Top Ranked Universities that Accept a Reasonably High Number of Transfer Students

Applying to College
1

Hi, All,

I’m a new poster (though not a new reader) to CC, and I’ve recently looked into the viability of transferring into various selective/highly ranked schools–see, this newbie even managed to avoid using the term “prestigious!” lol These are the schools I’ve found that fit in this category so far, but hopefully there’s a few more. In alphabetical order:

Cal
Michigan
UCLA
UNC-Chapel Hill
USC
UVA
Vanderbilt.

I was essentially looking at schools that offer acceptance to less than 25% of their freshmen applicants. Anyone know of other schools that should be on this list? I hope and expect it grow, perhaps even considerably.

2

Just added: Notre Dame and Georgetown.

3

Wesleyan last year reported a transfer acceptance rate about a dozen points higher than that for first-years.

4

Note that at many of those publics, there is a defined pathway (sometimes guaranteed) from their state CC’s to them.

5

@merc81, glad to hear that about Wesleyan.

@PT, great point. And in fact I’m glad, for a variety of reasons, those tippy top publics are essentially required to take a certain amount of juco kids.

6

UMich does accept a lot of transfer, but many are from the other UM campuses and certain CC that they are familiar with. Many applicants from other schools got stuck in the later steps of the application when the school asks for the syllabus to verify the equivalent courses. One should check their transfer credit database online before applying to get some idea.

7

Bill, thank you for this excellent tip. The thought of looking into databases never occurred to me. Not surprised to learn that about UM–in fact I already assumed something to the effect. Bummer for my OOS kids, though, but I support Michigan CC applicants getting priority nonetheless.

Question: Are the databases to which you refer maintained by the CC’s or the 4-year universities in question?

8

I will add Emory and Cornell as well

9

@USCWolverine Here is the link to UofM’s transfer credit database: https://www.ugadmiss.umich.edu/TCE/Public/CT_TCESearch.aspx

They do accept a lot of transfer students from OOS CC too. I know a bunch of students transferred from the same CC in Boston area over the past 15 years. There are CC that are in this business to attract students (mostly international). They know which courses can be transferrable at UMich. If the student is from a school not on the list, it would be a lot more difficult to transfer.

10

@clan, thanks for adding those two great universities. Was very surprised (and pleased) to see Cornell’s quite decent amount of accepted transfers. I rather imagine that’s something to do with a portion of Cornell being public, but I’m not sure.

@billscho, thanks for the excellent and Go Blue!

11

Would you be able to afford these colleges?

12

Good question (I presume you were asking me, the OP, who is a parent). If it were only for two years, we could probably swing it–by “we” we’re talking grandfather and possibly ex-wife, in addition to me. According to the respective websites of the private schools on my initial list, they say they meet full financial needs of admitted students. Re the out-of-state publics, I certainly wouldn’t expect any financial aid.

I’m just happy to learn, largely via CC, that if my son ends up at the local juco (largest one in the state happens to be less than two miles from our house! lol), a possibility of him attending a highly selective school at least still exists–and of course I also realize he can do very well at many of America’s thousands of schools.

At the end of the day, however, with admission to elite colleges becoming so incredibly difficult, let’s just say I’ll cross that bridge when and if we ever come to it…