How much easier is it to transfer into an Ivy than initial acceptance for undergrad?

Applying to College
1

<p>I know people who weren't initially accepted, but then were after a year or two. Is it really less difficult?</p>

2

<p>It’s much harder. For example, 1,486 transfer students applied to Harvard in the Fall 2011 term. 15 were admitted. “Z-listers” are another matter.</p>

<p><a href=“http://oir.harvard.edu/files/huoir/files/harvard_cds_2011-2012.pdf”>http://oir.harvard.edu/files/huoir/files/harvard_cds_2011-2012.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

3

<p>Princeton accepts zero transfer admits. Harvard and Yale admit about 1-2% of trnsfr applicants as opposed to 5 to 6% for Freshman admits. You do the math.</p>

<p>Dunno about the other five. </p>

4

<p>Cornell, Penn, and probably Columbia admit relatively large numbers of transfer students (in the hundreds) per year. Brown and Dartmouth do admit non-trivial numbers of transfer students.</p>

5

<p>Not all Ivies are the same.</p>

<p>Cornell takes a ton. The most of any elite private (though many are guaranteed transfers who were initially rejected by Cornell or through partnerships that Cornell has with various CC’s and SUNY’s).</p>

<p>UPenn, Brown, and Columbia take a decent number each, though less than Cornell. For Columbia, I’m not sure if they’re counting only the transfers to Columbia College and Engineering or also General Studies (because I’d expect General Studies, which is for non-trads, to take a ton of transfers).</p>

<p>This is a little outdated; I believe transfer acceptance rates have dropped significantly;
<a href=“Transfer Acceptance Rates at US News Top 50 - Transferweb”>Transfer Acceptance Rates at US News Top 50 - Transferweb;

6

<p>Guess CC doesn’t like other sites.</p>

<p>Take out the space:
<a href=“http://transfer”>http://transfer</a> web.com/stats/transfer-acceptance-rates/#.U-Wu2vldWSo</p>

7

<p>It is much harder. For duke I think they took 2.69% of transfers this year.</p>

8

<p>@spuding102‌ :</p>

<p>Depends on the school (which is what my post essentially said). There are essentially guaranteed pathways in to Cornell, for instance.
Oh, and 3-2 programs are sorta like transfers and there are guaranteed pathways in to Columbia that way too. Plus, while not the traditional undergrad experience, you can just start in UPenn’s night school.</p>

<p>Not Ivies, but there are guaranteed pathways for UVa & W&M as well. UMich, Cal, UCLA, USC, NYU (and probably UT-Austin) also take in a bunch of transfers. It’s actually easier to enter UNC as a transfer than straight out of HS if you are OOS.</p>