<p>So I posted this in the general "chance me" forum but I realized I am mostly just interested at my chances for Duke individually, so here was my post:</p>
<p>I am a junior going to a small public school in North Carolina. I am going to major in either political science/ foreign affairs or something to that effect. Currently I am planning on applying to Duke early decision then a variety of schools regular decision if I don't get in: Georgetown, Harvard, Dartmouth, Princeton, Brown, Columbia. I am still trying to decide on a couple of safety schools that would be good for my major any suggestions would be appreciated. Anyway here we go...</p>
<p>GPA: 3.96 (Unweighted) 4.8 (Weighted) will probably be near a 5.0 by the time I apply next year.
Rank: #1 (hopefully this will help a lot but it is only out of 90 students in my class haha)
ACT: Composite 31
PSAT: 203
SAT: 1980 the first time but I am retaking it soon because I am not even close to being happy with that
AP: English 3 and 4, Bio, World History, Euro History, US history, Gov and politics, human geography, stats
Essays: I am typically not that good at essay writing but I will make sure and take my time on these and give them lots of thought.
EC: vice president of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes at my school
Vice President of NHS at my school
Educational Chairperson (what a title right?) of Sigma Alpha Gamma
co-captain of the varsity soccer team
track
basketball (one year)
my school does not have a Model United Nations club but me and my friend are trying to start one. We have been to 3 conferences and loved them all as well as Youth Legislative Assembly. We have several more planned in the next few months and if everything works out we can be the founders of the club at our school which I assume would look really good as a leadership role.
I did the NC House Page Program last summer and I am doing the Senate Page Program this summer.
I might be forgetting a few things but this is the main part of it.</p>
<p>Job/Volunteer activities: I know this is where I am weak but I am hoping to fix that this summer. Anyway,
I refereed an indoor soccer league my freshman year
Volunteered at my library's summer reading program for kids
several projects through FCA such as helping serve food at a homeless shelter which I have helped organize
I am hoping to get an internship this summer with a politician I know but if that doesn't work out I will probably just do quiet a bit of volunteer activities to make up for it.</p>
<p>TG3 - you’ve got several things going for you - you are from a small school in NC, top of your class, good ECs, good volunteer work. Your biggest weakness will be your test scores. Check out the stats on median SAT scores for Duke students and you’ll see that you would be a much stronger candidate if you could add 200-300 points. Can you take a good SAT review course? That would probably be a huge help and some of the review companies offer financial aid if that is an issue. Working with the politician is also likely to be impressive. Have you spoken yet with your college counselor at school? He/she will probably have a good sense of your chances and should have good overall advice on your college application strategy. Good luck.</p>
<p>Thanks! yeah I have spoken to my college counselor at school but honestly my school is so small and in such a good area for colleges we have never had anyone branch out and apply to an Ivy League school from what she said, in fact I’m not sure if we have ever had anyone go to Duke so she is having to find out some of this stuff as I do haha. I was getting ready to sign up for the SAT again but I wasn’t sure if I should take it or the ACT because as you can see my ACT was better but I had both scores automatically sent to Duke so I can’t just choose to not send my SAT score. I have had some people say I should retake one and some people the other so idk what to do.</p>
<p>Rather than just taking the tests again, is there any chance you can take a review course? These can be hugely helpful and, in all honesty, many kids who apply to Duke and similar schools only get the scores they do after taking review courses and prepping hard. Some of the more well known (and expensive) courses are by Stanley Kaplan and the Princeton Review. I don’t know if any of these, or others, are available in your area. Review books and online reviews are also available. The truth is that studying for the SAT (or ACT) with a good review is probably the best way to add a few hundred points to your score.</p>
<p>I suspect that Duke admissions will appreciate that you are from a rural area. Do your best in your essays to describe your background and your aspirations. In particular, work hard on your “Why Duke?” essay.</p>
<p>You seem like an intelligent young man with a lot of potential. Even if Duke doesn’t end up being the best fit for you, I’m sure you will get into a great school and have a fantastic college experience. Keep up all your hard work and good luck.</p>
<p>Alright thank you very much for your help, I’m going to see what I can do about getting some sort of review before my next test and hopefully I will be able to significantly bring up my scores.</p>
<p>I don’t believe enrolling in a test prep program is worth the money. If you’ve only taken each test once, give both a second try. I took my first SAT June of my sophomore year and got a 2020, that helped me test the waters. Then I took another one in March of my junior year after doing around 15 practice tests and got a 2180. I took it a third time June of junior year and got a 2320. I guess the practice tests finally sunk in for that last SAT. So I’d advise you to take both a second time to see how much you improve, then if you score another ~31 or ~2000 you can decide to enroll in a test prep program.</p>
<p>Just to update the internship did not work out, instead I think I might volunteer over the summer for one of the numerous political campaigns going on. Also, I have started to coauthor a weekly politics and economics column in my local newspaper with my friend. I am still ranked first at the end of the year by two one hundredth’s of a point D: my GPA has rose to about a 4.88 weighted so I think I am still on track to hit a 5.00 by the time I apply early next year.</p>
<p>You seem competitive, I’d work on increasing the ACT to like a 33 or SAT to around a 2200 so your scores are average/above average. Everything else looks pretty good though, and ED definitely helps!</p>
<p>definitely Trinity I am no engineer haha</p>