<p>sorry if this has already been covered…but any comments? I know the work is rigorous, and uchi DOES have a bleh social rep…but what else? what makes people want to go elsewhere?</p>
<p>I read an article not very long ago (though the article was rather old, late 90’s or so, the transfer rate is way lower now than it was then) that mentioned some of the myths as to why people did it.</p>
<p>It wasnt usually because they werent doing well (average transfer gpa was about the same as the college gpa) and it wasnt because they got into a school they didnt get into the first time around (90% or something of the transfers were to home state schools or small private schools close to home). It seemed that the biggest reasons were money and being closer to home. Also, the number of people thinking about transferring from northwestern were about the same–actually slightly worse(and northwestern doesnt have the same social rep problem).</p>
<p>Basically, when people make up their mind to transfer, they do it early before they really integrate into the school. They dont discuss it with many people at school and then since they are leaving they dont bond as well with the other students. </p>
<p>And, on the transfer rates, it was noted that while HYP had 10-15% higher retention rates (in the 80’s), chicago’s closest student competetors were the more rigorous schools like MIT and Caltech which both had retention rates in the 80-90% range.</p>