Ok so I kinda told myself I wasn’t going to do the chance me stuff but lately I’ve just been concerned about what I’m doing and if I am doing everything wrong. I am a junior at a high school in Florida, so I have some time before applying. Here’s what I plan to have by next year- please let me know if you have any advice at all!! My dream school is Duke-I will probably apply EA.
-White middle class Female in Florida suburbs, pretty competitive public high school
-junior
GPA
-UW: 4.0 W: 5.4
-Total of 17 AP classes by next year, taking 6 rn and 6 next year ( so far have all 5s, expecting mostly 5s and probably a few 4s)
-Class rank
Super competitive class, right now I am 24/847 but expecting to be top 15
TESTING
-Got 1450/1520 on PSAT so I will qualify for national merit
-Taking SAT soon and expecting something around 1550
EXTRACURRICULARS
-President of Helping the Homeless Club
-President of Beta Club
-Officer for NHS (I still have to run, expecting something small like secretary, maybe VP bc I don’t want to be pres.)
-Founder/President of an Environmental Club (this is my favorite)- we are organizing a community earth day event rn
-Starting a Food Recovery Program to donate excess lunch food to local food banks
-Played Club volleyball and JV volleyball freshman and sophomore year
-Officer for Choir
-Volunteering a lot at homeless feeding events and shelters, lots of miscellaneous stuff, volunteered since 6th grade at Give Kids the World Village
-I’m starting to apply for jobs so that’s not definitive but possible
-I’m applying to 2 internships this summer: one that feeds underprivileged children, another at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (I can definitely get Feeding Children Everywhere, possibly at Florida DEP)
-Member of Cancer Awareness Society and Science National Honors Society
-Starting a blog about the environment and helping others
ESSAYS
Okay honestly I think my essays are going to be really strong. I enjoy writing a lot and I have some good experiences. I plan on writing about my relationship with my brother ( he came out to me last year, really big event for me) and how that has pushed me and made me find purpose
TEACHER RECS
I don’t have a super strong relationship with any teachers, but they all at least like me. I will probably get my 10th grade environmental teacher( also sponsors my club) because he liked me a lot and he writes a lot of recs so I think he can make mine special. I’m thinking about my AP Lang teacher too because I work really hard in that class and I got the first 9 on an essay of the year and it was kinda a big deal so she could talk about that and I think she likes me so yeah lol
Hooks: none
Aaaaannnyyywaaaayyyyssssss, thank you for reading this!!! I just really want to get out of Florida, and Duke just seems like the perfect place for me. I’ve looked at other schools too like UNC, UF, and Ivies, but, while they’re great, I just see myself as a Blue Devil. If you have any constructive criticism or advice, please let me know! I’m a little bit lost when it comes to college admissions tbh, and I’d love to hear what else I could do to improve my application:)
@emgo2343 Duke does not offer EA so your options will be ED or RD. Keep in mind ED is binding and if accepted, you are expected to attend (ED agreement signed by your counselor, your parents and you). Make sure that if you apply ED, you have run the financial calculator on Duke’s website and understand the finances. Too many kids with dream schools that they get into then find out it was not financially possible.
How you actually do on the SAT will obviously be a consideration but your GPA is very good. Lots of ECs. On paper, you look like an excellent student. One thing I will mention is when I visited Duke with my son, the admissions officer made it a point of saying that they have changed their philosophy on admits starting two years ago. They found students with lots of APs and ECs were showing up as freshman already burnt out after 4 years of trying to build the perfect resume for college apps. You may want to focus on one or two and demonstrate an indepth involvement in that.
Have you had a chance to visit Duke?
Thank you so much!! Yeah I wasn’t planning on putting all those ECs on there, just the ones that really matter to me. I have visited Duke and I loved it! Financially my parents are limited but we are applying for aid and doing more research into that so it’s all good. And I meant to put ED, so yeah I know all about that and what it entails, that’s why I’m still not positive about applying through that way or Regular. Thank you! @paveyourpath
Why do you expect a 1550 if you got a 1450 on the PSAT? Have you been doing significant prep because an 100 point increase isn’t easy especially that high up. A 1450 is about 15-20 questions wrong. A 1550 is about 4.
@a20171 haha yeah I know that seems like a lot, but the PSAT is out of 1520, while the SAT is out of 1600. I’m not totally sure how the scoring differs but I figured if I got a similar ratio then my PSAT score translates to a 1520/1600. A 30 point jump doesn’t seem too bad, and I didn’t study for the PSAT (I didn’t take it seriously at all lol) but I’ve been studying for the SAT so I should see at least some improvement. Not sure that’s how it works but that’s what I’ve been basing it on. Practice SATs online I’ve been consistently in the mid 1500s as well.
Wow 17 AP classes are a lot, congrats to you for taking such a demanding course load. Duke admissions is somewhat of a crapshoot, and depends heavily upon who else is applying in your region/city/high school.
Your class rank is high (top 3%), but it looks like you can even go higher. Great.
Your chances for admission are much higher applying ED vs RD (nearly 2.5 fold higher). But you probably already knew that. Unlike some other schools (Princeton, Harvard, MIT come to mind) Duke actually gives some push to kids applying during the ED round.
Here are my suggestions:
- between now and next year really figure out why Duke is the place for you. Be as specific as possible. Generalities like weather, basketball, academics really can be found at a number of schools. Make a compelling argument on why Duke is the best for you (and vice versa)
- Have a sit down talk with your parents and ask them how much they can afford each year. Run the numbers on the financial aid website to make sure the numbers work before you apply ED. You don't have the benefit of being able to compare financial aid numbers from competing schools during the ED round. Try to avoid having sticker shock with your parents before applying.
- Come back and post once you have your SAT 1 scores. You will also need 2 subject test scores
So glad you are considering Duke. Best of luck!
@sgopal2 thanks so much for the advice!! I’ll definitely take all that into account during the application process:)
You seem well qualified. Applying ED would boost your odds a lot. Good luck!
@emgo2343 Hey you are definitely on the right track, but I’m not sure what the brother part meant here, could you please clarify?
Haha yeah I don’t really want to get into details, i was just trying to say I have a really important experience that i would write about for my essays and I’m confident I could tie into my application @dimitri1488
You know for sure that you’ll qualify for Nation Merit? Because 2017’s estimated semifinalist cutoffs were much lower for some states (MN’s estimated was 215 and turned out to be a 219) so be careful.
Which AP’s have you taken so far?
You sound right on track (and holy cow your class size is huge!) and good luck with next!
@emgo2343 It actually does matter and depends on what you said. If he came out to be a gay and you had to go through the whole process of accepting it, that’s one thing and completely understandable. But if you meant that he fell in love with you and you both had a sexual relationship, colleges might not like that
I got a 1440 on the PSAT and I won’t qualify for the National Merit Scholarship; I also live in Florida.
I also have no idea how you have a GPA higher than 5, but hey, you do you.