The end of high school and the first semester of college is a time of huge personal growth. It makes sense that not every decision that you made senior year will feel right several months out—from who you took to prom to which posters you packed for your college dorm room. As many as 15% of students transfer institutions at some point in their college career. That is not to say the decision should be made lightly: if you’re unhappy about your classes or your social life there may be less drastic fixes. (After all, there’s a steep adjustment period with every giant life change!) But if the college that you attend no longer best supports your future aspirations, transferring can be a great option.
TRANSFERRING: FIRST STEPS
The first step when you approach the transfer process involves self-reflection: you’ll need to know why you want to change schools, not least because you’ll have to articulate that in your application essays. These reasons should intertwine with your future career goals, so leave aside considerations like club options, lazy rivers, etc. Think concretely about different schools’ strengths and majors. Are you looking for a specific interdisciplinary concentration or a research opportunity? What colleges have stronger networks in your future career field compared with your current institution? Prestige is a real factor in many transfer students’ decisions, but it shouldn’t be the primary one (although prestigious schools can have better academic resources).
What drives you to transfer colleges should be unique to you. But (just like you did when you applied the first time around) there’s information that you can gather to help you decide what schools to target. Some colleges are more “transfer friendly” than others—there are even some highly selective ones where the rate of acceptance increases for transfer applicants compared with freshman applicants. Here, we lay out the best schools for transfer students, according to several different metrics. Unless otherwise noted, all statistics are for Fall 2023 admission.
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LARGEST TRANSFER COMMUNITIES
The schools with the largest transfer student populations are flagship state schools. That’s in part because many of these schools leave spaces for students who transfer in after their first or second year at community colleges, with schools in over thirty states guaranteeing that up to two years of an associate’s degree will count towards a four-year degree. Even if you’re not transferring from community college, this may be a benefit as these schools have robust infrastructure and advising options available to students who enter in their sophomore or junior years. State schools often also have the highest admissions rates for transfer students (for example, University of Arizona admitted 67% of transfer students) and this holds true for even the more selective universities, like the University of North Carolina (45.1% acceptance rate for transfer students), the University of Michigan (34.5%), the University of Virginia (29% for Fall 2024), and the UCs (Berkeley: 26.8%; UCLA: 26.3%).
GREATEST IMPROVEMENT ON THE ODDS
Some schools (including UNC and the UCs mentioned above) have a rate of acceptance for transfer students that is double or even triple their rate for incoming freshmen. These schools may have higher barriers for transfer applicants, such as a minimum GPA, but if you meet the requirements, then they are worth considering. If you applied and were denied admissions from a school in your original round of applications, be sure to emphasize your college career to date, your growth over the year, and your certitude about the school’s fit for your goals.
| School | Freshman Acceptance Rate | Transfer Acceptance Rate |
| Columbia | 4% | 10.1% |
| Vanderbilt | 6.3% | 18.9% |
| Cornell | 7.3% | 12.7% |
| Barnard | 8% | 20.7% |
| NYU | 8% | 37% |
| UCLA | 8.7% | 26.3% |
| USC | 10% | 24.4% |
| Boston University | 10.8% | 39.7% |
| UC Berkeley | 11.7% | 26.8% |
| Notre Dame | 11.9% | 27.6% |
| Tulane | 14.6% | 5o.6% |
| U Michigan | 17.9% | 34.5% |
| UNC | 18.7% | 45.1% |
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HARDEST TRANSFER SCHOOLS
Not every school accepts transfer students, and some accept a staggeringly small number. Yale and Harvard admit fewer than 1% of students who apply after their freshman years; Princeton, MIT, Stanford, Dartmouth, and Duke are not much better. Many small elite schools, too, like Middlebury and Williams, see their acceptance rate halve for transfer students. Unless you can make an extremely compelling case for consideration, you have top grades, and you’ve secured exceptional references, these schools may not be as worthy of a second consideration as others with more robust transfer opportunities.
| School | Freshman Acceptance Rate | Transfer Acceptance Rate |
| Yale | 4.35% | 1.2% |
| Harvard | 3.41% | 0.8% |
| Princeton (Fall 2022) | 5.7% | 3.1% |
| MIT | 4.8% | 1.4% |
| Stanford | 3.91% | 2% |
| Dartmouth | 6% | 1.6% |
| Duke (Fall 2024) | 5.1% | 3% |
TRANSFERRING? GET ORGANIZED
Just like the first time you applied for college, you’ll want to organize your materials and your information. Pay attention to dates: some schools, like the University of Virginia, accept students for both the Fall and Spring semesters; others, like Duke, only admit transfers in the fall. Above all, don’t be indecisive. Transfer students should demonstrate more maturity than applicants coming right from high school, and they should showcase a proven capability to thrive in higher education. For help with this, work with our expert counselors that know the transfer process intimately and can help craft unique, high-quality essays that will tell a compelling narrative about why you’re switching tracks.
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