Unger, a former Currierite, transferred to Quincy after her sophomore year, since, as she says, “the Quad was very far from everything.”

Unger says she spends most of her time at Hillel, sandwiched between Lowell and Quincy.

“Being close to Hillel was my priority,” she says.

Like Unger, Rachel E. Zax ’12 is active in the Hillel community and decided to transfer from Pforzheimer to a River House because she found the commute to be a hassle. An observant Jew, Zax does not ride the shuttle on the Sabbath. She says she worried about her safety walking home at nights and on winter days.

Of the six River Houses she listed as options on her transfer application, Zax says she was placed in the one she named as her top choice, Adams.

“I was really hoping to get Adams because it has the best location,” she says.

Some students do move in the other direction, though, from the River to the Quad.

Andrea R. Rivera ’13 says she gets a lot of curious looks when she tells acquaintances that she transferred from Mather to Currier.

“I just wanted to live with a different group of friends,” she says.

Although Rivera initially wanted to transfer to Quincy with a friend in Currier, she says her friend “loved Currier too much and didn’t want to leave.”

Rivera admits that she initially felt scared thinking about living in the far-away Quad.

“But it was worth it, thinking that my room would be bigger and I would be living with people I really enjoy seeing,” she says.

A HOUSE IS NOT A HOME

Some students look to transfer Houses because they do not feel comfortable, either physically or socially, in the first Houses they land in.

One student, who wished to remain anonymous to avoid offending residents of his first House, transferred to a House within the same River neighborhood because, he says, “my rooming sucked.”