Transfer students have never had to explain a missing identification card to Domna in Annenberg Hall and, to them, the term “proctor” means nothing more than an exam supervisor.

But while they might have missed out on some first-year rites of passage, transfer students say they wouldn’t exchange the perspective spending a year at a different institution has given them.

This year’s group—55 students out of more than 1,000 applicants—say their experience elsewhere and, in many cases, numerous attempts at Harvard acceptance, has made them appreciate their long-awaited status as Harvard students.

The Long Road to Harvard

Transfer students often say their reasons for choosing to pick up and come to Harvard are academic. Many of the transfers say they had applied to Harvard in high school and were rejected.

Amie N. Broder ’04, a Wellesley College transfer and mathematics concentrator, says she came to Harvard for the quality of the Faculty.

“The professors are the top of their field worldwide,” Broder says.

Hani B. Rimlawi ’04, a Notre Dame transfer, says he found the required courses at Notre Dame did not allow for sufficient academic flexibility.

Rimlawi applied initially during high school and then applied to transfer during his first year at Notre Dame.

He says he was thrilled to relocate from Indiana to Massachusetts and says the relative diversity of Harvard’s student body has been quite refreshing.

To be considered by the Committee on Transfer Admissions, potential transfers must have spent between one and two years at another four-year institution.

This year’s group of transfers include students from Vassar College, Gettysburg College, University of Pennsylvania, Middlebury College and Northwestern University.

‘Transferlinks’

For transfer students who have beaten the slim admissions rate, the Harvard experience begins with a day-long orientation which often leaves them “feeling like first-years all over again,” says Judy G. Fox, director of transfer and visiting student programs.