Hi,
I’m a current incoming sophomore at Cal interested in transferring to Yale or Duke. I’m interested in canine cognition/research, and there is none of that happening here. I know Yale and Duke don’t accept very many transfers, but I know what I want to do. My Berkeley GPA is 3.72 and current major is really unrelated. Any thoughts?
Very hard, and that is placing it diplomatically. I won’t speak for Duke, as I am not very familiar with their transfer process. It will be incredibly competitive. So, if you are not already aware, transfer admission seats are directly tied to attrition. With attrition that hovers just a shade above 1%, seats are very limited. In recent years, typically admission rate are at about 2%—so one could expect about 2000 transfer applications with maybe less than 40 obtaining admission.
Successful transfers usually have the following traits—one, could have been admitted as a freshmen; two, a near perfect college transcript; and three,and this is a big one, a compelling reason for transfer. Having a major and/or degree not offered at your current institution is by far the most accepted reason for transfer.
In short, I can’t definitively tell from the info you have provided, but it appears you might be just outside of some those criteria items. In any event–best.