Transfer Students head to Warmer Climates

UMUC

According to data accumulated by USNews and World Report, schools in Texas, Florida, and California were popular destinations for transfer students in 2010. In fact, 14 out of the 15 colleges enrolling the most transfer students were located in warmer climates. Evidently, these schools had capacity to accept and enroll astonishing large numbers of transfers.

There are many reasons students choose to move schools. Often money issues are involved. Or sometimes it’s a question of academics or a desire to be closer to home. And community college students make up a huge percentage of students moving from one institution to another.

Even the Commander-in-Chief transferred during his college career.

Based on data provided through the CDS, Arizona State University enrolled 6,158 transfer students and ranked number one among the nonprofit institutions providing transfer data.  And three schools in the California State University system each drew more than 3,500 transfers and ranked three, seven, and thirteen respectively.

Also among the top transfer-friendly institutions were UMUC (3894), George Mason University (2452), Old Dominion University (2298), Virginia Commonwealth University (2007), Towson University (1971), and the University of Maryland College Park (1899).

A quick review of local colleges and universities suggests a much more limited ability to accommodate transfer students. According to Common Data Set information, far fewer transfers were to be found at Johns Hopkins (37) and the University of Richmond (48). George Washington accepted 27 percent of its transfer applicants and enrolled 310 students, while Georgetown accepted 23 percent and enrolled 230 and

The University of Virginia accepted 40 percent of those applying to transfer and enrolled 653, at the same time the College of William & Mary accepted 43 percent and enrolled 202.

Among the local colleges admitting the highest percent of transfer applicants were James Madison University at 50 percent as well as the University of Mary Washington, Christopher Newport University, and American University—all at 67 percent which is only slightly above the previous national average cited by USNWR of 61.9 percent.

The following is the USNWR list of 10 schools enrolling the most transfer students:

1.  Arizona State University (6158)
2. University of Central Florida (5896)
3. Cal State Northridge (4477)
4.  Florida International University (4527)
5.  University of Texas—Arlington (4315)
6. University of Houston (4171)
7. Cal State Fullerton and Texas A&M—Commerce (4165)
8. UMUC (3894)
9. University of North Texas (3891)
10. San Francisco State University (3760)
11. Texas State University—San Marcos (3611)
12. Cal State Sacramento (3556)
13. Florida Atlantic University (3425)
14. Northwest Florida State College (3272)
15. University of South Florida (3242)

Note that the numbers cited are from the 2010-11 CDS currently used by USNWR.  For more recent information, you may want to research 2011-12 CDS data posted on individual websites.