Cornell also offers September applicants admission in the following January if their stats are not quite up to their standards. Based on reports here on CC this is the first year that Northeastern has offered guaranteed sophomore transfer. “Everyone is doing it” is not an excuse but it seems that everyone is doing it.
I have wondered if this is why the Scholars program is being phased out: they were losing Scholars to Cornell? The student got free tuition for freshman year then transfers to Cornell.