Yep - to Harvard specifically, around 10-15 transfer to the University each year. The acceptance rate is significantly lower than for regular applicants, and hence is exceptionally competitive. See my answer here for more details!

Yes, One of our Crimson transfer students has successfully gotten into Harvard before and one of our senior consultants transferred into Harvard themselves. It is much more challenging than applying directly after high school.

It is possible, but very difficult. I transferred to Harvard from a liberal arts university and beat the .8% admissions rate Harry was talking about. Around 1400 applied my year, and 12 got in. The fact is, half of the reason I got in was because the class just didn’t have another student like me – with my same diversity of interests and pursuits – and so admissions knew I would make a contribution to the class, fill a hole. Read more about how to transfer here: Is it possible to transfer to a U.S. university?

Yes. In fact two of my friends at Harvard were transfers from other schools (Brown and NYU) and I have a lot of respect for them because it’s even harder than getting in straight out of high school. They were both excellent students and great people to have as friends and classmates.