The university registered 120 January transfer students this month, down from the record 173 students the university enrolled in January 2011.

Dean of Admission Ray Brown said part of the reason for the lower rate was the increase in students in the fall 2011 freshman class.

“We intentionally wanted to have a smaller January class, but we did not want it to be that much smaller,” Brown said.

This past fall, the university enrolled 1,869 freshman students, with the target rate being 1,800, he said.

“We don’t want to get this university out of whack in terms of its size,” Brown said.

Brown said TCU tried to balance out the demographics with the January transfer students by looking for four main attributes: high achievers, males, racially diverse students and out-of-state students.

“Does that mean we don’t love our Texans? Does that mean we don’t love our females?” Brown said. “No. That doesn’t mean that at all. That means we have been blessed mightily on those and we are looking to bolster some of the other [traits].”

In terms of scholarship money, Brown said there was next to none available for transfer students this January, which was one of the reasons why transfer rates were down.

“Keep in mind that some three-fourths of the students at TCU are on some sort of financial aid,” Brown said. “Not a whole lot of folks can afford this education anymore.”

He also said January transfers might have a harder time adjusting to life on the university’s traditional campus because they tended to live off campus.

Sophomore strategic communication major Carol Logan said living on campus and having a roommate who was also a transfer made her transfer process easy.

“I had a fantastic transfer experience because the majority of why I liked it so much was because I actually got placed in on-campus housing,” Logan said.

Brown said he also talked to transfer students about becoming involved on campus to help with the transfer process.

“They have so many roadblocks against them that when I get the chance to speak with one of them directly, I just really try to encourage them to get involved in life in the university in ways they may not have considered before,” Brown said.

Gina Harriss, a junior strategic communication major, returned to the university after transferring back home to Cleveland, Ohio, when her freshman year ended. The only major problem she encountered with the transfer process was getting into the classes she wanted, she said.

However, in the end, she said TCU was the right choice for her.

“In being a transfer student, they let you know all those random things you don’t know about TCU,” Harriss said. “Being a TCU student before was good, but being a transfer student has strengthened my relationship with TCU.”