Sophomores will be joined by strangers this summer -- the admissions office is currently selecting students to attend the College as transfer students. These students, usually from the East Coast, come to Dartmouth because few schools offer summer classes, or have fewer offerings.
Assistant Director of Admissions Jaime Briseno has organized the summer transfer program for the past two years. Briseno and other College admissions officers read the applications and admit summer transfer students, or the Special, Non-Dartmouth Summer Students, as they are called.
Applications for admission to the summer transfer program require transcripts and recommendations. Briseno said most students who apply come from "highly-selective, East Coast institutions," including Harvard University, Duke University, Vassar College and Williams College.
Briseno said the applicants' grade point average is a major determining factor in the admissions process for the summer transfer program.
The majority of applicants "usually have a GPA of 3.5 or better. GPAs play an important role in the summer admissions process since it is the only way that the staff can tell how well a student is doing in his or her courses during the school year," he said.
On average, Briseno said about 40 to 50 people inquire about the summer program, but less than half that number actually complete applications.
Last year, out of the 40 to 50 who inquired, 15 completed the application process. Out of those 15, 14 were accepted.
Once accepted, Special, Non-Dartmouth Summer Term Students are allowed to take any classes they want.
But "first choice for a class is always given to Dartmouth students," Briseno said. "Transfer students are told this ahead of time, and as a result, are told to have alternative courses."
Although it seems the acceptance rate for summer transfer students is high, students who successfully complete the Summer term at Dartmouth do not necessarily have a better chance of being accepted as full-time students at the College.
"The summer program is not a back way of getting into Dartmouth," Briseno said. "Summer term students are required to go through regular admissions like everyone else."
"The summer program is not designed to feed the transfer pool," he said.
Summer term transfers are strong candidates for admission as full-time students only if they have a consistent academic record at their previous school and performed well at the College during the summer, according to Briseno.
But Briseno said, "If the student does really well during their Summer term but does not do well during the academic year at their own school, then they have a less chance of being accepted as a full-time student."
Susan Sanders, an exchange student from Wellesley College, said the College is strict in regards to allowing students to stay longer than the terms for which they applied.
For example, a friend of hers on exchange from the University of California at San Diego applied to come for one term and tried to stay longer, but was not permitted, she said.
Despite the demands of the admissions process for just one term, students still apply to come here during the summer because the program "allows students from other schools to experience what it is like to be a Dartmouth student. They receive a full-fledged, Dartmouth experience," Briseno said.
"Students also get to enjoy the beauty of the campus during the summertime," he said.
Sanders came to the College last summer and has remained for the year, although she was off campus in the fall.
She will return to Wellesley in the fall for her senior year.
Sanders explained that the exchange program at Wellesley allows students to attend another college for either a semester or a full year.
But because of Dartmouth's quarter system, a Wellesley student would have to attend the College for two terms to get the same amount of credit as a semester at Wellesley.
Sanders said coming for a year then made more sense.
As part of the Wellesley exchange program, Sanders said she could have gone abroad, but chose to stay in the states so that she could be sure all of her credits could be transferred.
Sanders is a political science and psychology double major. She said she was particularly attracted to Dartmouth because of its government department since Wellesley offers political science rather than government courses.
"Wellesley and Dartmouth are basically antitheses of each other," she said. Wellesley is a women's college and located near Boston while Dartmouth is coed and located in a rural location.
She said Wellesley is more academically focused while Dartmouth is more socially focused.
Sanders said Wellesley is located in a "dry town," while at Dartmouth, the "social scene focuses around alcohol."
Wellesley does not have sororities, but it does have societies with an academic focus.
"They're so different -- they're like different colors on a color wheel. You can't even compare them," she said.
There are currently six students at the College on a transfer program from Wellesley. A few other students from women's colleges like Mount Holyoke and Smith Colleges are also at the College for a year.
Sanders said the College seems to encourage students from all-women colleges to come for an exchange program because it has only been coed for 25 years.
