Being a transfer student at any major university has unique challenges that most other students may never face – but the University of North Texas works to help transfer students overcome those difficulties.

The Office of Transfer Admissions in the Eagle Student Services Center has a host of transfer counselors on staff to help ease the way for new transfer students, offering assistance on registering for classes and directing students to other campus services that are able to make life easier for new students.

One of the more popular resources for new transfer students are the transfer guides – simple online checklists that allow students to plan out the classes they need to take to make sure they'll be able to get the degrees they want after they transfer to UNT. Students can look up the majors and degrees they'd like to pursue at UNT and learn what courses they can take at their current institution that will transfer most easily to UNT.

According to UNT transfer counselor Adrian D. Riojas, the transfer guides make it easier for transfer students to pick out the classes they need, even before enrolling at UNT.

"With the transfer guides, if a student has that idea of what they want to get into from the beginning, they're able to plan those credits ahead of time," Riojas says. "So if they know they want to be an engineering major or a mechanical engineering major, those guides will tell them exactly what they can take and what will transfer directly into the program."

Riojas says the transfer guides let students plot out their academic futures whether they've already started as transfer students at UNT or if they've just started at a community college.

"Students know when they're searching for course numbers at their community college, whether it's Collin or Tarrant or Dallas, that they can look for the specific course number listed on the transfer guide. They'll be able to find that specific course number and know that it would transfer to their chosen major. There's no guesswork whether or not it will transfer. It lays it out for them ahead of time."

Riojas, who was a transfer student at UNT himself, says UNT has many different ways to help transfer students.

"A lot of transfer students come here from different cities, some from out of state, some of them are commuters or they're living on campus," says Riojas. "Sometimes it's difficult for transfer students since many of them come to UNT not knowing anyone. Some are older adults, service members, or from backgrounds where they couldn't go straight into a university. They may feel disconnected from family, friends or whatever would help them find their niche here. The Transfer Center does a great job with helping them to get the resources they need so they can be successful here."

Many UNT transfer students have their own favorite resources that helped them become part of the university community. Some of those are offered by the transfer counselors or by the Transfer Center, located in Stovall Hall, but some are campus resources that offer transfer students a little unexpected benefit.

Taylor Bland is a junior majoring in Criminal Justice who transferred to UNT in Spring 2014 from North Central Texas College in Flower Mound. She's one of 12 kids, and though she's not the first to attend college, she is the first to attend UNT. She credits the Transfer Center with helping her get acclimated to going to school at a larger campus.

"The Transfer Center helped so much," she says. "When I first got here, I got my map, and I'm looking at it, and I'm going 'Oh my goodness, I don't know where to go.' My first few weeks here, I'd go to class, I'd go home, and when I'd eat on campus, I'd eat by myself. And the Transfer Center had a table at Onstead Promenade for the first week of the semester and periodically afterward, and they were so nice and helpful. This is a big place, but it helps when you don't feel so alone."

Bland says another benefit for transfer students is simply the supportive nature of UNT students, faculty and staff.

"New transfer students at UNT should know there are a lot of resources here," she says. "There's not a question you're going to have that can't be answered by someone on campus – whether it's a student or faculty member or your advisor or just someone in your school or college. There are so many resources – I never had a problem that I wasn't able to find someone who could help me."

Daniel Ford is a junior majoring in Emergency Administration and Planning. He transferred to UNT in Fall 2014 from Collin County Community College. He agrees that UNT's helpfulness was a big factor in helping make his first days on campus worry-free.

"Everyone is always so nice here," he said. "I got lost about four times trying to find the Eagle Student Services Center, but people saw me looking extremely confused down at my map and looking up and then back down again, and without any hesitation, they would always approach me and help me find my way. It happened both before I was a student, looking for where I could go to enroll, and after I became one, looking for where I go for class."

"The Transfer Center's Transfer Ambassadors set up a lot of programs for just getting us used to the campus," Ford says. "I still get emails from them from time to time. At the beginning of the first semester before class began, they took us on a bus ride around Denton, and I met a lot of people I became good friends with on that. We just started talking on that bus ride and all the other activities they did to get the transfer students out there and mingling rather than sitting in their rooms waiting for classes to begin."

Riojas says by helping students succeed as transfers, UNT is also helping give them the keys they'll need for future success.

"Students are very savvy today, and they're savvy shoppers," says Riojas. "They're shopping for information a lot of times, and it's important to give them the right answers and the right resources so they're successful. UNT has done a really great job of opening their hearts up to transfer students and understanding the demographic a little better. That's what makes my job so great is that I can be able to help with that, too."