While most universities have warmed up to the idea of accepting transfer applicants each year, there is no standard when it comes to smoothing the path for them once they've enrolled.
Worried that their transfers may become socially or academically disengaged with their new campus communities, some universities have established programs to help make the transition a mild one. Other universities, however, take a more passive approach to the transfer question, and Tufts, it seems, is among them.
One of the 13 transfer students enrolled in Tufts University last year, now-senior Antonella Scarano was ecstatic upon receiving her admissions letter. She created a Facebook.com group she called the "Lucky 13" and bought her first Tufts sweatshirt. The ecstasy soon wore off, though, when she received a call from the admissions office in August, informing her that there was an unexpected influx of freshmen and she would have to find her own housing weeks before her first semester at Tufts.
"It was the worst time of my life," Scarano said. "I really wanted to live on campus, because I didn't know anyone but at that point no one could help me, and it was just up to Craigslist.com and Facebook."
Taking initiative in spite of her original setbacks, Scarano joined the Tufts Facebook network early, found a posting on Facebook Market, and had a friend in Boston look at a house for her. She put her name down on a three-bedroom apartment lease without even knowing enough people at Tufts to fill the remaining two spots.
"It was so stressful," she said. But a month into the school year, Scarano won a senior seat on the Tufts Community Union Senate and was living happily with two roommates, still among her closest friends at Tufts.
Although the lack of guidance on the part of the administration rallies concern with some individuals, many Tufts transfer students just accept it as a fact of life -- as was the case with junior Michael Brown.
"The vibe that I got was 'we accepted you; you're lucky to be here; here are your transfer credits, see you at graduation,'" Brown said after finding himself in a situation similar to Scarano's last summer.
"They don't baby you here," Scarano said.
Although Tufts may not share this sentiment, many colleges are concerned that leaving transfer students to fend for themselves in a new environment can put them at a social and academic disadvantage. Transfers are in a very different -- and in some ways more difficult -- position than freshmen, who are surrounded by hundreds of peers in the same transitional situation.
"It's a bigger challenge to join a group that is already established than to get there during its formative states," Assistant Professor of Psychology Sam Sommers said. "You see comparable situations when someone is a new person at work. It could be difficult to join a group, though many rise up to that challenge and succeed."
Taking this into account, many universities take it upon themselves to organize transfer-specific programs and support systems.
The University of Maryland, for example, instituted a pre-transfer advising program to familiarize potential transfers with its academic structure. Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, focusing more on the social hardship of transferring, allows its transfers to get involved with extracurricular clubs before arriving on campus.
Part of the discrepancy in programming might come from sheer numbers. The University of Maryland accepted 3,672 transfer out of an applicant pool of 6,025. Tufts, on the other hand, accepted only 55 transfers of the 608 applications they received, and in the past the number has been even smaller.
Because there is no existing comprehensive transfer program, the Tufts administration is in charge of handling newly accepted transfer students.
"Once a transfer student is admitted and accepts our invitation to enroll, the process of socialization and acclimation falls on the shoulders of Student Services in Dowling," Associate Director of Admissions Denny Paredes said.
Student Services does take certain basic measures, like assigning transfer students advisors and organizing the transfer student orientation. The orientation tends to lump transfer students with the incoming freshman class, ignoring the very different needs of the older students.
"We felt like the ugly stepsister of the freshmen," said Angela Winston, a sophomore who transferred from Smith College this fall. "Transfers are in a different place than other incoming students."
Oftentimes, even academic advisors are oblivious to the unique position of their transfer advisees. Winston, who came from a school with virtually no distribution requirements, felt that she did not receive the help she needed from her advisor.
"My advisor didn't take into account the fact that I was a transfer and really forgot to help me through the requirement process," she said.
Somehow, though, despite the challenges, happy endings like Scarano's are not rare. Even without a specific program catered to them, most transfer students at Tufts are as engaged in campus social life as the rest of the student body, if not more. This trend may be largely attributed to the type of people who choose to transfer schools in the first place.
"From what I've seen, a lot of the transfers are super outgoing people," Brown said. "If you're already willing to uproot your life to go do something better, then it's not as big of a challenge -- they have a 'don't talk about it; be about it' attitude."
Most transfer students agreed that they tend to be very involved and curious, demonstrated best, perhaps, by the measures they took to get where they are. Sophomore transfer student Lara Vancans, who interviewed to be a tour guide last week, said, "I have a lot of transfer student friends and they're all involved on campus ... We're here because we want to be here."
Because most transfer students are driven to join clubs, visit deans and talk to orientation leaders without a structured program to assist them, the administration's lack of involvement has not yet stirred too many complaints.
"We know it's really up to us to advocate for ourselves," Winston said.
Still, many transfers hope that the university will take on a bigger role in helping transfer students adjust in the future, or improve the transfer student orientation.
Some have assumed a more proactive role themselves, like Brown, who wishes to start a social organization for transfer students, and Scarano, who advocates for transfer programming on Senate.
"People don't realize how hard it is to be a transfer student," Scarano said. "At the end of the day you want a mentor, you want to know where you are and you want to not feel lost."
