Fort Smith Four
Covering Local News and Local Issues
Why UAFS?
Lauren Schluterman
September 5, 2015
UAFS is great school with a lot to offer that many students choose to attend each year, but what makes students choose it over any other school? When talking with different students one is bound to get several different reasons behind their choice to attend UAFS; some choose it because it is close to home, some because of scholarships, some to play sports, some because it has the best program in the state for their major, some because they waited till the last minute to enroll in school, some because it is where their friends or significant others are going, and some choose to come to UAFS after they have already started at another institute. So what is it that makes students transfer to UAFS from a different college? Many transfer students could have the same reasoning as students who choose UAFS as their first choice. I decided to look into why transfer students pick UAFS when changing schools and interviewed senior Kayla McCallister to get to the bottom of that.
Kayla is a twenty-three year old from Ozark, AR. She started out at Arkansas Tech University-Ozark Campus after graduating from Ozark High School in 2012 and attended there for two years before decided to transfer. When talking with Kayla she stated, “I decided to go to the closest college I could and that was ATU Ozark. I’m a homebody and I was not ready to leave my mom, my sisters, or my cat. Unfortunately, ATU Ozark is only a two year university so I knew I was going to have to transfer eventually.” Since she wanted to
stay close to home still she had to look at the closest colleges to Ozark which are Arkansas Tech University and University of Arkansas-Fort Smith. Both schools are about the same distance from Ozark, but Fort Smith had a few more drawls than Russellville. “My best friend from high school went to UAFS directly out of high school and being apart was tough which made me look more towards it than ATU. It also had a better program for the major I was going for, but the deciding factor was that one of my little sisters graduated high school and chose UAFS the same year I had to transfer so we went together," said Kayla.
Changing schools and towns is a big deal especially for a homebody like Kayla. She is a five foot tall, shy, bookworm who does not like change, so it definitely took some time for her to adjust. Like
most college students Kayla came to college with an idea of what she wanted to major in, which for her was teaching, but also like most college students that did not quite pan out and she had to change it. When asked about why she changed her major Kayla responded, “I
came to college set on being a teacher; the teaching program here at UAFS is part of the reason I came here. I still want to teach; however, had I stayed in the program it would have set me back at least a year, possibly two, and I do not have the funding for that. I switched to organizational leadership so that I can eventually go back to school and get my master’s degree to teach students with special needs.” For a girl who does not like change, she has learned to make the necessary adjustments to get where she wants to be in the future.
Kayla is a student who changed schools out of necessity; however, it does not seem that that is why she stays. Since coming to UAFS she has gotten a job in the campus bookstore and the box office, joined a sorority, and took up a leadership position. “I never saw myself in a sorority. I thought I was too quiet and introverted for that type of thing, but I was so wrong. Joining a sorority gave me a
confidence boost you would not believe and has opened so many doors for me. If I had never transferred to UAFS and let my best friend talk me into going through recruitment, I never would have had this experience”, admitted Kayla. Not all transfer students take advantage of all the different registered student organizations (RSOs) at UAFS like Kayla did, and they may not be why students transfer to UAFS, but it just might be one of the reasons that they stay.
There are many reasons that students transfer schools, but what is important is why they choose to come to UAFS. When looking at Kayla’s story, proximity to home played a big factor, as well as familiar faces, and good programs for her major. The things that made her stay at UAFS were different than what brought her though. She got on campus jobs, found a new major she could work with, joined a sorority, and gained a level of confidence that she did not have before. Students transfer for an endless list of reasons, but what makes them choose a school and what makes them stay there are very possibly different than what drew them in to begin with.