The transition to life at Brown can be especially difficult for mid-year transfer students. With only a small group of students enrolling each January, current and former mid-year arrivals have said that, at times, they faced a disorganized reception.
This year, 22 transfer students, split evenly between men and women, and one visiting student from Tougaloo College in Jackson, Miss., were admitted to the University. They come from a wide range of the nation's colleges and universities, including Vassar College, Wesleyan University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
According to Carolyn Denard, associate dean of the College, some transfers were originally admitted to Brown as freshmen, attended other colleges, and then returned to Brown. Others realized that their first college choice did not turn out the way they had hoped.
"The most challenging transition, from my perspective, is adjusting to the transfer credit system," Denard wrote in an e-mail to The Herald, explaining that Brown courses carry four credit hours while courses at other schools often only count for three. "We do all we can in transfer advising to explain how our system works and how as a transfer student it is sometimes better to have more time at Brown than less time."
Robert Warner '10.5, a transfer student from New York University, said he experienced the challenge that Denard identified. For example, Warner said he was unable to transfer credit from an NYU French class to qualify for an intermediate French class here.
Some mid-year transfer students can encounter even more substantial challenges. "I hit the ground running pretty hard," said Liam Pierce '08, reflecting on his entry at the beginning of his fourth semester. "I felt pretty neglected by the higher-ups," said Pierce, referring to the help he was given by the Office of Residential Life, the Dean of the College and the Registrar. Brown is "a school that prides itself on having an invisible administration ... to give students options, but I felt that I didn't know what those options were."
Pierce also criticized the University's advising program. "I met with them once and they were kind of like, 'Get out of here,'" he said. "I still don't know if I have an adviser now, even."
Pierce described the mid-year orientation as "really terrible" and said he found the administration to be "cold and unhelpful." When he and seven other transfer students arrived on campus, ResLife placed them in King House, which houses the St. Anthony Hall fraternity, even though none of the transfers had any interest in the fraternity.
Unlike Pierce, Warner found this year's orientation and the transfer counselors to be "really nice and helpful." Warner found Denard and her colleagues in the Office of the Dean of the College to be warm and informative.
This year's mid-year orientation included a campus tour, group introduction and movie night. It ended Tuesday with the traditional procession through the Van Wickle gates, along with a luncheon in Leung Gallery, where Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron and other deans welcomed the students and encouraged them to get involved and ask questions.
Despite enjoying this year's orientation, Warner said he was frustrated with the administration's lack of organization and support before he arrived on campus last week. "I have a pretty long laundry list of complaints about being a mid-year transfer," he said.
Despite his plans to enter in January, Warner received a "package for freshmen entering in fall 2007," which was sent to him when he was admitted. "The fact that there was no letter specifically oriented towards mid-year transfers was really disappointing," he said.
Then Warner encountered confusion with forms, deposits and tuition. A deposit check he was told to send in for his meal plan was returned, and Warner said many transfers encountered confusion with their tuition checks, sometimes receiving duplicate bills even after their checks had been cashed.
"It's an issue when there's a $20,000 check," he said.
Warner said it was difficult to find his Banner ID and e-mail account information because initial directions were vague.
"Basically, they sent us information on how to do things that we couldn't do. I can remember a few hectic times where I wasn't sure they still expected me in January. It just felt like a lack of commitment to the January transfers," Warner said.
