<p>After several months at Duke, I want to transfer more than ever. This place is awesome but I feel that an upper Ivy league environment would suit me much, much more. Is there any advice that others can offer me? I have solid numbers from high school and should have good EC's left over from high school although I've been fairly inactive here so far as I've been trying to get adjusted and hanging out with people. Any advice would be appreciated.</p>
<p>lol, “upper ivy”</p>
<p>you’re referring to harvard/princeton/yale, right?</p>
<p>harvard literally has a 1% transfer acceptance rate, princeton doesn’t accept transfers, and yale admits somewhere around 4% of transfers.</p>
<p>Being fairly inactive, even at a school of Duke’s caliber, would significantly decrease your chances of transferring into those institutions. It’s almost better to pretend those schools don’t even have a transfer program, considering how few students are admitted annually.</p>
<p>What kinds of people do they accept as transfers? I feel that I have compelling reasons to transfer. Even though it’s next to impossible, I’m still willing to give it a shot. Can I have some advice?</p>
<p>Be amazing.</p>
<p>There is your advice.</p>
<p>For Harvard, as a transfer, no one is going to be able to give you anything more concrete than that.</p>
<p>Doing just the things others tell you to do means you won’t get in. Take initiative and do something crazy.</p>
<p>You have a compelling reason? You mentioned that you think an “upper ivy” would suit you more. That isn’t a reason. (Especially because the environments of the upper ivies differ greatly from each other). </p>
<p>My advice is accept that you’re at an amazing school and stop being an ivy chaser. I mean it in all honesty. It’s tough to swallow, but just be grateful that you’re at an amazing school like Duke. </p>
<p>And many northern schools have the “ivy environment”, so if you’re really just striving for that environment, set your sights a little lower.</p>
<p>Don’t be a tool.</p>
<p>Any more advice? I’m still strongly considering it.</p>
<p>If you haven’t started getting involved yet, then you should start NOW. Being in college and applying as a transfer student puts a lot less emphasis on what happened in high school and much more on what has happened in your time at college. Harvard will look at how involved you were at Duke and think “Is this a representation of what he would do, or what he could bring to Harvard?” </p>
<p>Even if you didn’t like Duke, at one point you entered the University and should have tried to get involved in many things, as most freshmen I know at University’s who fall into the trap of getting “too overly involved.”</p>
<p>Your scores also mean less than your college GPA now, such as your SAT. Your SATs or ACTs weight will hold much less because those exams are geared to measuring how successful you would be in college, and a college GPA along with what you do in college definitely outweighs that SAT/ACT score.</p>
<p>Try to get involved. Little involvement, but a dire want to get out of there probably wouldn’t be good enough. Now, if you were quite involved and found out that through getting involved that you don’t belong there, then that is something that you should emphasize on.</p>
<p>if your only reasoning is to attend an “upper ivy”, then good luck to you in writing your application. with the number of kids that apply and the low admittance rates, those schools will see right through someone that is simply trying to attend a higher ranked institution. think hard and provide a compelling reason why you want to transfer if you want to stand a change</p>
<p>Well, I’d rather attend a school better than the one I’m already at so that wipes out 99.9% of all colleges. When I say I’m not really involved, I mean that I don’t have that many leadership positions because it’s tough for freshman at a top university acquire leadership positions. I still participate in many activities. I do have strong reasons stemming from certain aspects of Duke. I have a chance of pulling off a 4.0 this semester so I think my GPA won’t be a problem. Also, I love Cambridge and the Boston area. Durham really sucks and outside of Duke, there is absolutely nothing noteworthy. DOn’t get me wrong, this place is great but I’d strongly prefer going up north.</p>