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BY ROSARIO PAZ

In print | October 26, 2006

Along with the enrollment of 372 first-years, the college has gained 16 transfer students for the 2006-2007 school year, a significantly larger number than in years past. Though admission of transfer students has previously been constrained by an extremely small number of spaces, the admissions office hopes to generate a large amount of diversity among the incoming first-years by increasing transfer student admissions.

“We hope to have a robust transfer community here,” Dean of Admissions Jim Bock said. In the past, Swarthmore has accepted only two or three transfer students per year, if any. The Admissions Office has been trying to steadily increase these numbers of transfer students, whose presence “adds another dimension to the campus,” Bock said.

Laura Post ‘09, a transfer student from Kenyon College, said she has been aware of the intense selectivity inherent in the admission of transfer students. "I think it’s harder, percentage-wise, than applying as a freshman," Post said. “If 100 people apply, they might take eight to 12, and five to eight will come.”

Susan Willis ‘09, a transfer student from Harvey Mudd College, was also aware of Swarthmore’s high selectivity, but made applying to suitable colleges her top priority. “It didn’t affect my decision,” Willis said. “I still was looking for the school that would fit me right.”

Lately, admissions has been striving to achieve a level of approachability for transfer students who would find themselves as well-suited to its community as incoming first-years.

“We don’t have to be as discouraging,” Bock said. “It bodes well when there is more critical mass.” Bock also assures incoming first-years that “it doesn’t really take anything away from freshmen” but simply “opens up the opportunity to transfer more students.”

Due to the greater number of admitted transfers this year, Swarthmore has naturally fostered a transfer student community on campus.

“It’s definitely more of a community than when there were one or two transfers,” Post said. “It was a first good group to meet and know.”

Though the transfer student community is not necessarily a support group, “there will at least be people who you can turn to,” Bock said.

Because of the new and accelerated inflow of such a great number of transfer students, there is not much tradition to the community to which they belong. “I think it would be nice to have even more transfer student interaction,” Willis said. “If we had been more together during orientation, I think that would have helped.”

Largely, administrators and students have expressed positive opinions concerning the increase in the number of transfer students and the beneficial diversity they add to the overall college community.

“It’ll form more camaraderie, and transfer students do add a lot to the school, like different opinions and backgrounds,” Willis said. “The opinions of transfers could have a significant effect on changes in the school.”

“I like the transfers; they’re fun,” Post said. “And it will slowly become more of a community.”

With a year or two already under their belt, transfer students essentially bring a new outlook to the academic arena. “They add a different perspective to the classroom,” Bock said.

Now the admissions office is hoping to open the doors a bit wider in terms of applicant diversity by conveying the increased accessibility to less obvious targets, like community colleges.

“We want to diversify the transfer pool,” Bock said. This is being accomplished through an “outreach to underrepresented educational institutions.” By reaching out to students other than those attending Ivy League schools, who are more likely to be aware of and be considering Swarthmore, the attempt to slowly broaden admissions towards a new group of applicants would further diversify the shared background and experiences of the student community.

Though Bock admits “it is really hard to have a process when you have so few students,” he and the admissions office have stayed assured in the changing transfer process by sharing a positive message with transfer students. “This is a community that welcomes you,” he said.

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