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While some students choose to transfer to Syracuse University from other institutions every year, other students went in the opposite direction.

The Daily Orange spoke to five former SU students who chose to transfer to other colleges during the past two years.  Some of them traveled across multiple continents to continue their education, expressing dissatisfaction with SU’s reputation, education quality and commitment to inclusivity and diversity. 

Hate crimes and bias-related incidents

Multiple students said the series of hate crimes and bias-related incidents in the fall 2019 and spring 2020 semesters contributed to their decisions to transfer from SU. 

Kirin Cao, a former film major student at the College of Visual and Performing Arts from Beijing, chose to take a gap year after the spring 2020 semester. 

Cao, who was a freshman living in Haven Hall then, said she felt unsafe living and studying on campus after the series of incidents, especially with the racist graffiti found in bathrooms in Haven. 

She remembered one night while in Haven, a drunk male student banged on her door and woke her up at 3 a.m. in the morning. She was horrified and didn’t know what to do. 

At the same time as the #NotAgainSU sit-in at Crouse Hinds Hall ended, the pandemic hit the U.S. Cao had no choice but to head back home. She decided to take a gap year to readjust. 

After the gap year, she opted to transfer to The University of Manchester in the United Kingdom. 

“It really felt dangerous around that time, with gunshot incidents outside the campus,” Cao said in Mandarin. “I just couldn’t focus on my studies anymore back then. And after all the chaos, there came the pandemic.”

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Shreesha Yelameli, currently a film student at New York University, chose to transfer from SU’s film program after the spring 2021 semester ended. 

Yelameli felt uncomfortable with the sense of  “fake activism” in some of his classes at SU. 

Yelameli recalls the SEM 100 class he was required to take during his first semester at SU. He said that although such classes “would be good for people who don’t understand how to not be an a**hole,” they were very superficial and lacked a lot of nuances in topics like stereotypes and discrimination. 

Cost of SU

The financial burden is another major reason that pushed some students to choose to transfer. SU has been consistently raising its cost for full-time undergraduate tuition over the past years.

Carlo Di Giammarino, a former newspaper and online journalism major at the Newhouse School of Public Communications, transferred to The University of Manchester after his first semester at SU back in fall 2019. 

“(The meal plan) came to like $20 per swipe. It hit me like a brick when I actually did that calculation,” Di Giammarino said. “In the U.K., I would never spend more than like 60 pounds a week on food. In the U.S., I’m spending that in a day and a half. I just can’t justify it.”

“The university system (in the U.K.) seemed to care about us a little bit more,” Di Giammarino said. “Being in the U.S., it really felt like a business, like they were trying to extract as much money from you as possible.”

Cao said the living expenses in Manchester are more expensive than in Syracuse, but the higher tuition costs are much greater at SU.

Di Giammarino was also frustrated about the process of getting financial aid from SU. He was confused about a lot of expenses he had to pay while at SU.  

“Syracuse makes us pay for even to watch the football games, like buying a ticket to something we are already supporting surely,” Di Giammarino said. “But I didn’t understand why I had to pay to sit in the student section. I saw a meme that said U.S. universities are basically sports teams with education as a side hustle.” 

Education quality

Yelameli said the education he received at VPA was more about abstract and experimental concepts rather than focusing on technical skills that could prepare him for his future career.  

“I’m more of a commercial person (and) less so abstract — I’m one of the filmmakers that actually likes Marvel movies,” Yelameli said with a chuckle. “So it’s not the kind of film education that’s focused on what I want to do.”

Simi Hill, another former VPA student who is now studying film production at DePaul University in Chicago, expressed similar disappointment toward the education he received at VPA. 

“The actual film program at the time in VPA was a little bit more independent film-based and a little bit less about the business aspect,” he said.

For Di Giammarino, the atmosphere of college education is different between the U.S. and U.K. In the U.K., there is less pressure for students like him to pursue a future career even before they graduate from college, he said. 

“In the U.S., it’s like everybody is doing 15 things at the same time,” Di Giammarino said. “But in the U.K., I feel like there’s much less of a culture around doing the job you want to do before you’re doing it.”

Harry Shi, who was undecided in SU’s College of Arts and Sciences, transferred out to Boston University because he was not satisfied with the reputation SU had for its academics compared to other universities. 

Shi went back home to China in March 2020 because of the pandemic. He started his classes at BU online while at home. For him, getting started in a new campus after being away from the U.S. for a year makes it more complicated for him to adjust. But being in a big city like Boston could help him to get more socially involved, he said.

“Boston is a big city after all, and I think that might help me a lot in terms of socializing and networking for my future career,” Shi said in Mandarin. 

Cao said the atmosphere in Manchester makes people feel more lonely and isolated than what she had experienced in the U.S. for the past couple of years. But she hopes she could get used to the new lifestyle for the years to come. 

“I’m not planning to socialize or making more friends than I’ve already done, as long as there are people around me who can truly support each other,” she said.

Published on October 14, 2021 at 2:20 am

Contact Francis: [email protected] | @francis_towne