A really interesting article was published recently on InsideVandy.com, the website of Vanderbilt’s student newspaper. As you’ll note in our transfer admissions statistics, Vanderbilt accepts an unusually large percentage of transfer applicants (55.9%) versus freshmen applicants (25.3%).
Apparently, this has resulted in some students there believing “that Vanderbilt has lowered their standards for transfer students and is making it easier to get accepted compared to other top twenty universities.”
But the higher number of transfer students is actually the result of Vanderbilt completing a special residence for all freshmen called The Commons. Having all incoming freshmen live there has reduced the number of open freshman slots by about 40 to 60, slots that are now being filled by transfer students.
Besides the housing situation, the article suggests that there’s also a conscious effort on the part of the university to take in more transfer students. They quote Douglas Christiansen, the vice provost for enrollment and dean of admissions, who says:
“[Transfers are] superb students with experience elsewhere, but bring geographic, ethnic and social diversity [to Vanderbilt]. They are held to the same threshold.”
The article quotes several students who have some interesting things to say about their experiences transferring. Check it out. It’s a quick read.
Photo by Daniel Yakubu on Unsplash
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