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Fall 2010

US News rankCollegeFreshman rateTransfer rateTransfer rate +/-
1.1Harvard7.0%2.1%-4.9%
1.2Princeton*9.0%N/AN/A
3Yale8.0%4.8%-3.2%
4Columbia10.0%7.3%-2.7%
5.1Stanford7.0%2.0%-5.0%
5.2U Penn14.0%15.2%1.2%
5.3Cal Tech13.0%6.7%-6.3%
5.4MIT10.0%3.9%-6.1%
5.5U Chicago19.0%14.4%-4.6%
10Duke16.0%9.1%-6.9%
11Dartmouth12.0%3.7%-8.3%
12Northwestern23.0%11.4%-11.6%
13Johns Hopkins21.0%9.5%-11.5%
14Washington U in St. Louis21.0%9.1%-11.9%
15.1Brown9.0%10.8%1.8%
15.2Cornell18.0%22.0%4.0%
17Rice21.0%26.0%5.0%
17Vanderbilt18.0%40.6%22.6%
19Notre Dame29.0%36.7%7.7%
20Emory29.0%35.8%6.8%
21UC Berkeley22.0%22.8%0.8%
22Georgetown20.0%22.5%2.5%
23.1Carnegie Mellon33.0%17.0%-16.0%
23.2USC24.0%26.6%2.6%
25.1UCLA23.0%29.3%6.3%
25.2UVA33.0%40.1%7.1%
25.3Wake Forest40.0%30.0%-10.0%
28U Michigan51.0%41.1%-9.9%
29Tufts24.0%10.9%-13.1%
29UNC Chapel Hill32.0%40.5%8.5%
31.1Boston College31.0%15.8%-15.2%
31.2Brandeis35.0%46.3%11.3%
33.1College of William & Mary32.0%43.1%11.1%
33.2NYU38.0%30.3%-7.7%
35U Rochester38.0%22.0%-16.0%
36Georgia Tech52.0%34.4%-17.6%
37UC San Diego38.0%55.9%17.9%
38.1Lehigh38.0%35.7%-2.3%
38.2UC Davis45.0%66.5%21.5%
38.3Case Western Reserve67.0%30.2%-36.8%
38.4U Miami39.0%35.3%-3.7%
42.1UC Santa Barbara46.0%52.1%6.1%
42.2U Washington57.0%44.6%-12.4%
42.3U Wisconsin57.0%44.6%-12.4%
45.1UC Irvine45.0%48.6%3.6%
45.2UT Austin47.0%41.0%-6.0%
45.3Penn State55.0%42.2%-12.8%
45.4U Illinois67.0%47.4%-19.6%
45.5Yeshiva72.0%80.2%8.2%
50George Washington U32.0%27.0%-5.0%

Fall 2009

CollegeFreshman rateTransfer rateTransfer rate +/-
Yeshiva62.6%73.8%11.2%
UC Davis46.2%69.9%23.7%
UC Santa Barbara48.2%66.4%18.2%
UC San Diego37.6%61.9%24.3%
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute42.8%61.6%18.7%
UC Irvine44.2%60.7%16.6%
U Illinois65.2%51.6%-13.5%
Vanderbilt20.1%51.3%31.1%
U Washington57.7%46.7%-11.0%
U Wisconsin57.2%46.1%-11.2%
Penn State51.6%44.4%-7.3%
U Michigan50.0%43.7%-6.3%
College of William & Mary33.5%43.7%10.2%
UT Austin45.3%43.2%-2.1%
Emory29.7%39.5%9.8%
UVA32.1%39.4%7.3%
U Miami44.4%39.2%-5.2%
Lehigh32.8%38.6%5.8%
Brandeis40.4%36.8%-3.7%
Case Western Reserve70.0%36.8%-33.2%
UNC Chapel Hill31.6%35.7%4.0%
Georgia Tech58.8%35.4%-23.4%
Notre Dame28.6%34.5%5.9%
NYU37.8%33.4%-4.4%
UCLA21.9%31.7%9.9%
Wake Forest37.5%28.8%-8.7%
USC24.4%25.9%1.5%
UC Berkeley21.6%25.6%3.9%
Tufts26.6%25.6%-1.0%
Rice22.3%25.3%2.9%
Cornell19.1%22.4%3.3%
Boston College30.1%21.3%-8.7%
U Rochester38.7%21.2%-17.5%
U Penn17.7%19.5%1.8%
Washington U in St. Louis22.2%17.9%-4.2%
U Chicago27.3%17.7%-9.6%
Northwestern27.1%15.9%-11.2%
Carnegie Mellon36.3%15.3%-21.0%
Georgetown19.8%14.0%-5.8%
Duke18.9%12.7%-6.2%
Johns Hopkins31.3%8.5%-22.8%
Brown11.2%8.2%-2.9%
Columbia9.8%6.1%-3.7%
MIT10.7%6.0%-4.7%
Dartmouth12.6%5.9%-6.6%
Cal Tech15.3%4.5%-10.8%
Yale7.5%2.3%-5.2%
Stanford8.0%1.9%-6.1%
Princeton10.1%0.0%-10.1%
Harvard7.5%0.0%-7.5%

Fall 2008

CollegeFreshman rateTransfer rateTransfer rate +/-
UC Davis52.6%70.3%17.7%
UC Santa Barbara49.2%67.5%18.3%
UCSD41.6%65.3%23.7%
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute44.1%60.7%16.6%
Vanderbilt25.3%55.9%30.6%
University of Washington61.0%55.8%-5.2%
UC Irvine48.7%55.7%7.0%
U Illinois69.1%54.9%-14.2%
College of William and Mary34.1%52.6%18.5%
University of Texas - Austin43.5%46.1%2.6%
University of Wisconsin - Madison52.7%45.7%-7.0%
Penn State51.2%44.6%-6.6%
Case Western Reserve73.3%43.2%-30.1%
Notre Dame26.7%41.9%15.2%
University of Michigan42.1%41.2%-0.9%
UNC Chapel Hill34.0%39.2%5.2%
Georgia Institute of Tech60.9%36.9%-24.0%
UVA36.7%34.9%-1.8%
UCLA22.8%34.5%11.7%
Emory26.6%33.6%7.0%
NYU32.1%31.1%-1.0%
USC21.9%29.3%7.4%
Lehigh27.9%27.7%-0.2%
Cornell20.7%27.5%6.8%
UC Berkeley21.6%26.1%4.5%
Rice23.0%25.8%2.8%
University of Rochester42.7%25.6%-17.1%
Wake Forest University38.4%25.5%-12.9%
University of Florida39.5%25.1%-14.4%
Brandeis32.4%22.5%-9.9%
Northwestern26.2%22.0%-4.2%
Tulane University27.0%20.6%-6.4%
Washington U in St. Louis21.7%20.4%-1.3%
Tufts University25.5%19.8%-5.7%
Georgetown18.8%18.2%-0.6%
U Penn16.9%16.8%-0.1%
U Chicago27.9%13.1%-14.8%
Brown13.7%12.0%-1.7%
Johns Hopkins25.4%9.8%-15.6%
Cal Tech17.4%9.3%-8.1%
Carnegie Mellon37.9%9.2%-28.7%
Boston College26.2%9.2%-17.0%
Dartmouth13.5%6.9%-6.6%
Columbia10.0%5.7%-4.3%
MIT11.9%5.6%-6.3%
Duke22.4%5.2%-17.2%
Yale8.6%3.2%-5.4%
Stanford9.5%2.1%-7.4%
Princeton9.9%0.0%-9.9%
Harvard7.9%0.0%-7.9%

Data source: usnews.com, collegeboard.com

Some notes:

Why these schools? They happen to be the Top 50 National Universities according to US News. We wanted a sampling of the most popular schools that students might be curious about. Keep in mind there are about 2,500 four-year colleges in the US.

The last column takes the transfer admissions rate and subtracts the freshman admissions rate. A positive percentage means the transfer admissions rate is higher than the freshman admissions rate (i.e., all other things equal, it was easier to get in as a transfer than a freshman).

As with all statistics, take them with a grain of salt. The numbers change each year, and, if you can make a strong case for transferring, your odds will be much better than what you see here (and, of course, the opposite is true too).