Transfer Admissions Changes at US News Top 50

Fall 2011 vs. Fall 2010

US News RankSchoolTransfer rate 2011Transfer rate 2010Change 11 vs. 10Transfers accepted 2011Transfers accepted 2010Change 11 vs. 10
1.1Harvard University1.0%2.1%-1.1%151315%
1.2Princeton UniversityN/AN/AN/AN/AN/AN/A
3Yale University2.7%4.8%-2.1%2934-15%
4.1Columbia University5.6%7.3%-1.7%149167-11%
4.2University of Chicago7.8%14.4%-6.5%7497-24%
6.1Massachusetts Institute of Technology9.9%3.9%6.0%4418144%
6.2Stanford University4.1%2.0%2.1%5825132%
8.1Duke University2.8%9.1%-6.2%2674-65%
8.2University of Pennsylvania9.7%15.2%-5.5%203328-38%
10.1California Institute of Technology6.0%6.7%-0.7%990%
10.2Dartmouth College3.3%3.7%-0.5%282512%
12Northwestern University8.7%11.4%-2.7%131155-15%
13Johns Hopkins University11.4%9.5%1.9%1167947%
14Washington University in St. Louis7.3%9.1%-1.8%105119-12%
15.1Brown University11.2%10.8%0.4%21417522%
15.2Cornell University22.0%22.0%-0.1%7027020%
17.1Rice University20.0%26.0%-6.0%108120-10%
17.2University of Notre Dame40.4%36.7%3.7%147156-6%
17.3Vanderbilt University31.8%40.6%-8.8%366376-3%
20Emory University26.5%35.8%-9.3%238295-19%
21.1Georgetown University11.2%22.5%-11.3%222364-39%
21.2University of California-Berkeley22.5%22.8%-0.3%360634514%
23Carnegie Mellon University12.4%17.0%-4.5%8493-10%
24.1University of California-Los Angeles26.8%29.3%-2.5%52985505-4%
24.2University of Southern California25.9%26.6%-0.7%25242558-1%
24.3University of Virginia35.9%40.1%-4.2%858904-5%
27Wake Forest University26.7%30.0%-3.3%98122-20%
28Tufts University19.0%10.9%8.2%1779586%
29University of Michigan-Ann Arbor40.1%41.1%-1.0%139913474%
30University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill41.9%40.5%1.4%11981286-7%
31Boston College18.0%15.8%2.3%34923350%
32New York University29.0%30.3%-1.2%16241702-5%
33.1Brandeis University28.1%46.3%-18.2%149207-28%
33.2College of William and Mary44.2%43.1%1.1%4223976%
33.3University of Rochester25.3%22.0%3.3%25318636%
36Georgia Institute of Technology50.7%34.4%16.3%81166223%
37Case Western Reserve University34.5%30.2%4.3%15612426%
38.1Lehigh University34.7%35.7%-1.0%15810945%
38.2University of California-Davis53.3%66.5%-13.2%72337495-3%
38.3University of California-San Diego44.5%55.9%-11.3%76128031-5%
41.1Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute55.5%N/AN/A223N/AN/A
41.2University of California-Santa Barbara46.0%52.1%-6.0%651062384%
41.3University of Wisconsin-Madison42.1%44.6%-2.5%217421193%
44.1University of California-Irvine41.0%48.6%-7.6%65536748-3%
44.2University of Miami56.7%35.3%21.4%172916376%
46.1Pennsylvania State University-University Park43.3%42.2%1.1%8497996%
46.2University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign51.8%47.4%4.4%2213180523%
46.3University of Texas-Austin45.3%41.0%4.3%333331346%
46.4University of Washington42.2%44.6%-2.4%220621732%
46.5Yeshiva University56.1%80.2%-24.1%5565-15%

Data sources: usnews.com, collegeboard.org, school websites

For more information, read our analysis of these numbers.

Some notes:

Why Fall 2011? 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 2011 is for the US News Top 50 rankings released September 2012.

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.

The fifth column takes the transfer admissions rate and subtracts the freshman admissions rate. A positive percentage means the transfer admissions rate is higher than the freshman admissions rate (i.e., all other things equal, it was easier to get in as a transfer than a freshman).

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).