoped few would."},{"type":"text","value":"UCLA Media Relations declined to comment on this specific issue."},{"type":"text","value":"The number of transfer students who deferred during the 2020-2021 academic year reflects the new leniency. In 2018 and 2019, 13 and nine transfer students, respectively, were granted a deferral. In 2020, 33 transfer students were granted deferrals – more than the previous two years combined. Undergraduate Admission did not release data for how many deferral applications were received and rejected."},{"type":"pull","value":"{\"caption\":\"More transfer students could defer in the 2020-2021 academic year, but the school hoped few would.\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"The need for increased deferral, however, is visible in the data. More students are choosing nonattendance during the pandemic, likely because they believe they can’t defer. Whereas 43 transfer students declared nonattendance for winter 2020, 143 transfer students declared nonattendance for winter 2021. That’s over a 300% increase in transfer students either dropping out or taking time off of the school year."},{"type":"image","value":"{\"alt\":\"Graphic of transfer retention data.\",\"url\":\"https://assets3.dailybruin.com/images/transferretention/6.1.prime.transferretention-01.1-04822d60ddf4f48f422170240e68b503.png\",\"credit\":\"Graphic reporting by Jamie Jiang, Graphic by Aris Luk\",\"caption\":\"\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"Herman Chavez, the newly elected 2021-2022 transfer student representative, said the administration was not doing enough to spread awareness about the deferment process. For one, Chavez said, the school’s deferment policies are difficult to find."},{"type":"text","value":"“The fact that it's not easily accessible by Googling it, or searching it up on the UCLA website, is also an issue of accessibility and vagueness,” Chavez said. “A student has to go searching for it to find it rather than having that information presented to them by admissions-related individuals.”"},{"type":"text","value":"The Registrar’s Office said differently, however, in a statement sent through UCLA Media Relations spokesperson Katherine Alvarado. According to UCLA, instructions for submitting a deferral are provided in a student’s admission checklist as well as on <a href=\"https://admission.ucla.edu/admitted-students/freshmen-accept-your-offer\">the admissions website</a>."},{"type":"text","value":"The page linked by Alvarado is titled “Accepting Your Offer of Admissions — Freshmen” and does not mention the transfer experience."},{"type":"text","value":"When I asked Szeto why he left UCLA, he had a lot of measured things to say. Almost like a philosopher, he answered questions straightforwardly and made clear points about his worldview."},{"type":"text","value":"“I want to grow as a person during the pandemic, also, not just kind of be studying all the time,” Szeto said. “There is a more human aspect of it, it was a lot more healthy for the long run.”"},{"type":"text","value":"Szeto doesn’t care for the academic atmosphere of his department. He has a bigger perspective on life."},{"type":"text","value":"Szeto values the human aspect of in-person school, he said. He told me he felt bothered going into professors’ office hours on Zoom, where they would look tired and unhappy. In contrast, Szeto said, professors seemed excited to talk in person and would “bring up little books to show.”"},{"type":"text","value":"“I guess for me being a transfer is a bigger reason I went for (dropping out),” Szeto said. “I was there for, like, 1.9 quarters. I say 1.9 because UCLA shut down on Week 9 winter, so I knew exactly the date.”"},{"type":"text","value":"After he finished the 2019-2020 year, Szeto chose nonattendance because he couldn’t imagine doing schoolwork through the pandemic for any longer."},{"type":"text","value":"“So I was like, ahhh, okay.” Szeto said. “I worked that hard to transfer. It'll be better if I just put it off for now.”"},{"type":"text","value":"And, by all accounts, he did work hard. Szeto attended both Laney College and Berkeley City College for a total of three years – the standard path for transfer students is two years of community college – to complete the computer science prerequisites for the University of California. Friends proofread Szeto’s applications, but otherwise he worked alone."},{"type":"text","value":"Szeto struggled during the remainder of his first year at UCLA. After UCLA shut down and transitioned to online learning, Szeto’s life was thrown into chaos."},{"type":"text","value":"“I don't want to dive too much into it,” he said. “But I didn't have a good home life. So I didn't go home after the school shut down.”"},{"type":"text","value":"Szeto spent the rest of the year couch surfing. When grocery store shelves emptied out as Californians started panic buying staple foods, Szeto began to struggle with food security. Meanwhile, he attended classes online with unsympathetic computer science professors who didn’t offer the accommodations he felt the pandemic warranted."},{"type":"text","value":"According to the transfer students I’ve spoken to, Szeto’s experience is common. Transfers often face food and housing insecurities – the highest number of students who sleep in cars are transfer students, Bravo said."},{"type":"text","value":"Szeto kept going to classes, too. He took a five-unit summer class. When he started his internship in order to cover rent and food costs, Szeto decided he couldn’t take any more of it."},{"type":"text","value":"“I was not really enjoying the summer class either because, I don't know, like, California was on fire,” he said. “And then there were the Floyd protests. And I was having to study for school while I was still doing my internship. I was like, I don't know if I can do another school year like this. This might be too much.”"},{"type":"text","value":"It wasn’t easy to drop out, he said."},{"type":"text","value":"“I'm Chinese. The idea of having your kid be a college dropout was not … a very good thing to my parents,” Szeto said, laughing."},{"type":"text","value":"Szeto’s friends at other universities also told him it was a bad idea. They were afraid he’d miss a window in which he was allowed to finish his degree. Many of them were familiar with policies at other universities that limit the time a student can take to graduate, which UCLA does not have. They also worried he wouldn’t be admitted again the next time he applied. A friend of his whom he highly respected told him dropping out was a terrible idea. She said after dropping out from UC Irvine, she never went back."},{"type":"pull","value":"{\"caption\":\"It wasn’t easy to drop out, Szeto said.\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"“I've consulted a lot of my friends who were also in UC systems who just didn't end up going back because they were not doing well,” Szeto said."},{"type":"text","value":"Most of Szeto’s friends are also transfers. Some of them stayed at UCLA and took a fifth year to deal with the fallout from the pandemic."},{"type":"text","value":"That path seemed miserable to him, Szeto said. He couldn’t imagine continuing with online classes when he could be working a job he loved. He calls dropping out an “early release,” like a prisoner escaping a long sentence."},{"type":"image","value":"{\"alt\":\"Illustration of a man breaking free of a ball and chain.\",\"url\":\"https://assets3.dailybruin.com/images/transferretention/transferretent3.1-77bac969479192062e79e6d77b636897.jpg\",\"credit\":\"Nathan Koketsu\",\"caption\":\"\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"But Szeto clearly loves UCLA. The startup he’s been working at is fun, but Szeto gets a spark of excitement when he talks about studying linguistics. He talks about how “pure” academia is, in contrast to the “impure” profit-driven culture of a workplace, and how much he misses meeting people interested in studying the same subjects as him."},{"type":"text","value":"During our interview, I told Szeto what I’d learned – that the UCLA Undergraduate Admission had made the deferment process easier for transfers, but was choosing not to publish that information and had perhaps even censored student organizations who wanted to publish it."},{"type":"text","value":"I asked Szeto what he thought about that."},{"type":"text","value":"First, he paused. Szeto’s a fast talker, so this was a little unusual."},{"type":"text","value":"“I expect nothing less from the university,” he said, then took on a more apologetic tone. “I'm really pessimistic, I guess. They pulled a bunch of, you know, cloaks-and-daggers type stuff on the students during the pandemic.”"},{"type":"text","value":"In the meantime, Szeto’s not coming back to UCLA – at least not this upcoming fall. He’s made enough money to support himself and send money to his family."},{"type":"text","value":"Work has been good to him, he says, especially for his mental health. Despite his love for academia, Szeto said UCLA’s culture of competitiveness had given him heavy imposter syndrome. Working in a startup restored his confidence and gave him a good work-life balance. He doesn’t regret dropping out at all. In fact, he even recommends it."},{"type":"text","value":"“I would encourage it for most of the people I’ve met,” Szeto said. “Because … they'll be growing academically (at school), but there's more to life than just academics. There's other things.”"}]}},"pageContext":{"term":"summer21","slug":"transferretention"}},"staticQueryHashes":[]}