PhD transfer students in Religious Studies?

[studyordie]

I've been keeping up with a very active philosophy forum (http://community.livejournal.com/who_got_in/89823.html) because one of may apps, actually my best shot at this point, is to Villanova's philosophy dept. A Ph.D. student on that forum will be transferring from a decent program he seems to like to a top-10 program because, as in our fields, it's ridiculously hard to get jobs and a ridiculous pedigree helps. He said he is doing so with the full support of his current profs and he has now been accepted at more than one top 10 program. One would assume he did not get into those programs the first time around or he would have been there in the first place. My question, which has absolutely no bearing on my situation right now, is whether or not this sort of thing happens in the fields that we represent?

I posted this separately so it will stick around after the pages in the main thread flip, I'm especially curious if any of the contributors around here from top programs (Chicago, UVa) have seen people coming into there programs from "less prestigious" Ph.D. programs.

[samsarictraveler]

I do know a person in PR at Chicago who transfered from an MA-PhD program in Sanskrit at Harvard.

However, grad school transfers usually occur when a student finishes their MA. If you transfered from one PhD program to another in religion, you probably would have to start all over again! It might happen, but its probably exceedingly rare. The only reason I can see is if an advisor leaves one program for another, and takes her grad students with her.