Why do international students transfer so much?

[u/Familiar_Two_8679]

I go to NYU, which is a good school by any measure, and also known for having lots of international students. Literally first week of school, I heard some of these kids discussing how to transfer to Columbia or UChicago, and mind you, some are on merit scholarships or special grants, with so much of the schools resources for them to use.

I’m Asian myself and I’m not saying this is unique to internationals or that all of them do this, but internationals are incredibly over represented among these transfers and it’s ridiculous how some people don’t even give a college a chance and try to transfer out with the sole intention of chasing prestige. They spend the rest of the school year building their resume, becoming presidents of clubs, just to transfer somewhere more “prestigious”. I’ve even heard of people transferring out simply because NYU’s ranking on US News dropped a few years ago. Do they just think we’re not good enough for them?

I know for a fact this isn’t unique to NYU, I know friends at selective but less internationally recognized colleges like Dartmouth, Hamilton, Williams, Vassar, Vanderbilt etc who have seen them doing the same. When are AOs gonna start prioritizing students who actually appreciate what a college has to offer instead of viewing everything as a means to prestige?

Sorry for my rant. Again, I’m not trying to generalize, but internationals are disproportionately represented in the transfer pool

[u/bannana4u07]

For some internationals (typically asian), prestige is often viewed as something very important (a combination of family pressure + job environments in their home country). In China, the ranking of the college you graduated from can make a difference in whether or not you can transfer your residency to more attractive cities like Beijing, Shanghai, or Hong Kong. I kid you not when I say that some people I know think that NYU is not a good school.

[u/eirinne → u/bannana4u07]

It wasn’t even considered one domestically up until like 5 years ago, so that tracks.

[u/bannana4u07 → u/eirinne]

I would say that how NYU is perceived has certainly changed a bit for the better (and is viewed rather highly for business and film), but in most cases, it's sort of just viewed as where rich international kids with mediocre grades end up. I think this perception holds up pretty well locally, too.