In 2021, the transfer acceptance rate at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) dropped to a record low. Of the more than 3,500 applicants who applied to transfer, only around 165, or 5%, of students were accepted. While the drop did signify a record, it was part of an ongoing trend and not an anomaly — so we don’t expect to see a rise in the future. It’s only going to be increasingly difficult to get into Penn as a transfer, and Penn isn’t unique in that. The Penn transfer acceptance rate is twice that of fellow Ivy League members Harvard and Princeton. As a result, “Penn is the second-most popular Ivy League school for transfer students after Cornell, reflected by its higher admissions rate and large applicant pool.”
Transferring to Harvard 2023
Transferring to Cornell 2023
Cornell is a member of the elite Ivy League with a trait all its own: a culture and tradition of bringing in transfer students. Whereas Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Brown, and the rest of the Ivy League accept as few as a handful of transfers each year, Cornell welcomes 500-600 transfers annually. Transfers are accepted for fall or spring starts (another very rare opportunity at such an elite school), and are from diverse backgrounds including community colleges and two-year schools.
The Best Colleges for your Astrological Sign: Aquarius
Here we go again! As we continue our case study of college lists based on astrology, we must reiterate: your astrological sign should not be a serious factor in your college search. But, we know there is an insane amount of colleges to choose from. When you’re not looking for an uber-specific program or major, how do you narrow down your list? We encourage students to focus on academic viability, program fit, and social/cultural fit. So, we thought, how would astrology help us isolate schools for each of these categories? Here, we present you with our fun and potentially helpful experiment.
Transferring to Brown 2023
Brown says that the transfers they admit “are people who are unwilling to settle.” We like that characterization. If you are going to try to transfer into the Ivy League, you need to have the gumption to believe you deserve to be at one of the best schools in the country — and the essays, grades, scores, and extracurriculars to back it up.
Best Undergraduate Colleges for Botany
Transferring to Yale 2023
Best Undergraduate Colleges for Investment Banking Internships
If you’re someone who knows at the age of 17 that they are dead set on making a lot of money, investment banking is probably a good path for you. But it’s not for the faint of heart. Being a first-year analyst at a major bank can be beyond grueling and many people burn out or decide they’re unfulfilled along the way. Those who stick it out are rewarded in ~dividends.~ So, if you’re looking forward to the luxurious life, you might want to consider applying to one of these schools that feed some of the nation’s most competitive I-Banking internships.
USC Deferral Rate
The University of Southern California’s, or USC, acceptance rate has been dropping steadily for years. In 2022, they only accepted 11.88% of students who applied — the first time under 12% for the university ever. Over 69,000 applications were reviewed by 65 people. That’s over 1,000 applicants per reader, so when you wonder whether your applicant reader remembers your essay…picture that stack of 1,000 applications. Unless you’re really strategic, it’s hard to stand out.
Columbia Deferral Rate
Columbia College, the undergraduate college of Columbia University, is incredibly difficult to get into. In 2021, the overall acceptance rate was a minuscule 3.73%. If you want to get into Columbia, your best chance is to apply Early Decision, which came with a 10.10% acceptance rate in 2021 — but if you were deferred you already know this. You don’t need to know that your best shot was ED; you need to know what’s next.
Cornell Deferral Rate
Dartmouth Deferral Rate
Strategy for Regular Decision to Duke
Duke is a popular school and we always work with a ton of students who hope to get in. This popularity usually drives down their acceptance rates. In recent years, Duke has had a lower acceptance rate than schools like Dartmouth, Cornell, and UPenn. So what do we tell students who are dreaming of Duke? Well, one is to demonstrate interest and the other is often to apply early. Fun fact: all of our students who applied to Duke ED last year got in.
Stanford Deferral Rate
You’re a brave soul — you applied to Stanford. Getting into Stanford is tough regardless of what you’ve accomplished, what your grades look like, or whether you invented a new flavor of ice cream. After the Stanford acceptance rate rose (a tiny amount) in 2020, they did an about-face in 2021 with a record low acceptance rate of only 3.95%. Despite this up and down, we have no reason to believe it will be easier to get into Stanford this year.
Brown Deferral Rate
In 2021, Brown announced its lowest acceptance rate on record for the fourth year in a row. While it’s the overall acceptance rate they’re pointing to, the statistics for early applicants were even tougher. Brown rejected more early applicants — 60% of them — and only deferred 25%. That was a 5% drop from the 2020 deferral rate. It’s likely that the 2022 statistics will only continue the trend with even lower early acceptance and deferral rates, and higher rejection rates.
Strategy for Regular Decision to Michigan
The University of Michigan is on a short list of extremely popular public universities. We love public universities but when students are looking at elite schools there are only a couple of names we hear over and over. UMich is high on that list. If you are from out of state and you are applying RD, you need a strategy when applying to UMich.
Princeton Deferral Rate
Princeton didn’t release their admissions statistics in 2021, but based on the 2020 overall acceptance rate (4.38%), it’s safe to say that if you were deferred from Princeton this year you are far from alone. The reasoning for not releasing the stats, by the way, was that they feel having the numbers freak students — and their parents — out and may discourage them from applying.
The Best Colleges for your Astrological Sign: Capricorn
Once again let us remind you: we absolutely do not recommend making your astrological sign a primary consideration in your college search. But, with up to 5,000 schools to choose from, creating a college list can be really hard! What do you look for? How do you know if a school is for you? We thought, why not use the traits of astrological archetypes to help you break it down:
Regular Decision to USC Strategy
This year was USC’s first year of offering Early Action. Previously the school only had a regular decision option. This is pretty big news given how much more competitive to get into USC it has become over the years. Last year they had about a 12% acceptance rate. Adding an EA option is going to make regular decision at the school even more competitive. You might be wondering, why is that? Well, let’s break it down.