They say orange is the new black and it seems like transfer is the new freshman. Duke University, a school with an incredibly low acceptance rate, is spreading its wings and accepting more transfers than ever before. But why?!
“We want to increase the number of transfer students gradually because there’s an acknowledgement that transfer students bring a particularly valuable, useful and interesting set of perspectives and experiences to the Duke community,” said Christoph Guttentag, Dean of Undergraduate Admissions.
Part of the reason more transfers are gaining acceptance into Duke is because more are applying. While 754 prospective transfer students applied for the 2013-2014 year, 1200 applied for the 2016-2017 year. The increase in applications is not the only reason why more transfers are pouring into the school though; Duke has made a conscious decision to accept more transfer students in recent years. For example, In 2013-2014, they accepted 5.3% of transfer applicants and in 2016-2017, they accepted 6% of applicants. For the rising High School seniors reading this, do not fret, Guttentag has promised that first-year admissions will not be affected by this increase.
“We feel comfortable talking about the transfer program both in our presentations at Duke and around the country,” Guttentag said. “We want to ensure that students and counselors are aware that transferring to Duke is a possibility.”
Let’s face it; a .07% increase in acceptances isn’t a huge leap, but it is a sign that Duke is opening its arms to new kinds of students and maybe the Blue Devils are going to be trendsetters for schools nationwide.
