When President Ruth Simmons arrived at Brown in 2001, she articulated a long-range commitment to diversify Brown's student body. One way Simmons said she planned to do so was by actively recruiting transfer students from two-year community colleges, a mostly untapped pool of applicants with the potential to bring a wealth of life experience to an Ivy League university.
But while transfer students entering Brown have previously been eligible for limited financial aid, financial aid is not available for transfer students entering this year.
Last year's implementation of need-blind admission for all incoming first-years has been a significant financial drain; partly as a result of the move to need-blind admission, the goal of re-extending financial aid to transfers is not close to being reached, officials say. As a result, the University remains unable to act on Simmons' promise to recruit transfers from community colleges.
The Office of Admission has told the Corporation Advisory Council on Admission and the University Resource Committee that it considers financial aid for transfer students a priority, said Director of Admission Michael Goldberger, but no timeline has been established for providing such aid.
"It's not that we don't think it's important," Goldberger said. "It's just questioning the fairness toward candidates to encourage them to apply when you can't support them. It doesn't seem like the right way to go."
Community college transfer students might be able to pay for Brown using state and federal aid, but they are currently cut off from all Brown funding, which usually makes up the largest portion of a student's aid package, said Director of Financial Aid Michael Bartini.
Like Goldberger, Bartini said establishing financial aid for transfer students is a priority, and the money would help the University recruit a more diverse group of transfers each year. "It's one of the things that is on our list of improvements for the future and certainly relatively high," he said. "It's just a question of when."
Rhiannon Kopynec '06 is one of a handful of recent transfer students from community colleges to arrive at Brown. After being home-schooled for several years in elementary and middle schools and her first year of high school, Kopynec attended Mount Greylock High School in Williamstown, Mass.
After high school graduation, Kopynec took a semester off and later enrolled at Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield, Mass., where she earned an associate's degree in international studies and participated in student government, chorus and musical theater, all activities she hopes to continue at Brown.
Kopynec learned about Brown from friends and visited the school with her younger brother, who was applying to colleges as a first-year. "I liked it more than he did," she recalled.
At BCC, Kopynec's education was funded almost entirely by scholarships, she said. But when transferring, "I knew where I wanted to go and I knew I was willing to take out the loans to do it. I just needed to convince my parents that that was what was right for me. ... I can't say it yet, but I think in the end, it will all be worth it."
Transfer advisors and counselors have been immensely helpful, Kopynec said, but she added that the first few days of life at Brown have been stressful, especially in terms of enrolling in the courses required for her international relations concentration. Kopynec said she had met one other transfer student this fall from a community college, but that people generally react to her previous school by asking, "You transferred from where?"
Transfer students from community colleges generally face exactly the same challenges as any transfer, said Dean Carol Cohen, who advises the transfer student population. "We've had very good success with students from community colleges, so I don't particularly see them as a challenged population," Cohen said.
"They really are used to handling a lot. ... They usually work their way through school, many of them might still be taking care of family members from home, they might be commuting from home. They really are adept. ...They do very well with the Brown environment," Cohen added.
Kopynec expressed a similar sentiment, saying, "Brown attracts the kind of student who is self-motivated anyway," no matter what his or her prior educational experience. And Kopynec has already thrown herself into life at Brown. She said one dilemma is whether to join the Undergraduate Council of Students or the chorus.
They meet at the same time.
Herald staff writer Dana Goldstein '06 edits the RISD News section. She can be reached at herald@browndailyherald.com.
