<p>Low attrition means there are very few spots to fill. At some schools > %30 of the freshman class drops out and there are many seats in the sophmore class to fill. Yale doesn’t have this problem because their class is so strong academically. My guess is virtually all the students are over-qualified for the academics at Yale, if being qualified means only going on at the end of freshmen year. I think yale has around 30 transfer students each year and because yale is so well known, they also get a ton of applications (something like 800 last year remember reading, could be mistaken). It’s not that Yale doesn’t like transfers, it’s just that they don’t have much space they can’t fill. </p>
<p>I’m planning on applying anyways. I estimate my chances at somewhere between 0% and 2% = )</p>
<p>Also, this low attrition rate situation is not exclusive to yale: Harvard and Columbia both have transfer acceptance rates well under 10% each year (I believe Harvards was 5.5% last year). Cornell and Brown are much easier on transfer students, although I’m not sure why. Brown’s transfer acceptance ranges from 20%-30% each year (fall and spring average) which is, interestingly enough, well over the RD rate.</p>