Tufts enrolled a mere 15 transfer students this fall as a result of a larger-than-expected class of incoming freshmen. The number is usually closer to 40 or 50.
But Dean of Admissions Lee Coffin said that the situation is not completely out of the ordinary. The number of open transfer positions is determined by the present size of undergraduate enrollment, he said.
"The transfer pool adjusts upward or downward in relation to the size of the entering freshman class," Coffin told the Daily in an e-mail.
He said that this fall's low enrollment had nothing to do with the on-campus housing shortage, in which dozens of incoming freshmen were placed in forced triples, rooms meant for only two people that three people are forced to inhabit.
He said that the number of juniors who choose to go abroad for a semester or a year also affects the amount of space available for transfer students.
"The percentage of juniors who study away is a factor we consider," he said. "If the number is higher than expected, transfer spaces open ... Conversely, if fewer juniors study abroad, perhaps because current events are adverse, we will plan to enroll fewer transfers. A stable undergraduate enrollment is the goal."
Because of the housing shortage, Tufts could not guarantee housing to all transfer students, Director of Residential Life and Learning Yolanda King told the Daily.
"Some transfers were admitted with housing and some were not," she wrote in an e-mail. "The good news is that we were able to offer housing to any of the transfer students who wanted to reside on campus."
"Those who were admitted without on-campus housing were able to work with off-campus housing," she added in a phone interview.
