Almost immediately after Grace Ngobeni matriculated into the University of Vermont, she knew she wanted transfer out.
“[Transferring] was something I thought of the first week that I was there and then I waited two years,” Ngobeni, a junior in Boston University’s College of Communication, said.
Ngobeni said she yearned for a more creative film program with production and writing programs, as opposed to the film studies program UVM offered. Like many college students in the country, she decided complete her undergraduate degree elsewhere.
About one third of college students transferred to another college before graduating, according to a study published by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center in February.
The overall transfer rates for two- and four-year institutions, including public and private non-profit schools, ranged from 32.6 percent to 34.4 percent, the study reported.
Transfer rates for for-profit private institutions fell by almost half with 16.3 percent of students transferring out of two-year institutions, while 19.6 percent transferred out of four-year institutions.
BU spokesman Colin Riley said BU’s transfer rates do not follow the national trend.
Admissions received 2,515 transfer applications and enrolled 224 transfer students in Fall 2010, according to statistics Riley provided.
Of those who transferred, 37 percent did so in their second year of college, and 27 percent of transfer students went across state lines.
Ngobeni said she might have known she wanted to transfer early in her first year at UVM, but transferred between her sophomore and junior year.
However, BU did not track the number of students who transferred out, Riley said. Those students are counted in BU’s attrition rate, which measures how many students do not return after their freshman year. Riley estimated the number was less than 10 percent.
“The important point,” he said, “is that not long ago the ACT did a study that found that one in four high school students who enroll in two- and four-year colleges do not return for their sophomore year.”
BU’s attrition rate went in the opposite direction of the national trend in terms of how many transfer students it received, he said.
Riley said while BU might have such a low attrition rate, it does not include students who transferred after their freshman year because of the investment students make in the time they spend at BU.
“Part of it is that it is a significant investment by students to attend BU by their families and themselves and that the level of preparation and achievement and the selectivity of the school is much higher,” Riley said.
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