The quality of school you are transferring from is going to be important. That’s not to say that it’s more difficult to transfer from a weaker school (within reason obviously transferring from Harvard is going to be easier than ASU) but you have to compensate with performance. As Washington is a stronger school a 3.8 there is equivalent to a 3.9 at ASU for example. Because ASU is an easier school a student who had a 3.8 at Washington should with the same amount of effort be able to get a 3.9 at ASU, making him/her competitive with the other student. Those numbers are completely invented and the schools may have a larger or smaller gap but I hope you get the overarching concept.