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out of the top 25, which schools are the easiest to transfer into?

By Up40love (Up40love) on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - 12:10 pm: Edit

Let's be sure we know precisely which schools are in the top 25 before I dive into this:

Harvard
Princeton
Yale
MIT
CalTech
Duke
Stanford
Penn
Dartmouth
WUSTL
Columbia
Northwestern
U Chicago
Cornell
JHU
Rice
Brown
Emory
Notre Dame
Vanderbilt
Berkeley
Virginia
Cargenie Mellon
Georgetown
Michigan

First of all, I'd say it's much easier to transfer into a state school than it is any other school, especially if one lives in that state. That said, if you live in California, you have an excellent chance of transferring into Berkeley. The same goes for residents of Virginia and Michigan.

Yale and Dartmouth accept the smallest numbers (both accepted only 27 transfers this year) but Yale's %age is 4.3 versus Dartmouth's 9. Harvard accepted an unusually high number of transfers than in recent years (70 as opposed to 55) out of 1100 or so applicants.

Stanford, Brown, Northwestern, and Penn all accept many transfers (between 100 and 200 at around 10% rate) as does Cornell who accepts 500+. Columbia's admit rate, I believe, is around 8%.

Princeton doesn't, and probably will never, employ a transfer admissions program.

I didn't apply for transfer admission to Rice, JHU, Duke, MIT, CalTech, WUSTL, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, Carnegie Mellon, or Georgetown, so I know very little about their transfer rates.

My parents own a house on the lakeshore near U Chicago, and the director of transfer admissions is friends with them. He says that the admission rate is uncharacteristically high for transfers to an elite school (around 28%).

By Elementree (Elementree) on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - 03:12 pm: Edit

While you're looking into transferring, don't forget to check out the type of financial aid packages that's being offered to potential transfer candidates. I know for a fact that Brown doesn't offer any kind of financial aid to transfer students (based on info provided by their website). So do all of your homework concerning the top 25 before filling out any of the necessary paper work. I'd have to say that Cornell and U Chicago would be possible schools to take into consideration when you're thinking about transferring. If your grades are up to par, just remember to have taken all of the required courses that each school lists in its transfer students section.

By Alco (Alco) on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - 03:38 pm: Edit

It's not true that it's easy to transfer into the UC system anymore. Due to the budget crisis in California the whole system has changed. A lot of CC students who were guaranteed admission at UC's were rejected. Also a lot of kids with the grade requirements etc. for UC's didn't get into the UC's they deserved to get into.

By Up40love (Up40love) on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - 04:48 pm: Edit

Well, purely based on numbers, it's considerably easier to transfer into a state school than it is a private institution.

By Queenskillers (Queenskillers) on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - 10:48 pm: Edit

hows nyu for transfer?

By Jtizzle (Jtizzle) on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - 11:31 pm: Edit

Penn's transfer acceptance rate is usually somewhere between 20-25%, so it's probably the easiest Ivy to get in transfer wise. Cornell could be considered easy as well, if you're in-state and applying to their public schools. The College of Arts & Sciences is pretty hard though, usually taking people at a 15% rate. Duke is one of the easier ones also. They take around 25%, according to their admissions office. In previous years, Georgetown wasn't too bad. Last year they accepted about 25%, but this year the acceptance rate lowered to only 15% because of their increase in freshman yield. None of those schools should really be considered easy to get into by any means, however, and especially not via transfer admission.