TRANSFERITIS:
A NEW U.?
F AT FIRST YOU DON'T SUCCEED,
transfer, transfer again. At least
that's what some students say
after unsuccessful attempts to
choose the perfect college. Glossy
brochures and admissions coun-
selors don't always paint a realistic
picture - some students find that
the college they picked doesn't add
up to their ideal institute.
Suzanne Cobban, a senior at
Ramapo College in New Jersey, has
made transferring an art form - she
has three notches in her undergradu-
ate belt. Cobban, a New Jersey
native, started at New York U. for a
taste of city life but soon found cos-
mopolitan living less than glamorous.
"It was what I pictured life after
college to be like - living on my
own, taking care of day-to-day
things," Cobban says.
She says her first transfer - to
Boston College - was like going
back to high school: "Very clique-y
and nearly impossible for a transfer
to meet people."
By the end of her sophomore
year at Boston College, pressure to
choose a major forced her into a
yearlong sabbatical from school.
Last fall, Cobban enrolled at
Ramapo, and she plans, for the
moment, to stay.
Josh McKinley, a sophomore at
the U. of Miami in Ohio, trans-
ferred from Rhodes College in Ten-
nessee to escape the crash course in
Beer and Fraternity 101.
McKinley says he wasn't getting
his money's worth at Rhodes. "I
drank too much," he says. "I came
here to calm down. It's a much big-
ger campus - drinking isn't the
only thing to do."
t\OWiAA.u I SD -1
19 WH~fAT K(A3TD 0
3e 7 ,STC
Eric D. Stern, a junior at North-
western U., considered transferring
to a smaller school for a more per-
sonal education.
"You think [college] is going to
be like Berkeley in the '60s - lots
of activism and interaction with fac-
ulty," Stern says. "[But] I got
thrown into huge classes where I
hardly knew the professors." Once
Stern learned how to find smaller,
more personal classes at Northwest-
ern, he changed his mind about
transferring.
Gary Englegau, executive director
of admissions and records at Texas
A&M U., says that transferring is a
good option for students who do the
right research. "Students must recog-
nize that four-year institutions have
unique personalities with unique
requirements," he says. "The earlier
you investigate, the better."
Eating solo in the cafeteria,
finding your way around campus
and straightening out
class credits top the
list of hassles you can
expect to encounter
when transferring.
But for many, tempo-
( rary setbacks are
worth the move.
Wes DelCol, now
p a senior at Rhodes
College, transferred
from Union College
in New York. "I came
from a prep school,
and Union was just
like [it]," DelCol says.
"It was a huge frater-
nity school. The acad-
emics were fine for
to engineers, but it was-
n't the best place in
terms of off-campus
.* opportunities.
With a year at
* Rhodes behind him,
;. DelCol is settling in.
"Sitting alone in the
, dining hall is a pain in
f+ the ass," he says. "I
* * constantly questioned
whether I made the
right decision. [But] it
wouldn't be transfer-
% ring if you weren't
* starting all over
., 0001 again."
Colleen Rush,
Assistant Editor/
Illustration by Steve
McNutt, Bucknell U., Pa.
AN APPLE
A DAY...0
RUBBING A WEDGE OF LEMON IN YOUR ARMPITS TO MEND A MIND-
blowing hangover .may not be how you spell relief. Still, you
might want to give this and other home remedies a shot -
they're cheap and easy, and they just might work.
Kitchen cabinet remedies aren't cure-alls, say Joan Wilen and Lydia
Wilen, authors of Chicken Soup c- Other Folk Remedies (Fawcett
Columbine), but they do offer inexpensive and safe alternative treatments to
minor ailments.
From head to toe, books on home remedies feature a variety of treat-
ments for almost everything that ails you. For example, if you're sour on try-
ing the lemon hangover cure, a tablespoon of honey every minute for five
minutes may make you feel sweet again. Or load up on liquids - just not
the kind that come with pink umbrellas.
If insomnia is keeping you up all
night, the Wilens suggest putting
chunks of a yellow onion in a tight-
ly sealed jar. When you have trouble
falling asleep, open the jar and take
a deep whiff. Either the initial shock or the gradual essence d'onion should
knock you out in no time (about 15 minutes).
Instead of popping cough drops to soothe a sore throat, ease that dirty
sock off after a long day and sleep with it wrapped around your neck. It'll
take your sore throat - and breath - away. A convenient rationale for
owning 30 pairs of dirty socks or a bona fide remedy? Take a stinkin' guess.
Meanwhile, at the bottom (that's feet - what were you thinking?), salt
water and sunlight can send athlete's foot back where it came from. So can
walking foot-naked on the beach in the Bahamas, but that might cancel the
inexpensive part.
But tryer, beware. Not all remedies work for all people. Michael
McLure, a junior at Trinity U. in Texas, attempted to get rid of a wart by
putting a used tea bag on it for 15 minutes every day for 10 days. "I'd have
to say there was a slight wart reduction," McLure says, "but I think I'm con-
vincing myself that it's flatter because I spent all that time strapping tea bags
to my elbow."
Kristina Schurr, a graduate student at the U. of Maryland, College Park,
tried to ease the itch of a mosquito bite by putting saliva and wet soap on it.
"The whole idea was a little distasteful," Schurr says. "The soap got dry and
crusty. It was gross, and it made me think about it more. I'm scratching it
right now."
Ken Braslow, U. of Southern California/Photo by Noah Berger, U. of California, Berkeley
I
16 U. Magazine August/September 1995