Applying soon...

Colleges and Universities A-Z Duke University
1

<p>I know that there's a chances thread, but I wanted to know what people thought about Duke specifically. Do I have a shot?</p>

<p>The Basics
Hispanic Female from Florida</p>

<p>Academic Background
Class Rank: Top 25%
Unweighted GPA: 3.70 (estimate-- haven't gotten my report card back for the end of this year)
Weighted GPA: 4.80 (again, estimated)
PSAT: 206
SAT Critical Reading: 800
SAT Math: 680
SAT Writing: 710
Combined SAT: 2190</p>

<p>Magnet School
128 students per class year</p>

<p>Extracurriculars
Yearbook (9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, during the school year)
Type: Journalism/Publications
Editor in Chief
4 to 8 hr/wk for 30 wk/yr
Details: Is an actual class but it involves a LOT of hours out of class, as anyone who has ever taken yearbook will know.</p>

<p>French Honor Society (10th, 11th, 12th, during the school year)
Type: Foreign Language
Officer, Treasurer, Secretary, or equivalent
1-2 hr/wk for 40 wk/yr</p>

<p>Quill and Scroll (11th, 12th, during the school year)
Type: Journalism/Publications
Officer, Treasurer, Secretary, or equivalent
2 hr/wk for 40 wk/yr
Details: Honor Society</p>

<p>National Honor Society (12th, during the school year)
Type: Academic
Member
1 hr/wk for 40 wk/yr</p>

<p>Athletics
Varsity Water Polo (9th, 10th, 11th, 12th)
Co Captain
12 hr/wk for 25 wk/yr (1200 hours total)</p>

<p>Varsity Swimming (9th, 10th, 11th, 12th)
Co Captain
10 hr/wk for 20 wk/yr (800 hours total)</p>

<p>Jobs
Swimming Instructor (11th, 12th, during summer and the school year)
2-12 hr/wk for 20 wk/yr</p>

<p>Self-Employed-- Babysitting (10th, 11th, 12th, during summer and the school year)
3 hr/wk for 30 wk/yr</p>

<p>Lifeguard (11th, during summer)
20 hr/wk for 4 wk/yr</p>

<p>Internship
Office of Communications with local city
-wrote article for magazine
-worked with film crew
-filed, helped out around office, so on and so forth</p>

<p>Community Service
Office of Communications (apart from Internship)
Various other places, a few hours here and there
(I know my community service is kind of pathetic, but I'm hoping to start a service project this summer, so hopefully that helps).</p>

<p>Thanks everyone!</p>

2

<p>Is this for Pratt or trinity?</p>

3

<p>I think she has a good chance for both Trinity and Pratt. </p>

<p>She is a URM (I don’t know really the details but from what I heard, it helps more than it hurts)–For Duke, Hispanics are the smallest of minority by percent accepted (if you don’t count the native Americans since there are so few of those).</p>

<p>Her SAT falls in the range of Trinity (except Math by 10) but critical reading definitely makes up for that-few people get 800 on CR.</p>

4

<p>Pratt less so I think because her ECs aren’t science/math related for the most part. It would be hard to make a convincing case for an interest in engineering.</p>

5

<p>I agree with SBR, ECs and test scores indicate a more humanities/social science/english (Trinity). Assuming you are applying to Trinity (which is a good assumption since the majority of applicants are for Trinity) I would say you would most likely be accepted, because you have solid test scores and good ECs. If you have great recs and essays I would be surprised if you don’t get in. Of course being a URM also helps.</p>

6

<p>Question, does her keeping track of her hours for sports really matter? I mean does it make any difference that she said that, instead of varsity water polo 9-12th grade co-captain?</p>

7

<p>^the reason she said that is because the commonapp asks for those details. it’s generally a rough estimate.</p>

8

<p>Oh, ok. So on there would I count athletics outside of school?</p>

<p>I think you’ve got a good shot though, just nail the essay.</p>