No Transfer

by Stephen Walton

At the ultra-prestigious Modern University, only the cream of the crop are accepted, and those who graduate are virtually guaranteed powerful and high-paid positions. Drinking and sex are allowed, and even encouraged, and everything students need -- from classrooms to restaurants to shopping and bars -- is self-contained inside the university's 50-story high-rise tower. But there's a catch. Once you start, you can't drop out or transfer to another school. And behind its glossy exterior, the university has a terrible secret, a macabre and horrible way of ensuring its students perform to the best of their ability. When one young student, Gary Fort, witnesses the unspeakable truth of the school's "Self-Discipline Plan," he decides to fight back, and the suspense builds until the book's chilling conclusion . . .

Written when the author was a 20-year-old student at Michigan State University, No Transfer (1967) earned stellar reviews from the nation's leading critics and remains a gripping horror story like no other you have ever read.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Novels

240 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

Reviews

[Daniel Myatt]

Modern University is a place where you get the opportunity to shine, excel, and become a grown-up! But don't let your grades drop or turn your attention from your studies. Otherwise, you might find yourself victim to the self-discipline plan....

A clever and dark spin on the age-old academia tale! One that very much reminded me of a Shirley Jackson story - dark things happen in everyday places.

[Bill]

I am reading this book almost by accident. Someone recently posted a brief synopsis of the book to a listserv to which I subscribe, asking the list if anyone could figure out what the title of the book was (because a library patron remembered having read it and wanted to re-read or reference it...).
Someone from the list quickly nailed the title, and I ordered it from the library.
Suffice it to say, I've been pleasantly surprised. In fact, the matter-of-factness with which the author treats the "Self-Discipline Lesson" is, perhaps, the most horrific aspect of the entire scenario. Startling. Mind-boggling. Alarming. And very, very cool.
It's almost impossible not to loathe the main character, Gary Fort, at some point in the novel. Later, it becomes equally impossible not to feel for the kid.

[Michael Brown]

Say what you like about this thing - assuming you ever come across it. I caught it by accident and my copy looked like something left in a plastic bag behind a condemned laundrette. Lucky me, as it turns out. I expected a few hours effortlessly killed but instead I got a marvellously paced piece of work with a mule's kick I did not see coming at all. Seriously, this is one of those hidden gems that you really wish would appear just a little bit more often.

[Lenny Husen]

This is one of the most disturbing books I've ever read, and I've never forgotten it. Cannot recommend it too highly to anyone in university in a competitive major. Belongs on the shelf next to "Five Point Someone."

[Jesse]

Feels like a very mid-60s take, complete with focus on how technocracy destroys individuality, on Clark Kerr's multiversity, featuring a highly selective college, apparently entirely housed in one skyscraper (except I guess for the football stadium and some grounds; no word on whether there's a basketball team, though it would not have registered satirically in 1965), where you graduate...or else. The author's afterword notes that it works quite well as an allegory for the elitism of the draft system as of 1965, wherein good grades could keep you out of Vietnam. It's also clearly a parody/dystopian version of the classic campus novels and of the Updike/Cheever suburban-realist school, with This Side of Paradise getting namechecked and the characters all decorating their rooms in up-to-date modern art, listening to jazz, and drinking constantly. (There's also much detailing of multicourse meals at restaurants, complete with five or six rounds of drinks.) And, I suppose, we could read this as a Marcusean repressive-toleration parable in which the students are free to drink, smoke, party, and couple up in their single-occupancy rooms from the moment they set foot on, or in, campus. In a larger sense, it feels very much like the hidden ancestor of the 2010s spate of YA dystopias, with their elaborate rituals and hierarchies and sense of decay--the difference here being that the dystopia is sparklingly clean and efficient. Given the general run of period novels where, to not spoil things, let's just say that rebels find/learn/are (re)pressed into the suit and tie of conformity, I guess I didn't find this as shocking as it felt when it came out.
Bonus points for contributing to the weird-Michigan-State tradition; those same tunnels where James Dallas Egbert went missing in 1979 while supposedly LARPing D&D make an appearance here toward the climax.

[Andy Weston]

This is an interesting book even though its author writes, in his afterword, that it is ‘of its time’; it was first published in 1967, and reissued with the afterword in 2024.

For those who intend to read it, it is important not to seek too much information about it, make do with a short premise, as to learn more would act as a spoiler. Even the publisher’s summary on Amazon has a spoiler in it.

It is a campus novel of a sort, and a satire on higher education, particularly of the competitiveness in the leading colleges and universities. But of course, it’s a horror story as well, an ‘academic shocker’ as it was referred to at the time.

Modern University takes only the best of the best, and it’s students are pretty much guaranteed high-paid positions upon graduation. Drinking and sex are allowed, and even encouraged, and everything students need - classrooms, restaurants, shopping, and bars - is self-contained inside the school's fifty-story high-rise tower.
There is of course a catch. Once you start, there are ‘no transfers’ and no dropping out either..

Walton points out in his afterword also, that it is indeed because this is a novel ‘of its time’ that it still can be read and enjoyed today. it is set in 1965, just before the explosion of drugs, protest and hippies. Lyndon Johnson has just started cancelling student draft deferments on the basis of college grades in the latest Vietnam push.

I think in 2026, a satire like this is better appreciated than it was 60 years ago.

[Cam Fleishman]

I read this book in 1968. My friends, Peggy & Sue, insisted I read it. I thought it was really different,
than anything I had read, at that time. The ending disturbed this naive kid from New Jersey.
I was impressed the author was a college sophomore. I remembered his first name was Stephen,
but, all these years, I was mistaken thinking his last name was King.
This brought back many great memories.
Thank you for this intense book, Mr. Walton. 🤗👏

[Diana Dively]

Incredibly innocuous book, super well done. The incredible bluntness and lack of emotion regarding the self discipline plan is incredibly stuff. Anyone who’s gone to an academically competitive university can see just how realistic this is.

[Garry]

So unusual. Now 2022. The reliance on smoking. Druggies of old. Interesting storyline.

[Joanne]

I read this book in the 70s and am now reading it via interlibrary loan. (I live in Alaska and the book came from North Dakota!) Just starting re-reading it. It will be interesting to see how I feel about it 40 years later. Will report back when I finish.

Now that I have finished this book, I can't believe I remember it being a great read. It was not. The story line was pretty thin and the ending was silly. Now I know...

[Melisende]

This is one of those books you forever remember long after you forget who wrote it. I liked it at the time but as yet have had a chance to revisit.