13 Famous College Transfer Students Part 3

Lucy Liu

Actress, film producer. Liu is known for playing the role of the vicious and ill-mannered Ling Woo in the television series Ally McBeal, and has also appeared in several Hollywood films including Charlie’s Angels, Chicago, Kill Bill, and Kung Fu Panda. She currently stars in the TNT original series Southland.

Liu graduated from New York City’s Stuyvesant High School in 1986 and attended New York University for one year, before transferring to the University of Michigan, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Asian Languages and Cultures. It was in college when Liu began acting, after auditioning for a role in the University of Michigan’s production of Alice in Wonderland during her senior year. Liu was cast in the lead role, although she had originally only tried out for a supporting part.⁶

Jackie Robinson

Baseball Hall-of-Famer “Jackie” Robinson became the first black Major League Baseball (MLB) player of the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. He was selected for six consecutive All-Star Games from 1949 to 1954, was the recipient of the inaugural MLB Rookie of the Year Award in 1947, and won the National League MVP in 1949—the first black player so honored. In 1997, Major League Baseball retired his uniform number, 42, across all major league teams.

Robinson attended Pasadena Junior College (PJC), where he participated in basketball, football, baseball, and track. On the football team, he played quarterback and safety. He was a shortstop and leadoff hitter for the baseball team, and he broke school broad jump records held by his brother Mack. Robinson transferred from PJC in the spring of 1939, to UCLA, where he became the school’s first athlete to win varsity letters in four sports: baseball, basketball, football, and track. Belying his future career, baseball was Robinson’s “worst sport” at UCLA; he hit .097 in his only season, although in his first game he went 4-for-4 and twice stole home. In the spring semester of 1941, Robinson left college just shy of graduation.⁷

Billy Crystal

Actor, writer, producer, comedian and film director. Crystal gained prominence in the 1970s for playing Jodie Dallas on the ABC sitcom Soap and became a Hollywood film star during the late 1980s and 1990s, appearing in the critical and box office successes When Harry Met Sally... and City Slickers. He also hosted the Academy Awards nine times, more than any other host except for Bob Hope.

After graduation from high school in New York, Crystal attended Marshall University in West Virginia on a baseball scholarship, having learned the game from his father, who pitched for St. John’s University. Crystal never played a game at Marshall because the program was suspended during his freshman year. He did not return to Marshall as a sophomore, staying back in New York with his future wife. He instead attended Nassau Community College and later transferred to New York University, where he graduated in 1970 with a BFA from its Tisch School of the Arts.⁸

Grow into Your Dreams with Transfer Credits

Your dreams are out there in the distance, just waiting for you. Though your path may shift as you pursue them -- there’s no reason to delay starting your college education because you don’t know if point B is your final destination. You can take college courses now and then transfer those credits to another college wherever -- and whenever, your dreams beckon. Successful people have a flexible mindset. Successful transfer students seek out institutions, whether online or traditional, that allow them to learn and be where they need to be at each stage of their life. Dream big. Invest in yourself and your education where you are now. Allow transfer credits to take you where you need to be in the future.