Transfer Process
You finally made it to IBA, just not into your desired program. But that’s okay because hopefully after just one year down the line, you can transfer into the program of your choice. The fact that IBA offers this opportunity to students who want to change their degrees is a huge plus. It is most beneficial for people like me who desperately needed to escape their former program.
You may think clearing the test or meeting the SAT requirements for your new program is the only hurdle that you’ll have to face but, oh boy, it never ends there.
For instance, you will no longer be distinguished according to your program, instead the transfer label will follow you around like a shadow during your remaining years at IBA. Not to mention, you’ll have to resubmit your documents which was tedious the first time around.
Paying For 6 Courses Instead Of 5
This is this one policy that, no matter how much IBA administration tries to explain, will never make sense to any of us. It’s unfair for all those students who end up taking 5 or less courses in a semester but are still required to pay for the full course load. But, it becomes a blatant injustice against transfer students who are simply not allowed to take more than 5 courses.
Discussing this issue with every person seated in the program office was exasperating. Since I managed to receive the same answer from each end;
“Beta this is the policy, I can’t do anything about it.”
My question remains: WHY? Why is no one questioning this policy or trying to reform it? Amend the policy to provide some form of relief to our parents, who slave day and night.
Course Deficiencies
It’s worth noting that majority of the transfer students suffer from course deficiencies when they join their new program. But, instead of allowing students to take a greater number of courses per semester, they are instructed to enroll in the summer semester.
By limiting the students to only 5 courses, the administration forces transfers to pay extra each summer unnecessarily. But that’s okay because we’ll just pluck bills off of our money tree and finance these God-forsaken tuition fees. Clearly, that’s how it works in the eyes of our administration. Not to mention, summer is reserved for internships: a break from the monotonous routine so we can explore our talents. However, the stepchildren don’t get the same rights as the rest.
Lack Of Financial Relief
Moreover, it has been proven to us throughout this pandemic that IBA’s administration and finance department exerts all efforts to ensure that not a single penny is left unexploited. Even during these economically challenging times, all students paid the complete fee and hostel charges. The fee was charged regardless of whether the students are continuing to use the facilities or not.
So What to Do for the Transfer Students?
The reserved seats for transfer students remains an insignificant number of 5 seats per section. The program office claims to increase this number when needed but it is evident that they fail to do so. This holds true since many slots remain closed for us transfer students during enrollment; forcing us to enroll with a teacher that we may not be compatible with. I believe that a staff member should be assigned to handle all transfer student related matters exclusively. This ensures that transfer students are represented in front of the administration and are provided with the assurance of being heard.
