Applying to Duke: How To Apply: Transfer Students

If you have attended any college or university in the past four years and will have received at least one year's worth of transferable credit by August 2006, you qualify to apply to Duke as a transfer student. A student with only one semester of college work by August 2006 should apply as a first-year applicant. In order to earn a Duke degree, a transfer student must spend at least two years at Duke. There will be no transfer admission for January (spring semester) 2006.

If you choose to apply as a transfer student:

You should file Duke's pre-application to the Common Application (Form A) and a non-refundable $70 application fee as soon as possible after the application is available to you.
You should submit all parts of the application by March 15.
You will be notified of the admissions decision in mid-May.
Your reply and non-refundable deposit (if required) are due by June 1, if you choose to accept an offer of admission.

Transfer applicants with more than two years' credit from another institution should consider the following:

Duke will grant credit for only two years of work done elsewhere, regardless of how many credits a student has. The classes for which a student receives credit are chosen by the registrar.
The student is eligible for financial aid only for eight minus the number of semesters enrolled elsewhere. For example, for a student who has been enrolled five semesters elsewhere, only three semesters' worth of financial aid will be available at Duke. There is no need-based financial aid available for international transfer students.

Duke accepts both the Duke Application and the Common Application, and we give equal consideration to both methods. If you would like to apply on-line, you must use the Common Application.

Students using the Common Application are also required to complete the Common Application essay, which is not included here. Students using the Duke Application are required to complete the Duke Application essay, which is listed below.

Short-Answer Questions

Your answer to the following question(s) will be evaluated along with the essay you wrote as part of the Common Application. Please take advantage of this additional opportunity to let us know about your intellectual and personal interests. Please limit each answer as indicated. Items 3 and 4 are optional—and, yes, they truly are optional!

1. (Required) If you want to transfer to Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, please discuss why you consider Duke a good match for you. Is there something in particular at Duke that attracts you? If you want to transfer to the Pratt School of Engineering, please discuss why you want to study engineering and why you would like to study at Duke. Please limit your response to one or two paragraphs.

2. (Required) Consider the books, essays, poems, or journal articles you have read over the last year or two, either for school or leisure. Please discuss the way in which one of them has changed your understanding of the world, other people, or yourself. Please limit your response to several paragraphs.

3. (Optional) If you have participated in any significant research activity outside of school, please provide a brief description. Please limit this response to one or two paragraphs and attach a separate sheet. If you choose not to submit the information, your chance of admission will not be affected.

4. (Optional) We seek to understand and appreciate you as an individual. If there is a parent, sibling, other relative, or friend of yours who you think could help us do that, we would be happy to receive a one-page letter from one of them. This optional information will be considered in our understanding of you as a person, but will not be formally evaluated as part of your application. If you choose not to submit the information, your chance of admission will not be affected.

Duke Application Essay

Please answer on a separate sheet of paper. Remember, this is your opportunity to speak to us in your own voice, so be yourself. Choose one of the following questions and indicate which question you've chosen. We ask that you limit your essay to no more than two pages and use double spacing if the essay is typed or computer printed. Be sure to include your name and address on all attached sheets.

1. Have you witnessed a person who is close to you doing something that you considered seriously wrong? Describe the circumstances, your thoughts, and how you chose to respond. If you discussed it with the person, was his/her justification valid? In retrospect, what, if anything, would you have done differently and why?

2. What has been your most profound or surprising intellectual experience, or when did you come of age intellectually?

3. Write on any topic of importance to you. If you have written a personal essay for another purpose—even an essay for another college—that you believe represents you, your writing, and your thinking particularly well, feel free to submit it.

If you wish to be on our mailing list, click here. We will begin mailing transfer applications with viewbooks in December.