Students Entering Fall 2020*
| US News rank | College | Transfer rate | Transfers applied | Transfers accepted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Princeton University | 1.7% | 905 | 15 |
| 2.1 | Columbia University | 10.1% | 2222 | 224 |
| 2.2 | Harvard University | 1.2% | 1376 | 17 |
| 2.3 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 3.1% | 673 | 21 |
| 5 | Yale University | 1.7% | 1311 | 22 |
| 6.1 | Stanford University | 3.9% | 2216 | 86 |
| 6.2 | University of Chicago | 21.2% | 679 | 144 |
| 8 | University of Pennsylvania | 7.9% | 2506 | 197 |
| 9.1 | California Institute of Technology | 5.2% | 96 | 5 |
| 9.2 | Duke University | 5.5% | 1274 | 70 |
| 9.3 | Johns Hopkins University | 7.1% | 1526 | 109 |
| 9.4 | Northwestern University | 15.4% | 2434 | 375 |
| 13 | Dartmouth College | 28.6% | 273 | 78 |
| 14.1 | Brown University | 3.5% | 2293 | 81 |
| 14.2 | Vanderbilt University | 36.8% | 1738 | 640 |
| 14.3 | Washington University in St. Louis | 26.4% | 1108 | 292 |
| 17.1 | Cornell University | 18.4% | 4740 | 872 |
| 17.2 | Rice University | 12.4% | 816 | 101 |
| 19 | University of Notre Dame | 43.5% | 734 | 319 |
| 20 | University of California, Los Angeles | 24.5% | 26127 | 6396 |
| 21 | Emory University | 32.6% | 1368 | 446 |
| 22 | University of California, Berkeley | 20.6% | 20443 | 4212 |
| 23.1 | Georgetown University | 14.1% | 2195 | 310 |
| 23.2 | University of Michigan, Ann Arbor | 45.8% | 4513 | 2066 |
| 25.1 | Carnegie Mellon University | 8.2% | 999 | 82 |
| 25.2 | University of Virginia | 40.4% | 2970 | 1200 |
| 27 | University of Southern California | 26.8% | 8846 | 2368 |
| 28.1 | New York University | 41.5% | 7906 | 3279 |
| 28.2 | Tufts University | 28.0% | 1063 | 298 |
| 28.3 | University of California, Santa Barbara | 59.3% | 18984 | 11250 |
| 28.4 | University of Florida | 42.9% | 5931 | 2546 |
| 28.5 | University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill | 44.6% | 3289 | 1468 |
| 28.6 | Wake Forest University | 22.7% | 269 | 61 |
| 34.1 | University of California, San Diego | 55.9% | 21123 | 11816 |
| 34.2 | University of Rochester | 46.3% | 806 | 373 |
| 36.1 | Boston College | 23.7% | 1589 | 376 |
| 36.2 | University of California, Irvine | 11.2% | 24214 | 2723 |
| 38.1 | Georgia Institute of Technology | 38.3% | 2253 | 862 |
| 38.2 | University of California, Davis | 55.4% | 17840 | 9876 |
| 38.3 | University of Texas at Austin | 32.4% | 6925 | 2241 |
| 38.4 | William & Mary | 60.1% | 766 | 460 |
| 42.1 | Boston University | 53.7% | 5164 | 2773 |
| 42.2 | Brandeis University | 32.4% | 629 | 204 |
| 42.3 | Case Western Reserve University | 33.5% | 570 | 191 |
| 42.4 | Tulane University | 25.8% | 1221 | 315 |
| 42.5 | University of Wisconsin, Madison | 51.9% | 3525 | 1830 |
| 47 | University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign | 47.3% | 4254 | 2012 |
| 48 | University of Georgia | 79.0% | 2525 | 1995 |
| 49.1 | Lehigh University | 29.5% | 555 | 164 |
| 49.2 | Northeastern University | 48.4% | 3099 | 1499 |
Data sources: usnews.com, collegeboard.org, school websites
*Some notes:
Why Fall 2020? US News releases its Top 50 every September, based on information from the previous fall. So these transfer stats for students transferring and starting school Fall 2020 is for the US News Top 50 rankings released September 2020.
Why these schools? They happen to be the Top 50 National Universities according to US News. We wanted a sampling of the most popular schools that students might be curious about. Keep in mind there are about 2,500 four-year colleges in the US.
As with all statistics, take them with a grain of salt. The numbers change each year, and, if you can make a strong case for transferring, your odds will be much better than what you see here (and, of course, the opposite is true too).