An increasing number of students are seeking transfer admissions, according to Alexander Ott, a past president of the New York State Transfer and Articulation Association. In fact, about a third of all college students transfer at some point in their college career, including transfers between community colleges and four-year colleges, as well as between four-year colleges themselves. Students transfer for a variety of reasons, including changes in their financial or family circumstances, evolution of their academic interests, and/or growing self-awareness about their “best-fit” college environment.

If you are considering transferring to a different college, what are your chances of acceptance? According to NACAC’s “Special Report on the Transfer Admission Process,” published in April 2010, “the average acceptance rate for transfer applicants was slightly lower than the rate for first-year students (64% versus 69%).”  For first-year freshman admission, public and private colleges had equivalent acceptance rates; in contrast, transfer admission rates were less favorable for private colleges (62%) than for public colleges (70%).

In order to learn more, Collegiate Gateway conducted its own research, evaluating about 100 four-year colleges that are among the most popular colleges for freshman admission among our students, and compared the transfer and freshman admit rate. For ease of comparison, the higher (more favorable) admissions rate appears in red.

Public Institutions: Most public institutions have a higher (or more favorable) transfer admit rate than regular admit rate.  These schools tend to receive thousands of transfer applications:

College              

# Undergrads

# Transfer Applications

Transfer Admit Rate

Freshman Admit Rate

SUNY Binghamton 12,356 4905 48% 40%
Univ of Connecticut 17,528 2278 59% 54%
UCLA 18,503 3169 43% 34%
Univ of Florida 32,776 5996 41% 38%
Univ of North Carolina 18,503 3169 43% 34%
William and Mary 6,171 929 44% 34%

 

There are always exceptions to the rule, and a few exceptions of public institutions with a lower transfer admit rate than freshman admit rate include: University of Colorado, with a transfer admit rate of 64% vs. a freshman admit rate of 78%; University of Michigan, with a transfer admit rate of 35% vs. freshman admit rate of 41%; University of Wisconsin, with a transfer admit rate of 46% vs. freshman admit rate of 57%.  This could be attributed to the relatively high percentage of returning freshman at these colleges (84%, 96% and 94%, respectively).

 

Private Colleges:  Interestingly, most private institutions have a lower (or less favorable) transfer admit rate than regular admit rate. These schools tend to receive fewer than 1500 transfer applications:

College

# Undergrads

# Transfer Applications

Transfer Admit Rate

Freshman Admit Rate

Bowdoin University 1751 177 3% 20%
Colgate University 2,871 245 9% 33%
Haverford College 1,205 77 12% 26%
Middlebury College 2,516 424 6% 17%
Northwestern 8,600 1,435 12% 26%
Tulane Univ 8,423 1,475 16% 26%

 

Students seeking to transfer would be encouraged at the following relatively rare exceptions of private colleges that have a higher transfer admit rate than freshman admit rate. These include Connecticut College (36% transfer admit rate, 32% freshman admit rate), Elon University (56% transfer, 49% freshman), Emory (36% transfer vs. 32% regular), Northeastern (47% transfer vs. 38% regular), University of Miami (59% transfer vs. 44% regular), Vanderbilt (26% transfer vs. 20% regular), Wesleyan (28% transfer vs. 22% regular). Certainly, each of these institutions has a unique circumstance that encourages transfer students – a future blog may explore this further!

 

Most importantly, regardless of the statistics, you always have a shot at transferring to your dream school, if you engage fully in the academics and activities at college, strive to reach your potential, and become more knowledgeable about the college features that are a good fit for you.

 

Most Selective Colleges.  Students often seek to transfer in order to be at a more selective and academically challenging college. Here are the admit rates for a selected group of colleges considered to be among the most “elite” and academically rigorous. Note that freshman admit rate is higher than transfer admit rate for all these selective universities except Cornell. This could be attributed to the fact that all but Cornell are private institutions; of Cornell’s seven undergraduate colleges, four are public institutions within the SUNY system, and are especially welcoming to transfers.

 

College

# Undergrads

# Transfer Applications

Transfer Admit Rate

Freshman Admit Rate

Amherst College 1,817 509 4% 15%
Brown University 6,435 1867 5% 9%
Cornell University 14,261 3579 21% 18%
Dartmouth College 4,193 799 4% 12%
Harvard University 6,658 1486 1% 7%
MIT 4,503 443 10% 10%
Princeton University 5,336 Does not accept transfers 10%
Stanford University 7,063 1512 2% 16%
Swarthmore College 1,552 191 9% 17%
Univ of Pennsylvania 9,682 2096 9% 17%
Williams College 2,052 257 4% 20%
Yale University 5,405 970 3% 8%

*Information for Columbia not available

 

Whether you’re considering regular or transfer admission, the application process is ultimately about finding the right fit for YOU, so that you can get the most out of your college experience possible.  For more information and guidance, contact www.collegiategateway.com.