<p>Well I got deferred ED last month and I’m starting to face the reality that this whole Duke thing probably isn’t going to work out… at least not YET. I’ll still send all the extra letters of recommendation and my improved mid year grades and all that stuff, but I’m not terribly confident in my chances. That said, I’m still absolutely obsessed with Duke and am set on going there.</p>
<p>Two other schools I am hopeful about are Michigan and Cornell (legacies at both.) While I certainly don’t want to jinx myself, I feel tentatively confident I will get into both (knock on wood). My question is which school would be easier to transfer to Duke from?</p>
<p>OBVIOUSLY it depends on how well I perform at the school, but in general, would you agree that Cornell is more prestigious than Michigan? Would transferring from Cornell offer any significant advantage over transferring from U of M?</p>
<p>Michigan, probably. Michigan = more grade inflation = better transfer chances</p>
<p>However, your chances are better getting in RD than they are at transferring. Transferring is much, much harder. Work hard to get in RD (e.g. contact your admissions officer).</p>
<p>i’m sure it does suck, but just forgetting about something you’ve wanted so bad and worked so hard for just to make yourself feel better is kind of… weak(???).</p>
<p>lots of people come to duke after wanting to goto HYP ect their whole lives… one of my good friends said that he was 100% set on transferring until he realized how awesome duke is.</p>
<p>that being said, the same could happen whereever you end up</p>
<p>Well to be blunt, not getting what you want/deserve/worked for will happen over and over again in life. The point is not to dwell on what could have been and work with what you’ve got. Assuming you don’t get in RD (don’t give up on that, send in extra stuff, etc), you should give whichever school you end up going to an honest chance, rather than think you’re going to transfer out as soon as you can.</p>
<p>bananainpyjamas, I hope you’re enjoying Duke. </p>
<p>BigE, it works both ways. If you search CC for posts by “frecklybeckly,” you’ll learn a lot. When we went through the Yale application process last year, frecklybeckly was one of the most die-hard Yale EA applicants on CC. She has an absolutely AMAZING voice, and we were sure she’d get in. She was deferred. Hmm. That’s strange. She’ll get in RD, though, we thought. When RD decisions came in…she was waitlisted. Long story short- she ended up at Michigan. And guess what? She abolutely LOVES it there. So don’t think you can’t have a great experience wherever you go. </p>
<p>Although it’s slightly different, I can sympathize as well. After I was admitted to Duke RD last year, I was ecstatic. Duke was my first choice (well, along with U Chicago), so I was over the moon about being accepted. The problem was…the financial aid was terrible. We honestly couldn’t afford it, so I ended up enrolling at Wake Forest. Although Wake was my second choice and a great school, I was incredibly disappointed about not getting to go to Duke (I won’t go into the teary-eyed details). I was planning on going to Wake, having a great year, and then transferring. Duke later offered me enough money for me to go, but my point is people DO get over rejections, and they do have a great college experience. Here’s a great thread started by TheDad you might want to read…
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=15378[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=15378</a></p>
<p>Duke is more similar to Cornell so I’d think it would be easier to make a case for why you need to transfer out of Michigan (too large, lacks undergrad focus…) than why Duke is somehow a better fit for you than Cornell. And take from this what you will–my brother went to Michigan and three friends from his hall transferred to Brown, Duke and MIT. People were pretty surprised those guys got into those schools, and the consensus was UMich must carry a lot of weight.</p>
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