THE HOUSE transfer applications that will become available Friday are part of a radically changed transfer system--a system that will streamline the old process, which one master called a "fifth course" for transfer applicants, but will also open the way for admissions to Houses based on masters' choice and student personality.

Because Dean Fox's plan to house all freshmen in the Yard takes effect this year, fewer transfers altogether can be expected. Since a class "seniority principle" will determine who can transfer, few if any sophomores will change Houses this fall.

The code words for the new transfer process are decentralization and mechanization. For the first time since "master's choice"--a system now replaced by the lottery where each master decided who could enter his House--guided the housing system years ago, masters will have the primary responsibility for deciding who will live in their Houses. And in a switch from the days when Eleanor Marshall, former assistant to the deans of the College for housing, personally and unsystematically handled all transfers, applicants will submit their forms simultaneously at the beginning of each semester, learn of their fate two weeks later, and make their moves in the following week--before the end of October.

Ann B. Spence, assistant dean of the College and the architect of the new process, designed the new system to eliminate some of the faults many found in the old one. Last year, the transfer process was a never-ending battle: students plagued Marshall with weekly questions about their status, lobbied her with calls from alumni parents, and waited anxiously for the phone call that signaled their exodus. Some students had to move during reading period or in the midst of finals.

Marshall proved unable to keep up with the tidal wave of applications; 446 students applied to transfer throughout the year, and 274 were successful, including one-to-one "room swap" transfers. Complex regulations, based on seniority and the position in which a transfer applicant placed his or her present House in his or her original ranking for the housing lottery, guided Marshall. But because applications dribbled in all year long, and because of Marshall's loose processing technique, many transfers that could have been completed went undiscovered.

The process placed a heavy burden on Marshall, who, after the elimination of her position, took another administrative position in the University.

"Several hundred people were all asked to go to one point in the University," Spence said Monday. "It was a bottleneck. There was a seasonal pressure so there were times during the year when there were many, many people to see her."

Spence should know. Originally Marshall's superior, this year Spence will directly oversee the transfer process. Although the Housing Office will no longer function as a central depository for transfer applications, it will provide information and advice to students considering a change of Houses. While Spence will not require masters to submit reports demonstrating their compliance with the ground rules of transferring, she met with House secretaries during the summer to explain the guidelines for the selection process. In addition, Spence will do the last minute tinkering with the guidelines as final figures on the numbers of residents in each House trickle in.

TRANSFERRING under the new system will be somewhat like applying to colleges. Like the high school student, the potential transferee must first obtain a standardized application from the Housing Office. Besides basic biographical data, they will ask for a student's concentration and which Houses the student has applied to, ranking them in order of preference. The applications also include a space for optional information. The forms do not spell out what data belongs in this spot, but it will undoubtedly be useful in the masters' choice stage of the transfer process, to be discussed later.

Students then deliver a copy of the application to the office of each House to which they have applied. At this point, each House chooses the applicants who will enter the House, based on the guidelines developed by Spence, in order of dominance:

1) The seniority principle. Seniors have priority over juniors, juniors over sophomores.

2) The equity principle. Students who have not transferred before will receive priority over those who have.

3) The grandfather clause. Students who applied to transfer last year will receive priority over those who did not. For example, a senior who has not applied to transfer before will receive priority over a junior who tried last year. A junior who transferred last year will still be allowed to enter a House before a sophomore who never transferred.

At this point Spence's guidelines stop. If applicants cannot be distinguished on these grounds, the Houses may choose freely among them. Like certain colleges, some Houses will require interviews with transferees.

William H. Bossert '59, master of Lowell House, plans to require all applicants to schedule an interview with someone on the House staff. Based on information the applicant supplies in the interview, he then plans to admit those applicants who want to enter Lowell for a special reason--as distinguished from those who merely want to leave the Quad and enter any River House. Bossert may also give preference to those who want close contact with a certain tutor in Lowell and those who come from especially crowded Houses.