<p>Hey guys! As I'm preparing to start working on my essays for ED, does anyone have any tips for the questions on the Duke Supplement? I'm referring to the question that is optional for Trinity students. Is it worth answering? thanks!</p>
<p>Of course it’s worth answering if you really want to go to Duke. What does it say about an applicant’s interest when they couldn’t even be bothered to take the time and write a few short paragraphs on the question asked?</p>
<p>If your applying ED, yes definitely write the optional “why duke” essay…even if your applying RD it would probably be in your best interest to write it. It would be weird for someone to apply ED but not be able to write a couple paragraphs about why duke is their first choice.</p>
<p>As for advice, you should include why duke is a good school for you, but more importantly why you are the right student for duke. Be sure to tie your strengths and experiences with aspects of life at Duke and show how the relationship will benefit both the institution and the student. Keep it relatively succint and show that you know a lot about Duke and have imagined yourself as a student there. Best of luck.</p>
<p>def, DEF worth answering. any chance you get the admissions officers to show who you are is a benefit to yourself.</p>
<p>explain, basically, why you belong in durham. why is duke best for you? will dukeengage help you in your endeavors? focus? the cohesiveness of the student body?</p>
<p>You probably shouldn’t talk about duke engage if you want to stand out. The ADCOM that visited my region talked about how 60-70% of all Why Duke essays used Duke Engage. Maybe you could discuss how Duke Engage will help continue one of your current service projects. Essentially you should answer why do are you applying ED. (It should be fairly obvious, but you are putting Duke down as your #1 choice, so there has to be a reason). For Trinity though its not required and they do not penalize you. I know a few people that got into Duke without even looking at the Why Duke essay (they were RD applicants though).</p>
<p>^ I second that. Even though DukeEngage seemed cool to me, I purposefully left it out of my Why Duke essay :)</p>
<p>all of my friends who got into duke (they aren’t going there because they all got into HYPSM) didn’t write any optional essays either.</p>
<p>^But again those were RD students. I haven’t seen a ED student who didn’t write the essay.</p>
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<p>that was the most irrelevant piece of information lol. i’m not a hardass, but what are you trying to insinuate, frenchhorngirl?</p>
<p>They probably wouldn’t have cared if they got rejected either.</p>
<p>Write about where you will be contributing on campus. read the Chronicle from the past year. Demonstrate that you understand Duke’s missions and forecast how you will access Duke’s vast resources in a unique way. Duke has huge breadth of resources but few freshman truly examine them in time…to write about it well.</p>
<p>That’s good advice Faline2!</p>
<p>^ QP, your username contains one of my favorite prefixes (or would it be prefices?), next to “meta.” :D</p>
<p>Hey guys.</p>
<p>You all sound extremely knowledgeable in your quests to get into the college of your choice. I am from a small school in Wisconsin. I have been accepted to a well-respected state school, UW-Madison. However, Duke is truly my dream college. I understand that this is extremely last minute and that my chances are extremely slim and that I know pretty much nothing about the the application process of schools of this caliber. </p>
<p>Please help. I am filling out the Duke Supplement. One thing that really excited me about the college, was the school of public policy. Is that something you apply to as an undergraduate and should I fill out the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences question? And is there any other advice that you are willing to give me?</p>
<p>Thanks so much for your time.</p>
<p>Sincerely,
Katy P
Hopeful Underdog</p>
<p>If you want to do pubpol, you apply as a trinity A&S undergrad. So you would answer the trinity questions. </p>
<p>Personally, what got me excited about the school of public policy was their delicious deli…that breakfast croissant thingy that they make is heavenly (especially with a dash of hot sauce) and they make it ALL DAY! Perfect for those boring stat classes that they always put in the Pubpol auditorium :D</p>
<p>Anyway, even though you are answering the generic trinity question, you could probably angle your response towards explaining why pubpol specifically gets you excited. The adcoms will probably thank you for sparing them from reading another DukeEngage-is-the-shiz essay</p>
<p>Thanks so much. I don’t even know what DukeEngage is. I’m screwed.</p>
<p>Don’t worry, it didn’t even exist when I was applying. Just go with what you know.</p>
<p>Thankfully I don’t know what Duke Engage is. Well I know what it IS just not really what it’s about. Luckily I didn’t put that in my essay, reading all of your comments. I just turned in all my Duke stuff today. [crosses fingers]</p>