<p>Why is transfer acceptance rate ~ 7%???, wayy below the freshman acceptance rate of 20%</p>
<p>because there’s no space</p>
<p>This is just speculation, but when accepting freshmen, admissions offices usually accept more students than they have space for, knowing that not every admitted student will enroll. On the other hand, I suspect that almost all transfer applicants who are admitted will end up transferring.</p>
<p>Usually transfer admission rates tend to be inversely proportional to the school’s retention rate. The more students leave after freshman or sophomore year, the more space the school has for transfers. I guess this just means that students really love being at tech and wouldn’t dream of ever transferring somewhere else… ;)</p>
<p>-Oren</p>
<p>I would guess also, from what I’ve heard of core, that a transfer student would have some catching up to do…</p>
<p>Interestingly enough, the stats on the website indicate that in the past 5 years, Caltech took 31 of 310 transfer applicants from US 2-year schools, 25 of 371 from 4-year schools, and 39 of 275 from non-US schools. So at this stage in the game, the international acceptance rate is actually higher than domestic (perhaps because the international admissions were originally more stringent and some very qualified people did not get in and re-applied as transfers?). Also, kids from 2-year schools had a better chance of getting in than from 4-year schools… that one makes less sense to me. Quite interesting though.</p>
<p>Yeah, the community college phenomenon has been observed by others, too. I’m not on the transfer committee, but I suspect the reason is that the CC kids are ones who are Caltech-caliber but never realized it in high school and are just applying a little bit late. On the other hand, the kids applying from for year institutions probably tried and failed once to get in, and so the chances are lower that they’ll make it in on their second try.</p>
<p>Another reason is because many qualified International students go into community college as a transition instead of directly going into 4-year institutions.</p>
<p>Also you might want to consider the fact that community college students HAVE to be admitted as transfers to some university if they want to get a degree, and this adds an extra motivational element. Consequently, even if it is easy to get an A at a community college, some of the top CC students may be putting in just as much effort as the top students at many four-year schools. (Of course, the percentage of CC students who actually put in this kind of effort is miniscule.)</p>
<p>Good point! The “tried and failied” vs. unused potential may very well be right. It also makes sense that international kids might go to CCs, but I never really thought about it. I always assumed the ones who didn’t get into Caltech or other top, top US schools might be successful a tier down and choose to go that route (and thus would be applying as transfers from 4-year schools)…</p>
<p>Ben - So if i was rejected from freshman admission, would you recommend me to try for transfer again, or will my chance be even lower like you said?</p>
<p>You should surely try again if you want. I was talking about averages. Individuals certainly can get rejected and then get in.</p>
<p>But the lesson is kind of that you should think about what is better about your application this time – otherwise, going into the same process with the same thing is likely to yield the same outcome. Make sure there’s a significant improvement somewhere, and then your chances will be better.</p>
<p>Ok, thx Ben :D</p>