If your initial quest to become a Boston College Eagle ended in disappointment, you are not alone. These days, BC attracts more quality applicants than they can admit. In fact, they only take one of every six freshman applicants who apply. Yet, if Boston College remains your ideal higher education home, there is still plenty of reason for optimism. The following blog will reveal the Boston College transfer acceptance rate as well as other essential pieces of information like the Boston College transfer application deadline, the Boston College transfer requirements, the transfer decision date, and much more.
Below we present the most current available Boston College transfer acceptance rate as well as historical data.
In 2021, there were 1,874 transfer applicants and 239 individuals were accepted. This means that the Boston College transfer acceptance rate was 12.7%. If we break this down by gender, the acceptance rates are as follows:
When trying to get the complete picture of how difficult it is to transfer into a given school, it is important to also look at historical data. Many schools have wild fluctuations in transfer acceptance rates from year to year. As you can see, the BC transfer acceptance rate has indeed experienced significant swings in recent years, ranging from 13% to 34%.
Historical transfer rates are as follows:
| Year | Acceptance Rate |
| 2020 | 24% |
| 2019 | 19% |
| 2018 | 34% |
| 2017 | 17% |
The university offers a fall and spring transfer option. The Boston College transfer application deadline for fall applicants is March 15. The deadline for the spring semester is November 1.
The Boston College transfer requirements are as follows:
Students who have the best chance to gain admission to BC have done the following:
There is no minimum GPA required to be considered as a transfer applicant at this institution. However, in our experience, you will need a GPA of 3.7 or above to be a truly competitive applicant to Boston College. Management and Nursing applicants should be as close to a 4.0 as possible due to the exceptional level of competition for a small number of openings.
All transfer applicants must respond to one required essay prompt:
The Boston College transfer decision date for fall applicants is May 20. Spring transfer applicants are notified by December 15.
According to BC, 125 students typically transfer into the school every year, with about two-thirds enrolling in the fall and the other third enrolling in January for the spring semester. There is no inherent advantage to applying in one cycle versus the other. The level of selectivity is highly dependent on the number of spots that happen to be open at that particular moment. No matter which semester students aim for, they must apply specifically to one of BC’s four undergraduate divisions. Options include:
Carroll and Connell are the two most selective programs. This is because they have very few transfer slots open. For example, the Carroll School of Management typically has 5-10 openings per year, and the School of Nursing typically has 3-5. Finally, it’s important to think carefully about your choice of division as it will be challenging (and potentially impossible) to change divisions later.
If you are looking for information on how to apply to Boston College as a first-year student, you may find the following blogs to be of interest:
Those searching for application info on other institutions may wish to visit our Dataverse pages:
Dave has over a decade of professional experience that includes work as a teacher, high school administrator, college professor, and independent educational consultant. He is a co-author of the books The Enlightened College Applicant (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016) and Colleges Worth Your Money (Rowman & Littlefield, 2020).
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