<p>I was looking at the admit rates for transfers on college board for these schools and it seems they only take about 30 or so students each year. It’s as if that’s the cap they’ll allow for transfers.
Does anyone know why it’s so hard? Cause I also looked at some of the Ivy’s like Cornell and Brown and they’re nowhere near that low.</p>
<p>There’s no single reason. Rather, the answer to this question has a lot of moving parts that, when you think about them together, make a lot of sense. Let’s use Stanford as an example.</p>
<ol>
<li>A small percentage of people transfer out of Stanford. Transfers open up spots for new students and, usually, offer a cultural exchange of sorts that benefits the existing community.</li>
</ol>
<p>(a) There’s the perfect storm argument. Namely, that Stanford is not only academically prestigious; it’s got some top-notch athletic programs; the weather is great. This makes for superior rentention.</p>
<ol>
<li>Transfer biases. Stanford’s transfers, all two dozen of them, or whatever, are most likely to be non-traditional students, from a community college. The admissions team is seemingly acting on an initiative to offer spots to those on a serious upward trend.<br></li>
</ol>
<p>(a) Celebrities. Stanford has a long history of offering places to bright pseudo-celebs as they transfer from California CCs. Ahmad Ali, the rapper who did “Back in the Day” now, literally, back in the day of the mid-90s, is a good example.</p>