[M T]

Because Stanford keeps inbound transfers roughly equal to outbound transfers, that means that there were probably about 50 outbound transfers out of 8049 undergraduates.  In other words, of the ~1600 or so freshmen admitted in any given year, about 3% will transfer to another institution.  If you exclude athletes, it is probably lower.

Actually, 57 transfers were accepted, with 47 enrolling.  The data also shows first-year retention rate, that 1.7% of those first enrolled at Stanford in Fall 2021 were no longer enrolled in Fall 2022 (i.e., transferred out or dropped out).

Openings for transfers could, in theory, come from transfers out, drop outs, potentially for those that take sabbaticals (religious, peace corps, ...), or die. (Deaths, religious sabbaticals, & etc, exclude the individual from the statistics.)

So, the actual number of transfers in may be higher than the number of transfers to other schools.

What about drop-outs?  People who leave school to start companies, raise a family, take care of aging parents, prepare for the Olympics or any of the other good, or not-so-good, reasons.   Looking at the link you provided, I see that for the 1738 that entered in Fall 2016 and not excluded, only 85 had not received a degree (from any school, not just Stanford) in 6 years. (The Fall 2015 Cohort graduation data has incorrect totals for lines C, G, and H.   I calculated 95.5% had degrees within 6 years  (i.e., 76 had not received a degree).)

A back of the envelope guesstimate on insufficient data is that 1% of those enrolled as freshmen drop out per year on average, while 1.7% are not at Stanford after the first year.  Or roughly 0.7% (probably indistinguishable from 1%) transfer out and 1% drop out per year.


Since Caltech was mentioned, I looked for their Common Data Set info.  I found a summary, and data for 2020-2021.  Note that first-year retention rate took a big hit with COVID, but bounced back very high the next year.  FYI, Caltech's 2014-freshmen  6-year graduation rate probably should not be directly compared with Stanford's 2016-freshman rate due to COVID, but it was 91.6%  (Caltech has a class size of roughly 200, so each individual is a 0.5% factor in that number.)

I guess my brother would have been one of the freshmen who didn't graduate in 6 years, as he skipped his senior year (not at either of these schools) of college to go to medical school.

B.C., thanks for calling an acorn an acorn.

[M T]

Because Stanford keeps inbound transfers roughly equal to outbound transfers, that means that there were probably about 50 outbound transfers out of 8049 undergraduates.  In other words, of the ~1600 or so freshmen admitted in any given year, about 3% will transfer to another institution.  If you exclude athletes, it is probably lower.

Actually, 57 transfers were accepted, with 47 enrolling.  The data also shows first-year retention rate, that 1.7% of those first enrolled at Stanford in Fall 2021 were no longer enrolled in Fall 2022 (i.e., transferred out or dropped out).

Openings for transfers could, in theory, come from transfers out, drop outs, potentially for those that take sabbaticals (religious, peace corps, ...), or die. (Deaths, religious sabbaticals, & etc, exclude the individual from the statistics.)

So, the actual number of transfers in may be higher than the number of transfers to other schools.

What about drop-outs?  People who leave school to start companies, raise a family, take care of aging parents, prepare for the Olympics or any of the other good, or not-so-good, reasons.   Looking at the link you provided, I see that for the 1738 that entered in Fall 2016 and not excluded, only 85 had not received a degree (from any school, not just Stanford) in 6 years. (The Fall 2015 Cohort graduation data has incorrect totals for lines C, G, and H.   I calculated 95.5% had degrees within 6 years  (i.e., 76 had not received a degree).)

A back of the envelope guesstimate on insufficient data is that 1% of those enrolled as freshmen drop out per year on average, while 1.7% are not at Stanford after the first year.  Or roughly 0.7% (probably indistinguishable from 1%) transfer out and 1% drop out per year.


Since Caltech was mentioned, I looked for their Common Data Set info.  I found a summary, and data for 2020-2021.  Note that first-year retention rate took a big hit with COVID, but bounced back very high the next year.  FYI, Caltech's 2014-freshmen  6-year graduation rate probably should not be directly compared with Stanford's 2016-freshman rate due to COVID, but it was 91.6%  (Caltech has a class size of roughly 200, so each individual is a 0.5% factor in that number.)

I guess my brother would have been one of the freshmen who didn't graduate in 6 years, as he skipped his senior year (not at either of these schools) of college to go to medical school.

B.C., thanks for calling an acorn an acorn.