On Jan. 20, the University welcomed its newest mid-year transfer class of 25 undergraduates and 198 graduate students. While new members of the Brown community traditionally walk through the Van Wickle gates to celebrate the start of their academic journeys, this semester’s transfer class walked a different route, as the Gates remain the site of a memorial to the students killed in the Dec. 13 mass shooting.
“We are proud to welcome a remarkable group of incoming students whose talents, perspectives and dedication to learning bring renewed energy to campus,” Logan Powell, associate provost for enrollment and dean of undergraduate admission, wrote in a University press release.
The Herald spoke with three undergraduate transfers about their expectations and aspirations for their upcoming journeys at Brown.
Benny Podokshik ’28 transferred from the joint program at Columbia and the Jewish Theological Seminary, which allows students to receive a degree from both institutions. He said that the program’s dual core requirements and heavy course load — roughly six classes per semester — limited his ability to study abroad, which he deemed important as an Urban Studies and History concentrator.
At Brown, Podokshik is excited to take advantage of the flexibility of the Open Curriculum. He said he plans to take classes such as HIST 1830M: “From Medieval Bedlam to Prozac Nation: Intimate Histories of Psychiatry” and MUSC 0650: “Javanese Gamelan,” as well as participate in student organizations such as Brown Student Radio and Brown Refugee Youth Tutoring and Enrichment.
Podokshik is no stranger to closed off campuses, he said, as Columbia closed its gates to the public after students constructed a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” in spring 2024. Columbia also altered its finals schedule that semester, he noted.
During his first few weeks at Brown, Podokshik has noticed that the student body seems bonded over having lived through Dec. 13. There’s “a really strong support system and this really strong sense of community,” he said.
Isabel Reed ’28, a transfer student from New York University, was drawn to Brown because she wanted to be part of a “more community-based university” that was “more quaint,” she said.
According to Reed, the University’s interdisciplinary academic opportunities will allow her to mix two of her primary interests — literary arts and environmental science — a feature that attracted her to Brown.
Ultimately, being surrounded by down-to-earth peers compelled her most. “I am just very unabashedly myself, and I got the impression that a lot of other people at Brown were like that,” she said.
Reed said she had been eager to leave the dangers of New York City for Providence’s safe, smaller-town environment. After the shooting, she was concerned knowing she would “come into a grieving community,” but was reassured by the fact that “the community is just so strong, and people here are very resilient,” she said.
“Everything is so personalized, and everyone obviously wants to connect with you, which is just such a wonderful feeling,” Reed added.
David Duan ’28, a transfer student from Cornell, “felt like Cornell was really cutthroat in its environment when it comes to academic pressure,” he said.
He wanted to attend a school less geographically and socially “isolating,” Duan said.
“Everyone seems more multi-dimensional” at Brown, he added.
As an intended public health concentrator, Duan hopes to take advantage of the Open Curriculum by taking classes in diverse fields, including political science, international and public affairs and philosophy. At Cornell, Duan was a part of Cornell Votes and continued his passion for political participation by joining Brown Votes.
Duan is also excited to pursue passions he didn’t have time for at Cornell, such as playing volleyball, joining a band and simply getting to know more of his community.
Despite the small cohort of spring transfers, he believes that Brown “does a really good job of integrating the transfers within the student population,” Duan said. Allowing students to come to campus one week early and having transfer advisors who help students “feel welcomed” also helped, he added.
Chip Mindich ’27, who transferred to Brown from Colby College in fall 2024, now works as a transfer and resumed undergraduate peer advisor. As an environmental science and economics concentrator, Mindich appreciates the interdisciplinary nature of the environmental science field at Brown.
He believes that after the Dec. 13 shooting, “one of the things that the (TRUE) program did really well early on was outreach in the aftermath and throughout Winter Break” to provide resources and help prepare the incoming spring transfer students to come to Brown.
Mindich said he appreciates how Brown “promotes the idea of exploring these different interests and getting involved in a bunch of different things,” and thinks that many transfer students are more willing to take advantage of opportunities offered on campus “to make the most of this new place and new opportunity.”
