To get over transfer jitters, you just need to go full force into the UH culture. | File photo/The Cougar

Transfer students who decide to switch schools in the spring come in with a handicap. The campus is less excited than in late August, cliques and friend groups are already established, and  organizations are already planning to capitalize on the progress they have made in the semester prior.

With all of these gears in motion, what are you, the transfer student and glorified new kid, to do?

Since there are few events dedicated solely to transfer students, you will have to take initiative and throw yourself out there. Most of you are either coming from community colleges or transferring from another four-year university for a myriad of reasons.

Some of the best first steps to acclimating are to join organizations and explore the city around you.

By now you should have a sense of what you like to do in your spare time, if not exactly what career field you want to go into. There are clubs catered to hobbies and career readiness. Hobbyist clubs include the air hockey club, badminton club of UH and the billiards league.

If you want to be surrounded by other in your future career field (hint: you do), there are organizations dedicated to law, medicine and human development. You can also find clubs that provide camaraderie among those who share aspects of your identity, like ethnicity, gender or religion.

Another set of clubs are the fee-funded organizations that part of your Student Service Fee goes to. These clubs include the Homecoming Board and the Metropolitan Volunteer Program, which engages in volunteering on this campus and throughout Houston. Then you have Center for Student Media, which covers radio, television and the newspaper that you’re reading right now.

UH is a commuter school, and it is easy to get into the habit of going to class, then going home. If you don’t live in the city, you have to pass through it to get home anyway, so why not look at the happenings around town?

There are two parks within 10 minutes of UH on the same street, Elgin, called Emancipation and Baldwin Park.

Just five minutes away, two of Houston’s historic the most popular city and nationwide restaurants are located on or near Scott Street. Cream Burger is a hole-in-the-wall restaurant with quality but affordable homemade burgers and shakes. A few blocks down, you’ll find the original Frenchy’s Chicken. Visit soon: Solange and Beyonce’s go-to restaurant will be moving locations this spring.

Just visit a few of those places and you haven’t even left Third Ward, which you should probably get a history lesson about.

Unfortunately, unlike freshmen, you don’t have so many guides and mentors to show you around this big school. However, you cannot be afraid to take risks and go full throttle. Besides, that’s what we do here at the powerhouse.

editor@thedailycougar.com

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“Staff Editorial: Transfer students need to go for it” was originally posted on The Daily Cougar