<p>Last year, I got into Brandeis off the wait list and made a last minute decision not to go. If I applied as a transfer for sophomore or junior year, would I have a really good chance of getting in since I got in as a freshman? Or would I be level with the rest of the transfers?</p>
<p>Last year, Brandeis admitted about 35% of its freshman applicants and wait-listed about another 21%. Brandeis also admitted about 45% of its transfer applicants. So, yeah, the numbers are fairly comparable, and there’s a chance you could get in as a transfer if you’ve been doing well wherever you are.</p>
<p>But your freshman-application history won’t give you a leg up, and it shouldn’t. For one thing, the only fair practice, when and if you apply as a transfer, would be to evaluate you against the rest of the pool of transfer applicants, taking into account how many transfer students Brandeis has room to accommodate that year. For another thing, a case could be made that you don’t want them to remember your history with Brandeis admissions. They offered you a place in their freshman class, and you turned them down. Would you want them to hold a grudge over that? Now, I don’t actually think they will; holding a grudge would be petty and unprofessional. But in a similar way, it doesn’t make much sense to think that they should or would give you bonus points for having turned them down previously.</p>