Boston College Transfer Acceptance Rate

If you are searching for the Boston College transfer acceptance rate, you probably want two things: the latest number and a sense of whether it is typical. This page gives both. Every figure below was copied from Boston College’s published Common Data Set (CDS) files, then the rates were recalculated by hand. Where the documents disagree with one another or with other websites, we say so.

Year-by-year transfer data, Fall 2017 to Fall 2024

The Common Data Set is a standardized questionnaire that colleges fill out every year. Item D2 asks how many degree-seeking transfer students applied, were admitted, and enrolled for the fall term. Boston College posts its current edition on its Common Data Set page, and earlier editions remain on bc.edu. We pulled D2 from eight editions.

Admit rate = admitted ÷ applicants. Yield = enrolled ÷ admitted. Both are our calculations from BC’s published counts, rounded to one decimal. * The 2017–18 form’s D2 wording says “Fall 2016”; the rest of that edition reports Fall 2017. † The 2023–24 form’s D2 wording says “Fall 2022”, but its counts differ from the 2022–23 edition, so we treat them as Fall 2023. Spring (January) entrants are not included in D2.

Adding the eight years together, BC received 13,207 fall transfer applications and made 2,633 offers, a pooled rate of about 19.9%. That pooled figure is a steadier guide to long-run odds than any single year, because the annual rate has moved by more than ten percentage points in both directions.

What the 27.7% figure actually tells you

A transfer acceptance rate is a ratio of two counts, and both counts have limits worth knowing before you plan around them.

It covers fall entrants only

CDS item D2 is a fall measure. Boston College also admits transfers for January, and its transfer page describes roughly 400 January applicants each year and a January class of about 50 students. Those students do not appear in the table above, and BC does not publish a separate spring admit rate in the CDS. Any website quoting a “spring transfer acceptance rate” for BC is estimating.

Applicant totals move a lot

The pool swung from 1,447 applicants (Fall 2018) to 2,405 (Fall 2022) and back to 1,480 (Fall 2024). BC’s own transfer page describes a typical year as about 1,700 fall applicants. When the pool shrinks and BC still needs to fill seats, the rate rises; Fall 2024 combined a smaller pool with the largest number of offers since Fall 2018.

Offers depend on space

Transfer seats open when continuing students leave, study away or graduate early, and when the first-year class comes in under or over target. The CDS does not explain BC’s year-to-year swings, so we won’t guess at causes. What the record does show is that the number of offers ranged from 230 to 488, which is why one year’s rate is a weak predictor of the next.

Yield has risen

Of the students BC admitted in Fall 2023 and Fall 2024, 44.1% enrolled, up from roughly a third in Fall 2020 and Fall 2021. A higher yield means BC can make fewer offers for the same number of seats, all else equal.

Transfer odds versus first-year odds at BC

The same 2024–25 CDS reports 34,779 first-year applicants and 5,632 admits for Fall 2024, an admit rate of about 16.2%. So in that year the transfer rate was roughly 11 points higher than the first-year rate. It has not always been that way: in Fall 2021 (12.8%) and Fall 2022 (14.1%), transfer admission was the narrower door.

Federal data tell a similar story with slightly different counts. NCES College Navigator lists 35,037 undergraduate applicants and a 16% admit rate for Fall 2024, and it reports 235 undergraduate transfer-in students that fall. That transfer-in figure is larger than the CDS count of 181 enrolled transfers. IPEDS and the CDS define their populations differently (College Navigator’s total undergraduate enrollment of 10,314 is also higher than the CDS degree-seeking total of 9,654), and neither source reconciles the two, so we report both rather than pick one.

How Boston College compares with nearby universities

Using each university’s own 2024–25 Common Data Set, here is how BC’s Fall 2024 transfer rate sits among three other large private universities in the Boston area.

BC sits in the middle of this group for Fall 2024, though its own history spans the whole range shown. Our side-by-side comparison of Boston-area transfer acceptance rates adds enrollment, yield, minimum credits and entry terms for all four schools.

BC transfer requirements at a glance

The admit rate is only useful alongside the rules for who can apply. These points come from BC’s official transfer admission page, checked November 3, 2026.

The full checklist, with what each document is and who sends it, is in our guide to Boston College transfer requirements and deadlines. For how grades and courses are weighed, see GPA, courses and credit transfer at BC, and for the essay and supporting forms, see the BC transfer application and personal statement.

Using the BC transfer acceptance rate in your own planning

A school-wide rate cannot tell you your personal chances, but it can help you set up a sensible plan. Here is how we would use the data.

• Plan around the pooled rate, not the best year. Roughly one in five fall applicants was admitted across 2017–2024. Treat BC as a reach unless your college record is exceptional, and build a list that includes schools where your odds are clearly better.
• Decide between one year and two. BC recommends about 30 credits for students applying after one year of college. Applying after two years means more college grades for the committee to read, but credit caps and the four-semester residency rule still apply.
• Choose your school within BC carefully. You apply to one of Morrissey, Carroll or Lynch (Connell is closed to transfers right now). BC says selectivity is similar across divisions, and it does not allow enrolled students to move into Carroll later, so apply to Carroll directly if business is the goal.
• Take the recommended courses. BC lists recommended coursework by school, such as calculus or computer science and both micro- and macroeconomics for Carroll. Missing pieces weaken an application even when grades are strong.
• Consider January if you are past your first semester. The January cycle is smaller, and sophomore and junior candidates can use it. BC doesn’t publish a January admit rate, so don’t assume it is easier.
• Run the credit math early. If you hold more than 60 credits, some will not count, and you will still need four full-time semesters at BC.

Frequently asked questions

How we checked these numbers

We downloaded each Boston College Common Data Set PDF from bc.edu, read item D2 directly, and recalculated each rate from the printed counts. Comparison figures for Boston University, Northeastern and Tufts come from each university’s own CDS for the same year. Policy statements come from BC’s live transfer admission page. We do not use figures from third-party aggregators. Read more about our process on the About page.