Transfer Admissions Reach New High

A record number of resident transfer students entered Harvard this term due to an increase in dormitory space at the Radcliffe Quad, but the student transfer coordinator expressed misgivings Wednesday about assigning all of the transfer students to the Quad.

The jump in total transfer admissions for undergraduates from 56 last year to 78 this year was made possible by the Fox plan, which assigned freshmen to the Yard and opened up the extra space at Radcliffe. The number of non-resident transfer students has not changed.

Transfer students will not be allowed to change houses any time this year.

William Binnie '79, student transfer coordinator for the Program of Advanced Standing and advisor to student transfers, said that while this year's 62 resident transfer students all live in North House and South, transfer students in past years were better situated among the 12 Houses.

Last year, the 40 resident transfer students were housed in Lowell House and Currier House, and in previous years they lived in several River and Quad houses, Susan Loth, housing officer for the college, said yesterday.

Binnie said he approved of the increase in dormitory space available for transfer students, but added that "the Quad is traditionally unpopular and the University solved the problem of empty rooms by sticking the transfers there."

"It was more fair to the transfers to spread them out among the houses where they could get into the flow right away--it adds to the Quad's isolation by putting 62 new students there," Binnie, who lived in Currier House last year but has since moved to Lowell House, said.

Mack Davis, director of the Program of Advanced Standing, said yesterday it is too soon to know whether assigning all the transfer students to the Quad will work out. He added that he thought there were ample opportunities for Quad residents to get involved with campus life.

"The Quad itself isn't so bad but people tell you it's a foregone conclusion that you're going to want to leave", Robert London '79, a transfer student said yesterday.

London added he would probably move to a River house next year because "you've got the sense that's where everything is happening--that's what people tell you."

One transfer student who wished to remain unnamed said yesterday she was not pleased with life at the Quad. "I found the stereotypes of the Quad turned out the be true, the studious nature of people here, that sort of thing," she said.

She said she had tried to move to a River house but found that transfer students are not permitted to make inter-house transfers.

David Kahne '80, a transfer student '80 said yesterday he is happy living at the Quad. "I love the Quad; it's not the same environment as the river houses but we haven't been socialized to believe that the River Houses are the place to be, even though we've been told that," he said