Editor's Note: This story first appeared in The Daily Texan's February 5 online edition.

Some students hoping to transfer to another college or major struggle with unavailable advisers and differing application requirements.

According to the Undergraduate Studies website, 65% of UT students switch majors at least once. Every college has different internal transfer requirements and deadlines. To try and resolve these difficulties, the Senate of College Councils has been working to standardize an application across all majors and colleges.

Undeclared freshman Doeun Lee said while her UGS adviser has been very helpful, she still has concerns regarding the internal transfer requirements and process since she hasn’t been able to meet with a computer science adviser. Computer science advisers only meet with current in-major students. 

“I’ve been reading the (UT) Reddit about internal transfer to computer science, and I’ve heard things about getting a 4.0 GPA but still getting rejected,” Lee said. “Engineering is my second option, but engineering is not an easy school to transfer (into) either.”

Senate Resolution 1912, passed unanimously in spring 2020, urges the University to homogenize internal transfer application and deadlines. The bill aims to provide centralized information to students who are applying to multiple colleges.

Legislation coauthor Ishi Tripathi, former president of the UGS Council, said a centralized internal transfer system would be beneficial to students who haven’t been able to reach their prospective major advisers.

“The transfer process at UT is very, very fragmented,” said Tripathi, a chemical engineering and finance junior. “Colleges have different starting points and ending points in their admissions, and for a couple of colleges, you have to let a college know if you’re accepting your admission to them before you even find out from several others.”

Jeffrey Handy, director of the Vick Center for Strategic Learning, said a standardized application would make the process more transparent for students. He said colleges have been surveyed for a potential unified application.

“Any (application) that still gets all of the correct information across and benefits the student will be good for the student, and colleges and schools will make sure that we’re able to do that as well as possible,” said Jasmin Blas-Mendieta, the undergraduate admissions and student success coordinator in the School of Architecture.

Handy said Vick Center advisers are able to reach out to other advisers for students with specific questions about transferring.

“Some colleges and majors just don’t have the bandwidth to see students who are not currently enrolled in their major,” Handy said.