Image

Julia, a psychology major here at UMass, transferred as a junior in her second semester. She came to UMass from Fairfield University, a small Jesuit school with an undergraduate class of fewer than 5,000 students. Julia said that “the school very much lacked diversity, and it felt like everyone I met was the same.”

A good portion of Julia’s time at Fairfield was during the pandemic, which made the school feel even smaller. There was nowhere locally to go or explore, and everything was within a two-minute walk, which felt constricting, she explained. At Umass Julia has seen what the integration of a school and a local community looks like, with easy access to Amherst’s downtown.

During the college application process, Julia knew that she didn’t feel at home at Fairfield, but ignored her feelings. She thought she wanted a small school “to build close friendships and get academic support,” explained Julia. However, the small school environment restricted her and “just wasn’t accepting.” After visiting her cousin at UMass a few times, Julia appreciated the type of people her cousin surrounded herself with and saw the difference in how welcoming and friendly everyone was. Julia loved the downtown area, the different options for food, and the fact that “UMass felt like a whole new town, a place where I could feel independent.”

Coming into UMass a bit later than most, Julia was eager to meet new people. She highlighted the importance of living situations for fostering friendships: “Getting thrown into a living situation with roommates you don’t know was the best thing for me. I learned how to live with others, and also created my own independent life.” She explained how she built a community here by continuing to meet people through people. She took every opportunity to get out there, introduce herself, and tried to find people who she felt she could fully be herself in front of. 

Julia learned so much through her transfer journey, and all for the better. “When you come to a school where you feel like you can find people and be accepted, it allows you to embrace all parts of yourself,” she said. Her journey was one of self love and self discovery, made possible by the shift from a negative environment to a positive one. Julia’s advice for those going through a similar journey is to not be afraid to show up as your authentic self: “Being yourself and leaving things that hold you back behind makes life so much easier.”