Duke Transfer Acceptance Rate and Requirements — 2024
December 13, 2023
In 2024, Duke University is as difficult to gain acceptance into as an Ivy League school. This school’s combination of world-class academics, a picturesque campus, and a passionate sports scene is hard to match. Therefore, it’s little surprise that 50,000+ teens apply each year and 94% of that group is ultimately turned away. However, if you were part of that 94%, the dream of becoming a Blue Devil still has a heartbeat. This blog will share the Duke transfer acceptance rate as well as other essential pieces of information like the Duke University transfer deadline, requirements, decision date, and much more.
Duke Transfer Acceptance Rate
Below we present the most current available Duke University transfer acceptance rate as well as historical data.
For entry in the fall of 2022, 2,126 students applied for transfer admission, and 89 were accepted. This means that the Duke transfer acceptance rate is 4.1%.
For entry in the fall of 2021, there were 1,679 transfer applicants and 81 individuals were accepted. This means that the Duke transfer acceptance rate was 4.8%.
When trying to get the complete picture of how difficult it is to transfer into a given school, it is important to look at historical data. Many schools have wild fluctuations in transfer acceptance rates from year to year. Yet, this is not the case here. As you can see, the Duke transfer acceptance rate has been consistently under 7% for the last five years.
Historical transfer rates are as follows:
| Year | Acceptance Rate |
| 2020 | 5.4% |
| 2019 | 6.1% |
| 2018 | 6.6% |
| 2017 | 6.7% |
Duke Transfer Deadline
The university offers only a fall transfer option. The Duke transfer deadline for fall applicants is March 15. If you are submitting supplemental art materials, they can be submitted between February 1 and March 15.
Duke Transfer Requirements
The Duke transfer requirements are as follows:
- Completed Common App for Transfer
- Final high school transcripts
- College transcripts
- SAT or ACT scores (optional in 2023-24)
- College Report
- Two letters of recommendation (one must be from a college instructor)
- Alumni interview (optional and available on a limited basis)
- Supplemental materials for exceptional talent in dance, theater, art, or music
Duke Transfer Acceptance Rate (Continued)
Students who have the best chance to gain admission to Duke have the following attributes:
- In the process of completing at least one full year of credits.
- Are rising sophomores. Duke admits a limited number of rising juniors as well.
- Earned exceptional grades in their first year at a community college or 4-year university.
- Possess special talents inside or outside of the classroom that set them apart from other high-achievers.
Duke Transfer GPA
The minimum recommended GPA by the university is 3.7. However, in our experience, you will need a GPA of 3.85 or above to be a truly competitive applicant to Duke. Those admitted in 2022-23 possessed an average GPA of 3.9, with a mid-50% range of 3.85 to 4.0.
Duke Transfer Writing Supplement
All transfer applicants must respond to the following four essay prompts.
- We would like to understand more about you and your academic path. Why and how did you choose your current or most recent college or university? What has changed since then, and what has led you to consider transferring? Please respond with an essay of between 1500 and 3600 characters.
- What is your sense of Duke as a university and a community, and why do you consider it a good match for you? If there’s something in particular about our offerings that attracts you, feel free to share that as well. (1500 character max).
Duke University Transfer Acceptance Rate (Continued)
You can also answer between 0 and 2 of the following optional prompts (up to 1,650 characters each).
- We believe a wide range of personal perspectives, beliefs, and lived experiences are essential to making Duke a vibrant and meaningful living and learning community. Feel free to share with us anything in this context that might help us better understand you and what you might bring to our community.
- Tell us about an intellectual experience in the past two years that you found absolutely fascinating.
- We believe there is benefit in sharing and sometimes questioning our beliefs or values; who do you agree with on the big important things, or who do you have your most interesting disagreements with? What are you agreeing or disagreeing about?
- We recognize that “fitting in” in all the contexts we live in can sometimes be difficult. Duke values all kinds of differences and believes they make our community better. Feel free to tell us any ways in which you’re different, and how that has affected you or what it means to you.
- Duke’s commitment to inclusion and belonging includes sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression. Feel free to share with us more about how your identity in this context has meaning for you as an individual or as a member of a community.
Duke Transfer Decision Date
The Duke University transfer decision date is in mid-May. However, they sometimes notify applicants earlier.
Final Thoughts – Duke University Transfer Acceptance Rate
Duke typically matriculates about 50 students per year, many of whom are looking for a more rigorous academic experience or major not offered by their previous institution. Although you can indicate your top three academic interests on the application, you will not be accepted to a specific major. Instead, you will be accepted to either the Trinity College of Arts & Sciences or Pratt School of Engineering, and will work with an advisor to obtain credit for previous coursework as well as choose a course of study. Furthermore, Duke offers robust support for transfers with programs like the Summer Transition Series and Project Transfer, a required experiential orientation program.
If you are dead set on leaving your current college, you’ll want to apply to other schools in addition to Duke University. Even if you have a 4.0, admission into Duke is far from a guarantee, so you’ll want to create a balanced list of institutions that include safety schools.
For more about the transfer experience at Duke, check out this article from The Chronicle, Duke’s independent news organization.
If you are looking for information on how to apply to Duke as a first-year student, you may find the following blogs to be of interest:
Those searching for application info on other institutions may wish to visit our Dataverse pages/blogs:
