Here’s the situation: I have a crappy ACT of 28 (non stem comp 35, 12 in writing). Multiple leadership positions including president of the community service and geography club as well as dorm prefect, five varsity letters, captain of three varsity sports, Mom is an alum, doing ROTC, applying ED, UW 4.2 W 4.7, Cambridge AICE English, Cambridge AICE International Relations, Honors Stats, Honors Forensics, College help class, great essay about my coast to coast bike ride from Oregon to NJ (conveys perservence), and great recs. Since I’m applying ED, I can’t retake the ACT in time. What are my chances?
Duke’s acceptance rate is 9%. Are you a recruited athlete? Has you family made large donations to the school? Absent that, I think the odds are slim. What does your school’s Naviance and college counselor say?
Mom is pretty involved with Duke, I’m sure she donates. Not recruited. Naviance and counselor say basically what I think: there’s a chance.
Was also thinking about taking a gap year to study and get ACT 33+ while getting a job and doing community service. That’s only if I don’t get into top choices, however
What’s Duke’s policy on testing. Are you sure you can’t take the 10/28 ACT? Many schools let you submit updated scores after the ED deadline as long as the application is in.
Have you taken the SAT before?
What other colleges are on your list?
I’d take a gap year if you want to take a gap year for other reasons but not just to study for tests to get into a “dream school” but I also think students shouldn’t have one dream school. So many great colleges out there. Plus, you can always transfer.
Will check Duke’s policy regarding October ACT, didn’t do well on the SAT, current college list is
Duke
Notre Dame
Rice
UVA
USNA
Johns Hopkins
Cornell
Columbia (legacy there too)
Safeties: Boston U/C, American, Wake Forest, Clemson.
Gap year would be an emergency type situation.
Many schools will not accept tests taken during a gap year, so check each school’s policy before taking a gap year just to retest. Your list is very reach heavy. Even your safeties aren’t safe.
Sounds like you are at boarding school. How rigorous/prestigious is your school? What’s your class rank or standing? I guess one thing I’m trying to get at is how much grade inflation is there?
I find your list a bit top heavy. Does your college counselor consider Wake, Boston College, BU safeties or matches?
What’s your home state?
I agree that your list does not have real “safeties.” Those that you list are somewhat reachy. As for your other list, each of those are extreme reaches.
I agree with the posters above. My nephew was valedictorian, 3 sport/4yr varsity, various EC’s, tons of community svc, 1560 SAT, and a URM. He was waitlisted at Stanford (even though his sister goes there) and accepted at Duke where he currently attends. Never hurts to try applying to Duke, but your list needs some true safeties.
Fairly prestigious, counselor considers all my current safeties matches. From NY
Extreme reaches simply because of low total comp? As I said, I have a 35 without stem (not sure if that’s better than simply low score overall)
Here is what Duke says about tests and ED:
November 1 (For an application to be considered complete, students must fulfill the testing requirement and submit the appropriate scores by this date. We will consider additional testing taken after the deadline but before decisions are made. The latest date for additional testing is November 4 for the SAT and Subject Tests and October 28 for the ACT.)
Sports recruit is always a strong hook in admissions. If you are a very strong athlete in one of the sport you are participating, then it wouldn’t hurt to reach out to the coach to see if they can either recruit you, or at the very least give you support in admissions.
If you think that those colleges are safeties you stand a good chance of being shut out and ending up at a community college or taking a gap year. You need a dose of reality.
If your college counselor is calling them matches, why are you considering them safeties? At a prep school, one of the things you are paying for is knowledgable college counseling. Trust their opinion.
I would assume if OP was recruitable for sports at that level, that path would have already been taken.
Still would be helpful to know where you fall ranking wise in your class, at least roughly.
Class rank:
Top 5% of class, approx #4/102
Why wouldn’t I consider them safeties? I mixed low matches with schools that I could get into fairly easily
You really don’t get it, do you.
A 28 ACT is in the bottom 25% of admitted students at BC and Wake Forest.
Those “safeties” also deny students they feel are using them as safeties.
“Why wouldn’t I consider them safeties? I mixed low matches with schools that I could get into fairly easily”
Because you said your college counselor, who makes his/her living doing this and has more experience and access to info than you do, plus is more objective, told you they were matches for you. That’s why. 
That’s not saying you won’t get into some of them but it’s not a slam dunk.