Over the last two years, the number of applications for transfer terms has decreased, in part because students now have to complete a more extensive application to participate, Registrar Meredith Braz said. In 2011, the College’s non-refundable transfer term application fee increased from $25 to $1,100 for the fall term and $2,200 for the winter, spring and summer terms. In 2012, the Committee on Instruction instituted an application policy and limited the number of students who can participate in a particular transfer program to an average of five.
In 2013, 113 students participated in transfer terms at 49 institutions across 22 countries, according to data provided by Braz. She could not provide data for 2012 or prior years because the Registrar’s Office is busy preparing for graduation.
The number of students participating in transfer terms rose steadily in the years before the application process was implemented. Five percent of students in the Class of 2009 received transfer credits while 10 percent of the Class of 2013 did so, according to the Dartmouth College Fact Book.
Kayla Kesslen ’15 said she had hoped to take a transfer term in the winter of 2013, but she changed her mind after the 2012 policy shift made her uneasy about traveling with so few Dartmouth students.
She decided to find a program that met her interests in environmental studies and economics and enrolled at the Danish Institute for Study Abroad, Copenhagen, in fall 2013. There she received two major credits and one distributive credit. Kesslen said her program gave her more time to travel and the ability to take a wide range of classes, unlike Dartmouth-sponsored programs.
“There definitely were a lot of barriers, but I was willing to push through them,” Kesslen said. “It definitely took a lot of effort and advance planning on my part to get it done.”
Committee on Instruction chair Hakan Tell said the committee changed the application process to ensure academic rigor and increase oversight.
Students should choose to take part in a transfer term when they cannot find courses or a Dartmouth program that meet their academic needs, Tell said, citing an example of a female student who went on a transfer term to complete an honors thesis on a Native American language not offered at the College.
The Committee on Instruction began implementing changes when members noticed that many students enrolled in the same programs for social reasons, Tell said. The program cap was set to discourage this type of “social decision making” and encourage students to think about how a transfer term could meet singular academic needs, Tell said.
Former chair of the Committee on Instruction Catherine Cramer said the limit was set to parallel Dartmouth-affiliated programs that send small groups abroad with a Dartmouth professor.
Tanya Budler ’15, who studied at the American University of Sharjah, in the United Arab Emirates, last fall, said the enrollment cap did not impact her experience because few students were interested in her transfer program.
“There is a lot of beauty in learning how to be alone,” she said. “All my close friends were Arab — none of them were American. I had no safety blanket to fall back on which was great.”
Budler said obtaining accreditation for her transfer credits was frustrating, noting that she did not know if she would receive credit for some of her classes until after she returned.
Students can transfer up to four credits to Dartmouth. Dartmouth financial aid is not available for transfer terms.
The Committee on Instruction has requested the transfer term application fee be reduced or eliminated, Tell said.
The decrease in students participating in transfer terms has not been accompanied by a corresponding increase in Dartmouth study abroad programs. While 54 percent of the Class of 2009 participated in a College off-campus program, only 43 percent of the Class of 2013 did the same, according to the College Fact Book.
In 2003-04, 599 students enrolled in a Dartmouth abroad program. This number increased to 653 in 2007-08 and has steadily decreased since. The number has remained at around 530 students for the past three years.
Off-campus program director John Tansey attributed this decrease in part to concerns over cost, though he noted that study abroad programs offer financial aid.
Tansey said his office is working to better address the individual needs of students — such as those who want to take courses in a number of different departments on one term abroad — and is in the process of adding new programs like Spanish programs in Peru and Santander, Spain, a program in Ghana, an exchange program through Hebrew University and a Native American studies program in New Mexico.
Sean Connolly contributed reporting.
