All Reasons Lure Transfer Students

Two years ago Thorpe M. Kelly '51 was perfectly contented as a sophomore at Columbia where his father and grandfather had gone before him. Then suddenly he transferred to Harvard.

Kelly's mother came from an old Harvard family, and "Ma is boss in our house."

Every year about 350 students throughout the country decide, for one cause or another, to apply for transfers to Harvard College. But, on the average, only 90 have "good enough reasons" and records to be accepted.

George Robertson '53 was lured from Boston University because he wanted the prestige "given only by a Harvard diploma." Edward Sack '51 abandoned Stanford for the University because here no one is "forced into a mold."

Many Colleges Represented

Wesleyan lost Carl La Rue '53 to Cambridge for some courses in the Music Department here, and Patrick Hemingway '52, another Stanford man and a Fine Arts major, thinks "there are more pictures in Boston than in Palo Alto."

Apparently the College accepts a motley variety of "good enough reasons." According to Richard M. Gummere, chairman of the Committee on Admissions, such a reason is a major requirement for a transfer aspirant. In addition, the applicant must be "well above average in general qualities."

Students come here from all types of colleges, but rarely more than three a year from any one college. In 1947, there was a male transfer student here from Vassar, but the cause he gave for the switch has never been released.

There is an occasional transfer from Yale, too. One was William E. Wiggin '50 1L, who came just to be nearer his home. He claims to have had a "good time" in both places.

By an Eastern College Athletic Conference rule, these transfer students can't participate in a varsity sport until they've been here a year. Even so, sports here have benefited from transfer students.

Soccer captain Richard C. Craven '52 decided that there was "greater heterogenity in the student body and more courses to choose from" here than in his old alma mater, Fordham.

Kelly, the man from Columbia, was on the varsity crew there. While he was waiting out his year for eligibility, he played rugby, a sport exempt from the E.C.A.C. rules. Last fall he was on the jayvee football squad and is now out for lacrosse.

Transfer students do no better or worse than the student body as a whole, according to a study made by Henry S. Dyer '27, director of the Office of Tests.

Work Here No Harder

In general, the transfer students feel that scholastic work here isn't much harder than anywhere else, but it all may be done at the end of the term. Most other colleges space tests and papers throughout the whole term. Kelly said he enjoys the "freedom from quizzes," though, and prefers the more "adult" system here.

A transfer student must spend at least two years in the College before he can graduate, no matter how many credits he has. According to the official University statement on transfer credits, courses not in the nature of liberal arts--such as advertising, journalism, business, law, agriculture, and others--cannot be counted for transfer credits.

Some Leave Harvard

The flow of students from Harvard to other colleges is about 30 a year, by the figures of Registrar Sergeant Kennedy '23. This is a third as many as transfer is Harvard.

Kennedy said the most common reason students leave the University to go elsewhere is financial trouble, although some switch to be near their families.

Late last fall, several men applied to leave the College because they felt them had a better chance to be in the top half of their class and escape the draft, in a college that provided less competitive.