We just added the recently released Fall 09 transfer admissions numbers for some of the top schools in the US (the Top 50 National Universities according to US News).
Check it out by clicking here, or by hovering over the “Stats” tab at the top of the page and clicking on the first option in the dropdown menu.
Additionally – because we love you, obviously – we also put together a table comparing the transfer admissions rates in 2009 and 2008 at the same schools. Click here to check it out, or hover over the “Stats” menu and click on the third dropdown. It’s one thing to see what a college’s transfer admission rate was in a given year, but it’s even more helpful – we hope – to see how consistent (or not) the admissions rates are over a period of time.
Overall, it’s a pretty mixed bag. About 18 of the 50 colleges had their transfer admissions rates increase versus last year (that is, they were able to admit a greater portion of their applicant pool than the previous year), while 28 of the 50 became more selective (that is, they admitted a lower percentage of their applicants versus last year). Two (Harvard and Princeton) continued to not admit any transfers (though Harvard recently repealed that policy), and we couldn’t get the data from last year for another two (Yeshiva and U. Miami).
Obviously the transfer admissions rates are a function of a large number of factors (the quality of the applicant pool, the number of students that choose to apply, the spaces available given the admitting colleges’ own dropout/transfer out rates, etc.) so we don’t think it makes sense to draw too many conclusions from the data. Just use the stats as a metric to get a roundabout sense of how hard it may be to transfer to a particular school, knowing that the numbers can change fairly significantly, but not too dramatically in any given year. Either way, if you’re targeting a school and have good reason to transfer to it (such as any of the many successful real stories mentioned in the book), the stats shouldn’t affect your approach too much either way.
Question of the Day: Do you see any interesting patterns in the stats? Surprised that a particular school has a particular transfer admissions rate? Intrigued that a certain college’s transfer admissions rate changed so much? Let us know in the comments! We plan on following up with some of the schools to better understand their particular policies toward transfer admissions.
Photo by Halle Parks on Unsplash