<p>For some odd reason, I keep seeing people posting on these forums wanting to transfer out of BU. I know a university cannot possibly please everyone but I do see an influx of people wanting out of BU. Does anybody on here have any idea why? </p>
<p>Btw, I love BU and am an RD applicant! Go Terriers!!</p>
<p>people transfer for all sorts of reasons. I expect that lately a lot of people have been transferring because of the economy. I knew a lot of people paying full freight before the crash and now asking their families to cough up $50,000 a year just isn’t realistic. but there’s also the fact that BU, just like any large school in a big city, can be tough to adjust to if you’re not prepared. obviously many people love it, but it’s not for everyone.</p>
<p>Every school has transfers in and out. Even Ivies have people transfer out. </p>
<p>The only issue is that BU’s board, perhaps because it’s more active than many other college boards, attracts more leavers, some of whom seem to have a need to justify their leaving by running down the school. That doesn’t mean BU has more transfers out, just that each year this board has the couple come around and then hang around as though the more they talk about BU the more that means they didn’t fail there, that they didn’t like BU because the place is bad. For some reason, people can’t always accept that some choices don’t work out.</p>
<p>We recently had a kid who is in CGS but who is transferring, he says, to Michigan. That’s weird. If you get into Michigan, why would you go to CGS? He says the program was too easy. A few years ago, we had a kid who would literally post to every thread about how horrible BU was. That kid obviously had real issues.</p>
<p>BU has lots of transfers in. Every school has transfers. Think about it: take a large number of kids, say 100,000, and then estimate how many might want to redo their decision, then estimate how many might actually decide to go. You don’t need to get into how many have issues or financial reasons to generate a substantial number of transfer in the college system.</p>
<p>Boston U has a freshman retention rate of 91%, which is as high as or slighter higher than one might expect for a school of its caliber. </p>
<p>In comparison, the retention rates at Brandeis, NYU, and GWU are 93%, 92%, and 91%, respectively.</p>
<p>Retention rates include not only transfers but dropouts, etc. The two basic metrics often cited are retention and 4 and then 6 year graduation rates. BU is absolutely normal for a good school. The real use of these stats is to identify schools which are truly subpar in these areas.</p>