Obviously, you must be a citizen, or you couldn’t apply to the USNA, but has most of your schooling been done someplace outside the US? if so did you come to the US for some/all of HS to prep for US college applications? Is English your first language?
The good news is that Duke explicitly gives legacy applicants a full, separate reading of their application, and by their own accounting, legacy kids have weaker stats than non-legacy kids…
The bad news is that your ACT puts you in the bottom 12% of accepted students- which is usually recruited athlete/hooked applicant land. If your 4.2UW GPA is out of 5.0, then your 3.36 GPA is very low. Your course rigor (which Duke ranks as ‘very important’) looks pretty weak: you list 2 AICE classes (one in a core academic class- English, which if English is your first language is not exactly the toughest) and 2 honors courses (both in non-core academic classes).
Duke has become increasingly selective in recent years (not least b/c of legacy loyalty), and the legacy bump can only do so much. Of course, there is “a chance”- just treat it like the lottery.
The rest of the list is perplexing. Did a college counselor actually select this list for you? Do you have particular reasons for going to any of them? I can see that somebody who is aching to go to Duke would be happy at UVa and that a ROTC person would be interested in USNA. Notre Dame for school football spirit? seems a big stretch, given all the other ways that Notre Dame is different than any of the other colleges on the list. Rice, Cornell & JHU make me wonder if there is a STEM element that is not evident in anything you have listed above. Columbia makes me wonder if you have actually looked at the Common Core requirement. And I don’t see an un-hooked applicant with a 3.36 and 28 ACT getting in to any of those.
So, I’m with @TomSrOfBoston: I would start making my gap year plan now. A post-bacc year with some serious academics might help you get into the names that you seem to be looking for.
You started this thread asking to be chanced. When anyone tells you that you are overestimating your chances of being accepted you argue and refuse to accept the advice.
By definition, you cannot have a 4.2 UW GPA on a 4.0 scale.
If your UW GPA is a 4.0, then that changes a lot of things. Not everything- I still think that is an odd group of colleges, and your academic rigor isn’t great - but a lot.
Are you a senior? I hate to pile on here, but the above posters are correct. I’d guess maybe in at American, probably at Clemson, and none of the rest. There are dozens of unis and LACs ranked in the, say, 30 to 60 range that may be better matches. And you need some true safeties. (You have the GPA, rank, ACT for a very good college, just not likely to be a Duke or UVa. You can be successful).
As a Duke alum, and interviewer, here are some observations:
As others point out, the 28 ACT is fairly low for Duke. My guess is that this would put you in the bottom 10-15% of accepted students. However not is all lost. Your GPA looks quite stellar. Good news is that Duke weighs GPA and Test scores equally. If you compensate with getting high scores in the other areas (reccs, essays, ECs, etc) then having a low ACT score won’t completely sink you.
Your application will undoubtedly go before committee for deliberation. Since your mom is an alum, it will also get an extra review. Your best chance of admission is via applying ED. I would definitely not recommend waiting until the RD round if Duke is your first choice.
Overall I agree with your counselor, I think you have a chance at Duke, but only via ED. My suggestion is to apply ED and then focus on writing killer essays.
Yes, @foosondaughter, I have seen students make that case. But, the fact is that you simply cannot have a 4.2 UW on a 4.0 scale, b/c definitionally the top mark can’t be more than a 4.0. If the school treats A+ grades as a 4.3, then either the scale is 4.3, not 4.0 (and a 4.2/4.3 = a 3.9/4.0) OR the 4.3 is a ‘weighted’ grade, and the 4.2 is W, not UW. Agreed that a 3.9 or 4.0 is more in line with the class rank
on a side note, OP, that is surprisingly sloppy language for a college counselor at a ‘fairly prestigious’ boarding school to be using.
‘matches’ = fits your stats, statistically you should get in, but you aren’t certain to get in (usually b/c too many qualified applicants overall)
‘safeties’ = you can be confident of getting in
fwiw, I have seen (first hand) students ED to a solid “match” school and be deferred and/or denied. The greater the imbalance between # of applicants & # of spaces, the more likely that is to happen, even for applicants whose stats are in the upper end of the accepted student range.
For Wake Forest, you should not submit your ACT scores and apply test optional. Your strong gpa, rank and rigorous school give you a legitimate shot there. Duke does reject a whole lot of legacies, but by all means apply ED and see what happens. Curious about your ACT score - if composite is a 28 but non-Stem in 35 what did you get in math/science? Must be fairly low. If so, so you have some strong math classes to make up for that?
If that is the case, you do not have a 4.2 UW. The highest UW GPA simply cannot be higher than whatever the top mark is, and that mark sets the scale. If the top mark is 4.1 and you have a 4.2 then the 4.2 is weighted.
This probably has a ‘get off my lawn’ feel to you, but you never know who will read what on CC, and knowing the difference between UW & W GPAs can actually make a difference. For the purposes of this post, it appears that you have a 4.0 (ie, straight As for 4 years).
@Aurrus I agree with wisteria100 about Wake Forest. There are plenty of top LACs (Bowdoin, Wesleyan, Colby, Smith) that are test optional. For the larger universities, Wake and Brandeis stand out as test optional. Wake also likes candidates who show love, and Wake has ED2 (Jan 1 deadline), if Duke did not work out.
