Starting fall 2022, Isenberg will not allow internal transfers
Those not directly admitted into Isenberg will not be able to transfer in
November 24, 2021
Starting in fall 2022, the University of Massachusetts Amherst will not allow students to internally transfer to the Isenberg School of Management who were not directly accepted into the program, said the Deputy Director of News & Media Relations Mary Dettloff in an email.
Enrollment for the Fall 2021 was 4,171 students compared to the Fall 2018 enrollment of 3,494 students.
“Enrollment of 4,171 exceeds the target of 3,750 majors set by Isenberg officials and the central university administration considering the school’s resources,” Dettloff wrote.
The excess of enrollment has “challenged” Isenberg with instructional space and faculty and staff resources. This scarcity of resources is what led the University to “prohibit internal transfers,” Dettloff said.
Students entering in the Fall 2022, even if not directly admitted to Isenberg, can pursue a minor. Detloff also suggests applying to majors provided in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences such as: economics, resource economics and managerial economics.
Dettloff wrote, “These majors can take several Isenberg classes and prepare themselves for careers in numerous areas of business by pursuing these areas of study.”
Those students who enrolled in UMass Fall 2021 or earlier can still transfer internally, “but the process will remain incredibly competitive.”
“Because the process is so competitive, Isenberg feels that it is fairer to discontinue the internal transfer process so students not directly admitted to Isenberg have no expectations of being able to become an Isenberg major when making decisions about which college to attend,” Dettloff wrote.
Students who want to can stay for a master’s degree. There are also +1 degrees which offer master’s degrees in business analytics, accounting or finance which can be completed in a year. Isenberg is also currently in the process of starting an accelerated master’s degree which students can start at the undergraduate level.
Sofi Shlepakov can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @SShlepakov.
Jerry James • Dec 14, 2021 at 5:24 am
Princeton University had earlier stopped transfer undergraduate admissions entirely due to space and resource constraints from 1990 to 2018. However they have started it again but currently admits only 13 transfer students out of 900 transfer applicants.
UMass Amherst a a flagship state university of Massachusetts should grow in size, just like University of Michigan – Ann Arbor campus did. UMass is following the UMich way. The university (UMich) once has 90% acceptance and now has only 26% acceptance rate and it’s endowment has grown from some million $ to now $17 billion
Varghese Jacob • Dec 8, 2021 at 7:13 am
I think Isenberg School should take a different approach in this matter. Denying people the opportunity to transfer will result in demotivating bright prospective students and ending up with the transfer of these students to other universities. The end loser will be the business school.
I do understand that the business school has space constraints and resource constraints. However, in this matter, internal students should be asked and encouraged to apply and transfer into the BBA degree completion program (UWW). It’s the same on-campus degree offered through distance learning like OMBA or MSCS through UWW.
So the strategy here is instead of denying eligible students transfers, you are asking them to get the same on-campus degree in a different way. The winners are both the students and the ISOM. The business school will have regular revenue from the program and only the eligible bright transfer will have the same degree. So no compromise on quality.