<p>Not that I'm planning to transfer or anything - I'm a junior in high school. But I was surprised to find that Princeton doesn't have a transfer option. Why don't they? What other schools don't do transfers? I'd never heard of such a policy before.</p>
<p>Transfer applications are usually offered because some students either leave or drop out of the college, and are a good way to fill the remaining space in the class. Princeton's very high retention and graduation rates (98% if I remember correctly) give them no room for transfers. It's that simple.</p>
<p>Harvard's retention rate is even higher, but they program room for a few transfers every year to "sign" superstars they missed out on earlier.</p>
<p>Princeton <em>does</em> except athletes as transfers - just not "ordinary" people. Bill Foran, a sophomore quarterback from Texas, is a redshirt transfer from Purdue.</p>
<p>I thought Harvard's retention rate was 97 %. If I remember correctly, their graduation rate was 98 % to Princeton's 97%, but the retention rate was the other way around.</p>
<p>You gotta "retain" 'em to graduate 'em, kid.</p>
<p>I'm talking about freshman retention rate. The reason that the category is distinct from 6 year graduation rate, presumably, is that the first is less likely to include students who are required to leave for academic reasons. At Princeton, particularly, I would expect that this is most common when it comes time for JPs/senior thesis writing.</p>
<p>In any case, the difference of one percent point is pretty negligiuble.</p>
<p>Exactly. Which is why the earlier claim that Princeton's high retention rate and/or graduation rate has much to do with its perverse rejection of transfers (except athletes) is utter nonsense. </p>
<p>More likely explanations are: (1) no strong encouragement for people who might be inclined to take a year off, or a gap year; or (2) no strong program encouraging students to take a year or a semester abroad.</p>
<p>Byerly, study and work abroad is huge at Princeton. The professors are constantly recommending it, there is tons of funding for it, and several departments have study abroad programs of their own. As far as I know, it's Yale that has been known for low numbers of students studying abroad, but they're changing, too.</p>
<p>Not that long ago, HYP trailed all other Ivies in offering study abroad programs. I am aware of the quadrupling of the program at Harvard overseen by the dynamic new director hired away from Wesleyan, but I was unaware of a "huge" change at Princeton. Do you have a link showing a turn=around in the last 3-4 years?</p>
<p>COMPARE: <a href="http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=14151%5B/url%5D">http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=14151</a></p>
<p>SEE ALSO: <a href="http://www.fas.harvard.edu/%7Eoip/study_abroad/intro.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~oip/study_abroad/intro.html</a></p>
<p>SEE: "Fall Study Abroad Numbers Decline"
(Daily Princetonian, 9.28.05)
<a href="http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2005/09/28/news/13234.shtml%5B/url%5D">http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2005/09/28/news/13234.shtml</a></p>
<p>[reportedly 168 studied abroad last year, before the decline]</p>
<p>Study abroad isn't that big a program here, although I've heard about 10% do it at some point, and the university does try to promote it. I would guess that that number doesn't include people who do summer programs in other countries, which seems far more common. I heard from one professor that in the past, it had been very difficult to study abroad junior or senior year because of paper/thesis requirements, however, it was now acceptable to communicate with advisors by phone or e-mail.</p>
<p>I don't think anyone encourages students to take a gap year after freshman year, but I do know many students who deferred admission after being accepted. One person I know was considering extending his study in Israel for another year, but worried that he would lose his acceptance. When he contacted the administration, they actually encouraged him to take more time off if he thought it would be helpful.</p>
<p>168 Princeton students studied abroad last year (before the reported decline for the first half of this year) vs. 451 at Harvard. In neither case does this include people who went abroad for the summer.</p>
<p>Dartmouth has a larger program relative to its size.</p>