“Students transferring to UW Oshkosh from UW-Fox Valley or UW-Fond du Lac will no longer have to apply to UWO. Starting next school year, all three campuses will have a universal course catalog.

Director of Admissions Paul Gedlinske said all students from the access campuses have to do to transfer to UWO is fill out a form.

“All they have to do is go online and fill out a form of their intent,” Gedlinske said. “That comes through our office because they still have to meet the 2.0 [GPA] requirement that other transfers have to meet.”

Because students at UWFV and UWFDL will have the same curriculum as UWO students, the transfer of credits will be more straightforward than for students transferring in from a campus not tied to UWO, Assistant Director of Admissions Justin Stigler said.

“Their English 101, their WBIS, whatever it may be, that’s our curriculum,” Stigler said.

Gedlinske said students coming to UWO from the access campuses aren’t really transferring anymore because they’re already technically UWO students.
“It’s more akin to somebody changing their degree or changing their major,” Gedlinske said.

Students transferring to UWO from within the UW System will see all of their credits transfer but they might not transfer exactly how the student would expect, Stigler said.
“It will always be program-to-program specific … this is something that the system is trying to address,” Stigler said. “At a larger legislative level, it’s something that people want to see take place. We are one system. If you take something here it should be universal. Right now, that is not the process.”

Gedlinske said the reason credits don’t always transfer exactly how students expect because every school has a different curriculum.

“Let’s say you’re taking a course at La Crosse, and we don’t offer that particular course in our curriculum; the course may transfer, but it may transfer as an elective,” Gedlinske said.

The UW System has a web page that anyone looking to transfer can use to get an idea of how their credits will transfer depending on where they want to go, Gedlinske said.

“The Transfer Information System shows equivalency between UW schools and tech colleges and between non-UW schools,” Gedlinske said.

Stigler said the process isn’t as clean and clear-cut for students transferring into the UW System from a private school.

“It’s a different curriculum. Expectations at those institutions are more founded on liberal arts, and there are different course offerings that we don’t have,” Stigler said.
UWO junior Olivia Anderson, who transferred to UWO from Marquette University after her freshman year, said the process was very straightforward.

“I think because UWO has so many students that transfer in, they have developed a very great and easy-to-use process,” Anderson said. “After I applied and got accepted, I was required to set up a meeting with an adviser to go over what classes I would be needing to take to fulfill not only the USP but classes for my major.”

She said the main obstacle she faced in transferring was finding housing.

“I decided to live on campus, instead of at home, and the only downfall was that I was stuck with the last day to choose your housing,” Anderson said. “So, I only really had two options to pick from, which was disappointing because I wanted to live in a building with a majority of sophomores.”

Since coming to UWO, Anderson has joined a sorority and made new friends, but for transfer students who aren’t as lucky, Gedlinske said the University has programs in place to make them feel more at home on campus.

“A few years ago, Jennie Hartzheim was hired to run Titan Takeoff, our freshman orientation,” Gedlinske said. “She’s expanded now to develop a larger presence in orientation for the transfer students. She’s been working with our transfer admissions counselors and a few other offices on campus to develop this orientation for transfer students, and we really kicked that off this spring.”