This is an interesting development. Dartmouth College admitted 45 transfer students this past transfer cycle. Typically, the school admits around 25 transfer students. So why did Dartmouth admit around 20 more transfer students this past cycle than in other years? That’s easy. With uncertainty surrounding the number of students in the Class of 2024 who would opt for gap years, Dartmouth turned to transfer students. Of course, the school also turned to its waitlist, filling seats that otherwise would have been occupied by students outright admitted to Dartmouth with students who were originally placed in limbo.

Dartmouth Transfer Students Were Not Allowed to Defer Their Enrollment

And how do we know that transfer students helped fill the void created by students admitted to the Class of 2024 who opted to take gap years? That’s simple. These transfer students weren’t allowed to defer their enrollment. As Jack McMahon reports for The Dartmouth in a piece entitled “Higher-than-usual number of transfer students adjust to campus,” “In an email statement to The Dartmouth, [Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Lee] Coffin explained that transfer students were not allowed to defer enrollment because the number of transfer students admitted is calculated to fill gaps in undergraduate enrollment. ‘For students accepted last spring as transfer candidates, each offer of admission was extended by the College and accepted by each enrolling student with the clear understanding that the acceptance was for fall term 2020 and that the invitation to enroll as a transfer student could not be postponed,’ Coffin wrote.”

Waitlisted Students, Transfer Students All Fill Seats

So is it good news for the Class of 2025 that Dartmouth opted to fill some seats vacated by gap year students with transfer students rather than waitlisted students? Not really. The seats are being filled nonetheless — irrespective of who fills them. As we have argued for several months now, there are going to be fewer seats available for applicants to the Class of 2025. Dartmouth’s admission of 20 more transfer students this year as compared to other years in recent history further underscores this projection.