Room for change: understanding residential college transfers

By Dia Gupta     10/29/24 10:55pm

Noisy environments, overwhelming events and interpersonal conflict: Much can go wrong as students first settle into university. Some students find themselves reconsidering their dorms, friends or even residential college. While less than 1% of students transfer colleges each year, according to Dean of Undergraduates Bridget Gorman, those who do say it has transformed their experiences.

Kelsey Webb, a senior who transferred from Jones College to Wiess College, said she made the switch because she didn’t feel accepted in her community.

“I feel much better and much safer being at Wiess. It’s nice to walk everywhere in my college and feel welcomed,” Webb said. “It’s a lot less stressful. 

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“I don’t feel scared sitting in commons. I don’t feel scared going to different floors. It’s just much better for me.”

Duncan College Magister Eden King has approved a few transfers during her time at Rice and attributes these swaps to “push” and “pull” factors.

“When we talk about ‘push’ factors, those are experiences someone may have had at their home college that were not in line with their expectations and made them think about leaving,” King said. “The ‘pull’ factors would be what creates a pull to another college. They’re the things about another college that are appealing, whether friends or location.”

According to King, magisters want a clear, presentable reason why a student would be better off at another college. Often, this includes feelings of isolation, alienation or having issues with roommates or friends at their home college, King said. Students also request a transfer to be closer to another community that they feel fits them better.

Alberto Figueroa, a Duncan junior who transferred from Baker College, said his experience making close friends while co-advising at Duncan inspired him to transfer.

“I feel like the community at Duncan was so much more welcoming, and I just had so much more fun with them,” Figueroa said. “I could connect with them on so many other levels than I did with the Baker community.” 

The transferring student must talk to the magister of their residential college and the college they wish to move into. The magisters want to understand why they wish to leave, King said. Was there an unsatisfactory experience at their college? Is something drawing them to another one? Magisters hope to ensure that students don’t use a permanent solution for a temporary or campus-wide problem, King said.

“The things I’m most concerned about, personally, is making sure students have a realistic sense of what they’re getting into, and there’s not a presumption that the grass is necessarily greener in another place,” King said. 

If both magisters endorse the move, the decision is discussed at a monthly meeting between all the college magisters and presidents, where students will be approved to transfer.

Each residential college has different ways of welcoming transfers. Duncan hosts a mid-year matriculation ceremony for transfers, both from other residential colleges and other universities entirely, in which students participate in “Dunctriculation.” Brown College ensures their transfers get college merchandise, said magister Doug Schuler, and are constantly updated about logistics through the transfer process. 

“Usually, the students who want to transfer already have a friend group here. It’s not random, [they don’t] just transfer anywhere ... so they usually are already pretty tight in the family,” Schuler said.

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