<p>My sense is that transfer thread is more for actual applicants to discuss their process & results. Not general info as OP is seeking., So I will answer here.</p>
<p>"How difficult is it to transfer into Cornell for sophomore year? "
The last published stats I know of are here:
<a href=“https://dpb.cornell.edu/documents/1000156.pdf”>https://dpb.cornell.edu/documents/1000156.pdf</a>
However these figures do not distinguish between transfers to sophomore year vs. Junior year.</p>
<p>“What do they look for?”
Perhaps there is something specifically about this written on their website, or their Common Data set.
Absent this, suggest use your common sense.</p>
<p>Mine says they want someone who can demonstrate that they can succeed and thrive at Cornell, while adding something to the vitality of the campus community. And those who demonstrate Cornell is the logical, best place to fulfill their objectives.</p>
<p>My guess is applicants to the contract colleges should ideally have taken courses that count against courses their students have to take in CAS. Because the contract colleges have to pay CAS for those courses, so students who don’t have to still take them are more profitable to those colleges.</p>
<p>Also my guess is they would prefer students targeting majors where they are not already projected to be over-enrolled. And prefer even more those targeting majors where they are projecting an under-enrollment.</p>
<p>Also for transfers, my guess is they may well have some small preference for full-pay candidates. Whether they admit it or not. They don’t publish much information about transfers, so nobody will know specifically what that cohort is like. So they could get away with a little “financial engineering” there easier than with freshman admits. Particularly to offset the cost of the (possibly needy) articulation agreement candidates they have to admit as transfers.</p>
<p>But these are just my conjectures. You might equally validly create your own. None of us are Cornell transfer admissions officers, and the “true” information may not be published.</p>
<p>“Do they look at your high school GPA and EC’s?”
IIRC D2 had to submit this information when she appled for transfer. The safest assumption is that whatever you provide they will look at.</p>
<p>“And how hard is it?”
See answer to first question.</p>
<p>" Is it harder more difficult or is it easier than freshman admissions? "
The years I looked at, the admit percentages for transfers vs. freshmen were roughly the same.
However the admit pools might not be the same. The only stats I’ve seen for transfers is the admit %. One may conjecture that most of the transfer applicants probably are attending “worse” schools than Cornell, and most may not have been admitted to Cornell as freshmen. On the other hand, the successful applicants have likely already additionally proven that they can excel at college level work. Which will not be true of all the freshman admits.
So, given comparable admit percentages, does that make admission “easier”, due to a pool with overall “worse” stats out of high school, or “more difficult” because the majority have already excelled at college? You decide.</p>
<p>Regarding Spring vs. Fall transfer admission,.the Spring stats are not published. However D2 transfered into a Spring semester, and during orientation they told the incoming Spring transfer class those stats. The admit %s were virtually identical to the published #s for Fall. For that year, anyway.</p>