I was looking at Michigan Institute Of Technology and according to college factual 27% of the student body transfers to another school before completing there degree. Is this normal and is this a bad sign?
Michigan Tech has a somewhat more limited selection of majors than many more general schools. Also, more than half of the graduates are in engineering majors.
http://www.mtu.edu/admissions/programs/majors/alpha.html
http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=michigan+tech&s=all&id=171128#programs
So students who change major may be more likely to decide that they would rather study their new major at some other school where the major has more offerings, faculty, and students.
I have looked at a number of schools on CollegeResults. It looks like the transfer out data for many is missing. For example, that box is blank for Central Michigan. For Michigan State it is 12.7%.
A better gauge might be Freshman retention rate. 91% for MSU, 81% for Mich Tech, 77% for Central. MSU has the best 4 year grad rates too, though Tech narrows this for 6 year grad rate.
Reason is tech schools like Mich Tech and NC State and Georgia Tech have so many engineers, as noted above. These majors can take longer to complete, hence the 6 year grad rate maybe being more accurate for them than the 4 year. And for schools even more engineering-based, like Mich Tech, as above poster noted, there are fewer majors to switch to. (Maybe all of these engineering majors are why Mich Tech actually has higher SAT and ACTs than Michigan State, though I’d never heard of Mich Tech until I saw it in the Princeton Guide. They don’t have nationally known football and BB teams, I guess.)
Michigan Tech’s specialty when it comes to sports is hockey.
According to College Navigator (which is from the Natl Center for Education Statistics), the stats for Michigan Tech are a bit better that this – freshman retention rate is 87% (not 81%) and transfer-out rate is 22% (not 27%):
http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=michigan+technological&s=all&id=171128
Earlier posters are correct, though, regarding the definitely more engineering- and applied science-focused nature of Michigan Tech versus others. Also, Houghton, MI (on the Yoop) is quite remote for many people, which might come as somewhat of a shock to some who feel like it’s not really that far north. Winters are snowy and cold, which is BOSS for winter recreation but maybe not for everyone. (Non-winter natural recreation possibilities are awesome too.) Not all engineer-types who end up at MI Tech may be quite so into the outdoors…