Duke just asked me about Summer Start, June 1st

[queencruella]

This is

Why shouldn't people be annoyed if they applied for a single degree with a fall-start and are expected to pay more money and go to school two extra semesters to get a dual degree they didn't even want in the first place? There are people who are on the summer-start waitlist who have already applied for two degrees and indicated that they would be willing to do a summer start.

Because they should feel happy to have a chance to be admitted in the first place, or they should withdraw.  Duke's giving an extra option here, it seems.

This is a ridiculous assumption. The OP did not apply for a joint-degree program, so why should he/she be thrilled to be offered something he/she didn't ask for? If you were looking at 3-bedroom houses in a certain price range in a choice neighborhood and only a 4-bedroom that cost significantly more popped up on the market and already had a few offers on the table, it wouldn't be assumed that you would put in an offer on it immediately, would it?

[assembletheways]

This is

Why shouldn't people be annoyed if they applied for a single degree with a fall-start and are expected to pay more money and go to school two extra semesters to get a dual degree they didn't even want in the first place? There are people who are on the summer-start waitlist who have already applied for two degrees and indicated that they would be willing to do a summer start.

Because they should feel happy to have a chance to be admitted in the first place, or they should withdraw.  Duke's giving an extra option here, it seems.

This is a ridiculous assumption. The OP did not apply for a joint-degree program, so why should he/she be thrilled to be offered something he/she didn't ask for? If you were looking at 3-bedroom houses in a certain price range in a choice neighborhood and only a 4-bedroom that cost significantly more popped up on the market and already had a few offers on the table, it wouldn't be assumed that you would put in an offer on it immediately, would it?

I don't think that Duke is assuming everyone will want the offer (I haven't read the email so I don't know the exact language, but it seems that many people would want the chance to consider the offer).  I also don't think it is assumed that one should do something that they don't want to do.  It personally makes sense to me why oldhat wouldn't want to try to get the spot.  Using your analogy, I think Duke is saying, "Hey, we don't have any 3-bedroom houses left (they are full for fall), would you be interested in a 4-bedroom?"

[queencruella]

I think that's a better analysis. I guess I just don't get why people on this thread think it's a no-brainer for the OP to go to Duke. Two weeks is not a lot of time, and many people are simply not going to be able to move within the span of two weeks, especially if they have jobs, families, or need to move cross country.

[joespecial]

Yes, I would be thrilled, personally. But also a lot poorer.

[tacojohn]

This start-your-mandatory-dual-degree-in-two-weeks-or-else idea is retarded. If other people want it, fine, but it's not for me. I don't get why douches like Halfie are getting their panties in a twist and getting personally offended about my choice.

HTH.

No one is getting offended by your choice, they are taking issue with your assumptions an attitude toward Duke.  Like the reply above, Duke's attitude was likely not "Hey, we've decided we want you to come now, and we're THE Duke University, so we feel like we can make you do all this.  See you in two weeks."  They made a decision, based on people withdrawing, but the offer wasn't exactly the option you wanted.  Like any good salesman, they offered you an alternative.  That alternative was not acceptable to you.  If you saw a shirt you wanted at Abercrombie & Fitch, walked in and asked for it in blue, and when they said, "We're out of those, but we have this similar shirt in red, but it's a little more expensive," you wouldn't blow up at the sales associate and say "What, you think just because you're Abercrombie you can throw whatever you want at me and I'll buy it?"

I don't think USC over Duke is a no-brainer.  And when I recommended Duke earlier in the thread, I must have misread something, becuase I had no idea you were required to do a dual degree.  But I also recommended that you wait before making this decision as long as you could.  And clearly you made the decision when you were emotional about what Duke was asking you to do.

[Stephon Devante]

"Hey, we've decided we want you to come now, and we're THE Duke University, See you in two weeks." 

I don't have the email in front of me, but I'm pretty sure the language was similar. lol

[reynolda]

also... for those not following the other thread about this, i just got this email back:


Hi reynolda,

I just spoke with Dean Hoye and it looks like we're having a lot of
availability issues with the other gradute programs, so the joint degree
in Political Science seems unlikely at this point.  Because of this, we
will likely be taking mostly JD/LLM candidates, since we handle the LLM
admissions process internally.

Given what you have told me, it would probably be best to remain in
your current program, and if you are still interested we would be happy
to keep you on our waitlist for the fall.

Let me know if I can be of any more assistance.

Regards,

Jamie Reynolds Kronman



in the original email we were told that there were a number of openings for summer and that we would have to pursue a joint degree that began in the summer months, either jd/llm or jd/ma in a variety of disciplines.   

duke kinda screwed over a lot of people by not being clear about which they were really offering spots for- perhaps they didn't really know until today, but it seems like something they should have checked out before saying that ANY of the jd/ma/llm programs would work, as they did in the earlier email. 

i for one went through a huge ordeal trying to figure out how to pull out of my study abroad program early so that i could get back to the states and take duke's offer... only to learn after begging for more information a few times that the above is the case. 

[tttt]

i for one went through a huge ordeal trying to figure out how to pull out of my study abroad program early so that i could get back to the states and take duke's offer... only to learn after begging for more information a few times that the above is the case. 

Wait a sec, did they actually give you an offer recently, or is this in response to the email that was probing who would be interested in switching to a joint degree?

[reynolda]

nope, this was just in correspondence with them about this offer--- the program i'm in though would have taken quite a bit to get out of and still get a college degree (huge, huge mess because of full year classes with one all-year exam at the end), so i had to figure out if it was going to be possible before i would be able to accept the duke offer.... which it turns out wasn't even made.  hence my frustration.

[reynolda]

Duke sucks.

Am I going to see you at USC?

looks like