Transferring OUT of DUKE, need advice...

Transfer Students
1

TL;DR: Transferring from Duke, thinking about Emory and Ohio State, want advice.

Hi all. I’m currently a Duke student, sophomore, studying Chemistry on the pre-med track. I’m interested more in the business of healthcare, consulting, and entrepreneurship.

Long story short, I hate Duke and want to transfer. While on the surface it seems like an unreal school with amazing basketball, it hasn’t been all it’s cracked up to be. It doesn’t have a business school, so I’m basically majoring in something I’m completely uninterested in (chemistry) while I want to do business/consulting. I didn’t rush fraternities, which basically controls the social scene here, so I really don’t meet many people and all of my old friends do their own thing in their respective fraternities. It’s pretty difficult to get involved here, I spend most of my time studying and with my girlfriend from UNC who I met at a bar there, even though I’m pretty social. It’s insanely cutthroat here, which I wouldn’t mind, except people don’t really want to help each other and if you’re not in a fraternity, there is 0 opportunity for social life.

It’s been a miserable experience here. I was accepted into a TON of great schools as a senior in HS (Cornell, Vanderbilt, UC Berkeley, Johns Hopkins, UPenn (waitlist), Northwestern, WashU etc.), and after a lot of thought, decided to transfer out of Duke for next semester.

Only schools that take applications for spring semester are Emory, Cornell, Ohio State (my state school), and UVA/UMich/Notre Dame (which I didn’t apply to). I got into Emory, OSU, and I’m hopeful about Cornell.

My question is: should I transfer into one of those schools, or wait a semester and apply again when more schools open up for transfer - I would love to go to Northwestern or UPenn based on my interests + the social scene there.

Ohio State would basically be an awesome party school where I’d get a 4.0 studying biochem and business surrounded by all my best friends from home, Emory would also be cool because I’m guaranteed to get into my friend’s fraternity and I’d have good business advising + job opps + the city of Atlanta is cool, and Cornell has the prestige equal to Duke, plus it’s a huge school with lots of opportunities and a business minor which I’d take. The other option is to take a semester off, do an internship, and then apply again in the spring for fall schools where my options would open up more.

Any advice would be greatly GREATLY appreciated. Don’t tell me how great Duke is, or to stay, because I’ve already put my request to transfer in - I will be leaving at the end of the semester.

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A friend’s son was unhappy at the school he started at – he knew soon after arriving that he had made a mistake. About six weeks into the semester he contacted a school that admitted him out of HS (he declined the offer) which he felt would be a much better fit and they were able to find him a spot starting that spring semester. I don’t know the details and I’m sure he had to have a strong first semester at college, but he got it settled pretty quickly and was much happier where he ended up. I’m not sure how common this strategy is, but it may be worth a try.

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@happy1 I feel like that would only work if I were a freshman and immediately knew I made a mistake. I’m a sophomore, which likely means I have to go through the traditional routes to get an acceptance. It took me some time to realize that the school really wasn’t working out, instead of me not working hard enough to fit into the culture here. I won’t have much of a trouble getting into any of the schools I got into previously - I’ve got something like a 3.7 GPA as a sciences major from Duke.

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Oops…I missed that you were a sophomore. Sorry. And I agree with your comment above.

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I do not think you should stay at Duke. If you are happy with your spring acceptances then transfer next semester; if not, then wait it out and apply for the fall. At this point you need to decide if you want Emory/Cornell/Ohio State which means leaving Duke soon, or if you prefer NW/Penn which means staying another semester.

Keep in mind that you already have an acceptance to Emory and OSU. If you turn them down and decide to apply to NW/Penn, there is a chance that you will not get in for the fall.

Have you visited Emory?

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I would take the time to get it right this time. You seem to think your top choices are Penn and Northwestern. So why “settle”? You don’t want to be jumping from school to school. I wonder if you were able to visit all of the primary schools you were considering coming out of high school, and whether you have done sufficient due diligence at this point on the schools you are considering as you move away from Duke. I suggest you spend the next semester really getting a handle on each of the few prospects at the top of your list. Go visit. Talk with friends you have there, or friends of friends. Meet with professors in programs of interest. Spend enough time at the schools and the cities or towns to get a good feel for the social scene, degree of cut throat attitude amongst the students, etc. In short, make due diligence your “course for the Spring semester”, to maximize your likelihood of getting this right.

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I agree with @lakeviking who said it perfectly.

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I feel like a lot of the schools on your list won’t be that different from Duke. You could be equally unhappy. I think your spring choices are more different than quite a few of the other schools you mentioned. To me it sounds like you would be happy at OSU, and would save a lot of money (maybe could be used toward grad school?).

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So many good comments here - thank you all for that! @intparent I have thought long and hard about OSU, and advantages are 1) friends + fraternity + huge school spirit, 2) save money (which isn’t too much of an issue for my family, which I am so thankful for), 3) business school. Disadvantages are 1) Loss in prestige, 2) less connections for employment, 3) surrounded by less motivated/high achieving kids.

@twogirls I have visited Emory, took all the tours, met with 4 advisors and partied with some friends that night. Overall it’s a beautiful campus with an UNREAL business school, but small and it seems like it would be fairly monotonous plus there’s not a ton of school spirit (but I’m sure that’s true for every school in the top 20).

@lakeviking I’m not sure how much I’d like to put off going back to school - any suggestions for something to do for the semester off?

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Duke has a finance minor as well as an economics minor. Then perhaps consider uMichigan for a Masters in their Public Health school.

How much in time and money will it cost you to transfer?

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I guess that is what I am trying to say about your original list. It seems more based on prestige than fit. Only you can decide whether you want to keep chasing prestige.

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Remember that once you’ve graduated, people don’t really ask for your GPA; they ask where you went to school. If you tell people that you graduated from Ohio State, to put it rudely, they won’t necessarily think that you’re as smart as you actually are. If you tell them that you transferred from Duke to Ohio State, they’ll think that you weren’t able to handle the rigors of Duke.

I’d transfer only to a “peer” school: one of the ones in the 4th paragraph of your initial post. Don’t transfer “down”.

Also, surely there are plenty of people in your situation: independent/non-frat people with GFs. Surely they find ways to manage. I was in that situation in college and wasn’t particularly happy, and I actually hated college, but college is a means to an end: a good grad school acceptance or a good job, and maybe a spouse. You’re on the right track to accomplish all of those, so think of it that way.

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I’d encourage you to wait to transfer for Fall semester. Wherever you decide to go.

Transferring into spring semester can be challenging, socially and adjustment-wise.
The schools are basically in mid-stream at that point.
A lot of activities, clubs, etc. get set up for the school year in the fall.

Most students who started as freshmen have already established their social niches after freshman year, and are generally less open to new people than those starting out from scratch. Which means your social cohort, initially, is most likely to be drawn from fellow transfer students. There is a much smaller transfer cohort in the spring semester. And they are not necessarily housed together. Often they just fill up random beds from people who left after fall semester.

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As for Northwestern, it’s too late to apply for the undergrad business program (Kellogg certificate). It also got a Greek scene and I am not sure if it’s any less influential than that at Duke. Northwestern does have a MS program open only to NU undergrads but I am not sure what the admit rate is. There’s also management sciences and industrial engineering major that may interest you.

http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/programs/ms-management-studies.aspx

Here’s the page you may want to read:
http://r2b.northwestern.edu/

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Do not go to Emory. Its not what you think

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There is nothing wrong with taking a leave of absence from Duke at the end of this semester, and applying for fall admission if you aren’t admitted anywhere you like and can afford for the spring. Think about that option too.

Are you still pre-med? Or are you just in classes with all of the pre-meds because of the healthcare business interest?

Transferring to OSU for a specific major that doesn’t exist at Duke is not “transferring down”. It is transferring to a place that is a better fit because of a change in career goals.

Don’t assume that Duke has better career connections than OSU. OSU is several times larger than Duke. That means there is a larger alumni network to draw on.

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@pompeyfan9797 do you have any rationale behind why I should not go to Emory?

@happymomof1 yes, either way I am leaving Duke at the end of the semester - my real question is finding something to do for the spring. I am pre-med currently but I may be dropping it; I’m at an awkward position of one foot in the door and one out, because while I’d like to be a doctor it will be a lot of work for something that I’m not 100% sure I’m passionate about. Transferring to OSU will be a drop in prestige, which many of my friends have brought up with me. I’m still working out how I feel about that.

@IWannaHelp Are you sure? I just want to do a business minor if I go to Northwestern. I’m not looking to get an MBA right out the gate.

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Years ago, I was told about a student who left Harvard for U of MD at College Park. The student never felt that he fit in at Harvard, and was happy as could be at UMD.

Students your age are much more focused on prestige than adults are. If you believe you will be happier and do better at OSU, then go.

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@markiv1996

You can do BIP minor probably. You may be able to apply Kellogg certificate as a junior but you’d have to finish the pre-reqs first. Check the link in my last post.

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I too know somebody who left a very tippy-top school to go to the State U. Told the parents they were wasting their money.
Today that person is a successful physician.