The Undergraduate Under class?

Mark K. Benning '86 felt alienated at first, and Adam Lewis '86 thinks he's been "jerked around." Andrew J. Sussman '87 has been pleased from the start, because he found what he was looking for. Kathryn A. Kleiman '86, though, is counting on the fact that it will get better. And David D. Watson '86 says it would have been worth it under any circumstances.

They are five students who disrupted their college careers to make the move to Harvard and part of a group of students that has been a continual source of discontent. Some feel they have been mistreated because they cannot find on-campus housing. Others say they are frustrated, but willing to be outsiders if they can receive a Harvard education.

Arriving at Harvard to start anew in their sophomore or junior years, transfer students find members of their class already well settled and adjusted. They face the difficult task of integrating themselves into the Harvard community with few peers to share their experience, and without the automatic sympathy and commiseration traditionally extended to freshmen.

These problems can make transferring to any school difficult. But what can make life even more frustrating for the approximately 30 students who transfer yearly to Harvard is the lack of immediate space in one of the residential Houses, commonly seen as the core of the Harvard experience.

"I think it is a real problem for many transfers not to live on campus," says John R. Marquand, Allston Burr Senior Tutor of Dudley House. "This leads to other difficulties for them--in particular the feeling that they do not know anyone. They also have the feeling that they are second-class citizens, and that they aren't real members of the community."

Transfer students have become increasingly vocal about their dissatisfaction with the system. In February, transfer students flooded a meeting of the student-faculty, Committee on House Life (COHL), voicing criticism of a housing policy that only allowed them on campus as space became available, without any guarantees of ever getting into one of the 12 residential Houses.

A week later, the College announced a new transfer housing policy guaranteeing senior transfer students a spot in one of the residential Houses and accommodating juniors on a space-available basis. Much to administrators' surprise, however, fewer than one half of all junior transfers offered housing in March decided to move on-campus.

Marquand believes the new transfer policy is a step in the right direction, but no solution.

Meanwhile, Harvard's transfers continue to believe they are an undergraduate underclass. Below, five students reflect on their decision to come to Harvard in the middle of their college careers.

Part of a Group

Mark K. Benning '86 transferred from the University of Notre Dame this September. Benning, originally from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, says his experience on the varsity is hockey team has made fitting in to Harvard a bit easier, but still challenging.

"Hockey helped a lot, just son of stepping right into a group of people who had the same basic interests I had. I talked to some of the other transfer students on teams and in the orchestra and other activities," he says, "and we all agree that being a part of a group like that really made it a lot easier to meet people."

Still, Benning admits that there were problems. "It was tough. I definitely think that hockey helped, and people in my classes helped. But even with all that, I still felt really alienated towards the place."

Benning says his entire experience changed once he was given residence in Leverett House. "You just feel so much more a part of the Harvard community when you're in a House. It's a definite change--I really feel like I belong now. Even though I had great friends from the hockey team and my classes, there was always this sort of nagging feeling that I just didn't belong here and that I was sort of a mistake."

"That's the tough part," he says. "When you're with the whole freshman class, you have people to talk to. I guess you all sort of feel that way. As a transfer student, you're so different, and the fact that you're not living together makes it harder to share those more personal things."

"At first," Benning admits, "Harvard didn't really live up to my expectations, just because of the housing situation. I really didn't feel like I belonged here. I felt that I couldn't take advantage of a lot of the things the school has to offer. But now, being part of a house, having a room and roommates for next year--it's a lot easier. I'm going out and pursuing the things I want to do."

Benning expressed mixed feelings about Harvard's transfer policy. "The administration's been great to me. They've allowed me to come here, and I'm really happy to be here. But deep down, I really think that they should offer housing as soon as people get here, in order for people to really feel they're a part of this place. I have this feeling that if they can't do that, they shouldn't allow transfer students in, or should make them aware that it's real touch."

"If I had known it was going to be as bad as it was first semester, I might not have come here. But now, thinking back. I'm really glad I did. There's no doubt it was worth it."

Marquand says many students are similarly unaware of the consequences of living off-campus at Harvard. "It's impossible to know now fundamentally residential in its orientation this college is until you're actually here," he says.

Where Things Are

But housing is not the only problem for transfer students, as Kathryn A. Kleiman '86 explains. A Social Studies concentrator who transferred from the University of Chicago. Kleiman was given residence in North House shortly after her arrival.

"It's been very, very difficult, and the housing issue is just one a part of how difficult it is," she says.

"One thing I didn't realize was how decentralized Harvard is--in terms of the Houses, the departments, clubs, activities, everything. Trying to figure out where things are, what's going on, is difficult and time consuming."

Kleiman says that although "people here are very nice, nobody really reaches cut. By the time it's junior year, people have formed their friends, their associations. It's really quite a challenge."

Although her initial experience was frustrating, she has decided that transferring was not a mistake.

"I'm looking at it as a two-year package. I knew the first year would be difficult, a year of transition. I'm hoping the second year, my last year here, is going to be much, much better. I'm hoping that I'll be able to come in next year with all the build up. Knowing now what I know, I think I'll be able to do a lot more."

Very Happy

Andrew J. Sussman '87, who transferred after his freshman year from the University of Pennsylvania, has had a more positive experience. He is still living off campus, but says it does not affect his satisfaction with his decision to transfer to Harvard.

"I'm very happy here," he says. "I wasn't thrilled with the academic environment at Penn, and Harvard had a stronger Biology department, which is my major. I find it much more intellectually stimulating, and I find the people here a little more serious--more serious about everything, not just school. People here are very into whatever they're doing, and I kind of like that."

Sussman admits that he did not fully understand the importance of the House system to life at Harvard, but says that it did not at all cause him to regret his decision to transfer.

"I think the housing system is a wonderful thing, and now that I see it I'm sort of sorry that I don't live in a House. But I did not primarily come here to be in the House system. I think most people who are disappointed came here for the wrong reason--I came here because I wanted the academic program and I wanted to be with the students that are here. Both of those things are being fulfilled, so I'm happy."

Overall, Sussman says that "It's really no harder to transfer here than it is to transfer to any other comparable school. It's a pain in the neck to transfer, but I don't think Harvard makes it particularly difficult."

"I don't think we're being treated poorly. In fact," he adds, "if anything I think we get a lot of special attention. Every attempt was made to make us accustomed to the system."

Jerking Us Around

But not all transfer students share Sussman's approval for the administration's treatment of transfers. Adam Lewis '86, originally from Yarmouth, Maine, transferred from the University of Maine at Orono after his sophomore year, and received housing in North House this spring.

"Throughout," he says, "it's been like a political jerk for us--they've just been jerking us around. They haven't done anything to accommodate us. You had to ask hundreds of questions to know what the idiosyncrasies of this place are."

Lewis attributes many of the problems he has had to the housing situation. "The fact that we live off campus is very isolating," he says. "And I've moved three times since I've been here--that doesn't exactly make for an effective academic rhythm."

But Lewis, who is concentrating in neurobiology, admits that he has been pleased with the academics. "I came here for some of the courses. I came here for the research. That I'm extremely satisfied with."

"The housing was very difficult and very expensive. The lack of social integration was also difficult. On the whole, the academics I like, the teaching is poor, and the social and the living situation is abysmal--which could certainly be helped by the administration."

"I guess I would do it again," Lewis says. "But I would caution those who are trying to transfer that it's a struggle. You have to have some character strength to weather it, to put up with the isolation."

Sleep on Subway Grates

David D. Watson '86 transferred this year from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Although he admits to the same housing problems that plague all transfer students, his enthusiasm for being at Harvard overrides everything.

"I would probably sleep on one of the subway grates for the privilege of going to school here," he says.

"Whenever I have housing problems, what I most often do is smile to myself and remember that if I had gone to Yale or Brown or stayed where I was, I would have been required to accept housing--and I would not have gone to any of those places, even under the circumstances. The one more than makes up for the other."

Still, Watson admits that since he has received housing in Adams House this semester, his experience "has changed dramatically."

"I personally think that Harvard is a residential university, and you don't live in. It makes a big difference. The impact of being locked out of housing is to make it damn near impossible to meet people, unless you make just a tremendous effort to do it."

Watson shared the sentiments, of other transfer students that he was not fully prepared for the difficulties he would have off campus.

"My initial sense was that it wouldn't be such a big deal," he says. "While I intellectually appreciated the House-centricity. I didn't have any idea what a difference it makes day to day. Them again, none of the problems are worth not coming."

Every Attempt Made

I aura G. Fisher, director of says that every attempt is made to make transfer applicant fully aware of the fact that housing guaranteed, and even of the fact that Harvard is fundamentally a residential college.

But, as she says. Even when you spell everything out and try to discourage somebody from coming, coming to Harvard is an overriding consideration. That consideration, of being at Harvard, can obscure the importance of other consideration." "Students also heat what to hear," she adds. "I'm not sure that they're willing consider some of the things that they're told about the situation. Of course, in many they really didn't have any idea, even it it was described to them. It's hard to know just from a description what an impact the residential House will have if in fact they've never had my experience like that."

"It's very complicated," Fisher admits. "The transfer students we do bring are very strong as a group, and very interesting as a group."

"I think we all feel very badly that the circumstances are such that we can't admit them with housing," she says. "But the alternative I don't think would be very satisfactory to other constituencies--there would be a smaller freshman class. We in the admissions office have a hard enough time giving places to the small number we can, given the applicant pool. It's a question of using resources."

Why, then, transfer to Harvard it fitting in is so difficult? The overriding reason, Fisher and many transfer students agree: academics.

"There are lots of reasons why students come to a place like Harvard after having spend a year or two at another school. The great majority of those reasons are academic--that they haven't been able to get what they want because of a change in field, or they're looking for depth in a particular field which Harvard offers and their other school doesn't," says Fisher. "We tend to put more weight on those reasons in our admissions process than any others."

"Of course, we don't expect students only to come for academic reasons--we're looking for other ways for them to find niches in the community so that it's an easier transition," she added. "But it they don't have academic strength and academic interests, it becomes even more difficult and can be very frustrating."