<p>Stats:[ul][<em>]SAT: 740 Math (770 Super-score), 800 Writing, 730 Reading - 2270 (2300 Superscore)[</em>]SAT II: 800 Math II, 800 Physics[<em>]GPA: School does not give GPA, but 4.0UW, 4.9W[</em>]Rank: School does not rank, but 1-2/200[<em>]Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): 44/45 for IB Diploma - Full Candidate[/ul]Subjective[ul][</em>]Essays: Excellent[<em>]Recs: Excellent[</em>]Supplementary Material: Abstract - Economics Extended Essay[<em>]Summer Activities: taught ESL (Second Language English) to class of 10 students - 8 weeks/400 hours at prestigious Internship - Breakthrough Collaborative/Summerbridge[</em>]Hook: None[/ul]Personal[ul][<em>]Location: Hong Kong[</em>]High School Type: Private - International[<em>]Ethnicity: Indian[</em>]Gender:Male[/ul]Extracurriculars[ul][<em>]Founder/President of Revision Club (11,12) - Head of Class said that it was the first time she had seen initiative of this sort in all her years at the school, but I'm not getting a recommendation from her[</em>]Founder/President of Guitar Club (11,12) - The most popular student founded/led club at the school with over 30 students signing up within a day[<em>]Varsity Golf (11,12) - Represented school in golf tournaments after playing for only 3 months - been playing for 2 years now - ESSAY TOPIC[</em>]Started a proper business (11,12) - In charge of all Economic/Business decisions[<em>]Organizer/Leader of group project - building a small scale cloud chamber, writing research on muon decay and cosmic ray collisions[</em>]Organizer/Leader of group project - building a small scale particle accelerator[<em>]700 hours of community service over one year (11) - possibly continue till I get a 1000 hours (11,12)[</em>]Group leader of 6 - school trip to rural China to teach 10 year olds English for a week - they have never had contact with the language[<em>]Work with tutor class annually to earn about 1500 USD (annually) (6,7,8,9,10,11,12)[/ul]Awards:[ul][</em>]UKMT Gold Medal (8,9,10) - Teacher screwed up in 11 or I would have got gold again - International Award[<em>]UK Junior Olympiad (8) - Grade 8 too early to write on application? - International Award/Distinction[</em>]AMC12 (11,12) - 87 marks (particularly hard paper) - 89 was cut off for AIME - International Award/Distinction; 4th in school - School Distinction[<em>]Sunlife Maths Scholarship Competition (11,12) - 1 mark off distinction/top 25% - International Distinction[</em>]Euclid Scholarship Maths Scholarship Competition (11,12) - Distinction - 2 marks off International Honor Roll and mention on official website (top 2%) - International Award/Distinction[<em>]Elected Student Council Representative (9,10,12)[</em>]Economics Commendation (10) - School Award[<em>]Media Studies Commendation (10) - School Award[</em>]Merit Level Certificate of Achievement - International Citizenship (9,10) [SCHOOL][<em>]Spanish Award for Excellence (11) - School Award[</em>]Physics Award for Excellence (11) - School Award[li]Economics Award for Excellence (11) - School Award[/ul][/li]I am applying to Duke RD.</p>
<p>Just of note: I am taking part in a virtual stock exchange game with 100s of students around Hong Kong and am currently in the top 3. Even if I come in the top 20 I will win a award for representing my school, and if I come in the top 5 I will win an individual award. Furthermore, I will be doing a similar kind of competition, but in school only, and will most probably win that. How will these affect my chances?</p>
<p>How do you know they’ll be excellent already? I mean, you have a lot of awards, but most applicants are good. You shouldn’t let people chance you - how are they going to know your chances?</p>
<p>Stats and everything look pretty good. Just remember that Duke rejected 1300 valedictorians and other extremely qualified applicants so just don’t assume that you’ll get in, which makes it hard to “chance” someone. That being said, just continue to work hard in school, your extracurricular endeavors and write a stellar essay and college application and you should be fine.</p>
<p>I’m not seeing it. Your activities seem a little contrived and I don’t really see passion. Plus as an international, a 2300 is a little low. Internationals almost always need extremely high scores, especially Asian internationals.</p>
<p>You could get in, but I’m predicting WL.</p>
<p>Oh and almost all of your ECs are only 2 years old. Hopefully you have a reason for this and explain it. Not having long commitments is a very big negative.</p>
<p>I don’t really have a proper reason. We weren’t really aware of college and the overall factors until the beginning of Grade 11 when I really just started to do everything I could.</p>
<p>Don’t pay attention to USNAgolden, your stats are in line with Duke’s. You have just a good of a chance as anyone else. Just work hard on your essays and make sure you “come through” in the essays. Be genuine and sincere in your essays so that the college admissions officer can get a real feel for who you are as a person. Good luck with everything.</p>
<p>Meaning you only did things to get into college? So DCK7, how was USNAGolden2014 wrong about the lack of passion? And yeah, your stats are good, but they only get someone so far.</p>
<p>People on CC totally take acceptance for granted. You only post these threads to get validation of your chances of success. If you wanted to hear that you will be rejected, then you’d post your other schools as well and have people help you determine what your reaches/matches/safeties are.</p>
<p>Based on your attitude, I’m definitely switching to reject. If you have no passion as an international, then you’ve got a serious weakness. Internationals are EXTREMELY competitive, especially since most are rich, have amazing long-term passions, have done all kinds of volunteering/community service, and (through their parents’ connections) have gotten some amazing internships/jobs.</p>
<p>I interned at WashU for a week shadowing the admissions department, and I helped read internationals’ files… I know what I’m talking about. International acceptance rates are 1/2 of whatever the domestic rate is (at top schools).</p>
<p>lol I got in, why am I wasting my time reading this.
thanks Anon :)</p>
<p>It, could, just could, be possible that I posted this thread on this forum along with others to see how my chances would be across the board so as to actually finally determine the schools that I will apply to in the fall.</p>
<p>@UNSAgolden14: Your attitude is really negative, and projects a bad image for this Duke forum as a whole. Can you tone it down a bit? I mean seriously, this guy is just looking for Duke students to evaluate his chances of acceptance, not for them to condemn and nitpick every single one of his accomplishments. </p>
<p>Frankly, who can really tell “passion” from a sheet of paper? Who can judge whether or not 2300 is high or low enough for an international applicant? Although you state the truth when you said that a great majority of applicants do not get in, the OP’s stats and accomplishments are totally in-line with Duke’s average. I personally know international students at Duke with scores and ECs far inferior to the OP’s. The OP has a good shot of being accepted.</p>
Not to put you down or anything but I’m assuming that since you are apply to Duke RD, you haven’t gone through 12th grade.
That means that technically, your ECs are one year old?
So when you put “(11,12)” are you suggesting your projected to get those?
Because unless you have actually completed them, then you can’t put them down as 12th grade on your resume.
Or are you past 12th grade? Cause then you would be a transfer…</p>
<p>I am currently at the end of my 11th grade but the ones that I put down for 12th grade are the ones that I know with 100% certainty that I will obtain. We apply about 5 months into 12th grade so I presumed that any leadership roles/ECs that I will have in the 12th grade can be put on the application.</p>
<p>Regarding passion, I do actually have a sincere and genuine passion for economics. Unfortunately, our school does not really have many competitions or clubs for me to show this and, surprisingly, Hong Kong does not offer much either unless you are an undergraduate.</p>
<p>Just a note; when Duke admits you, you are either a Trinity or Pratt student. You DO NOT have a major. Your major choice on your application DOES NOT bind you to anything. It is debatable whether selecting a popular will hurt you (or selecting a unpopular one will help you, unlike some other schools).</p>
<p>edit: The point is that you don’t have to list Econ as your major on your application to be a econ pre-business student.</p>