Transferring to Ivy League EASY?!

I’ve seen a lot of people on here claim that transferring to a top school like HYP, Columbia, MIT, Brown etc. is much harder than getting in out of high school. However, let’s take Columbia as an example:

On their website they state that they generally take about 150 out of 2500 applicants, which is equal to a 6% acceptance rate. Coincidentally, this is equal to their high school acceptance rate.

HOWEVER, these 2500 applicants are likely much less competitive than the high school pool applying considering that most of them couldn’t get in straight out of high school. They most likely have a lower GPA, test scores and etc., which is why they attended community college or lower ranked scores.

Given that the applicant pool is much less talented when compared to the high school pool, why are people claiming that transferring to top schools is much harder than getting in as a freshman.

(And I know transferring to Harvard/Yale is like 1-2%, however, you are for the most part competing with students that are state school/CC level, not perfect test score takers/IMOs/Intel w/e, so shouldn’t it be easier?)

Why do you think they are any less talented? An awful lot of them are students that struck out freshman year and are now trying to transfer in. Those schools turn down a lot of great students for their freshman class.

Right, and what makes you think these are kids at cc?. At that tier, they can take transfers who’ve proven themselves. Don’t assume.

Your assumption is not correct. Many of the applicants already come from top schools and they feel that transferring to another school will be better for their career goals. Also, to be accepted to these schools in many cases requires near-perfect GPA and demonstration that you did the absolute best with what you had at your school.

For many, going to a CC and transferring in is far more affordable. These students would probably be very competitive if they applied out of high school as well.

The two most common situations for transfers are:

  • high performing, lower income kid with little counseling in a lower performing school; attends a college well below abilities and/or with worse aid than an Ivy and hears about aid opportunity or is referred by a professor. Transfers for the opportunity. Has shown considerable grit, personal initiative, etc, in addition to (typically) having a 4.0 and working at an adult job.
  • lateral transfer : top student is attending a peer school that doesn’t offer a specific program that the Ivy offers.
    Even for them, it’s very very hard to transfer into an Ivy since so few students transfer out and therefore there are very few spots.