chance a hispanic student for RD!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Duke University
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<p>hispanic male attending public school in new york, did not grow up speaking spanish
SAT: 1350 (740 reading, 610 math) *taking again in october
Subject Tests: 770 world history, 750 us history, 700 spanish, 680 spanish w/ listening
AP exams: 5 world history, 5 us history, 5 european history, 5 english language, 2 biology
GPA of 94.0 and ranked in top 10% of class</p>

<p>Athletics: Fall 2006 – JV Football, Spring 2007, 2008 – JV Tennis, Spring 2009, 2010 – Track and Field, Winter 2009 - Indoor Track</p>

<p>Clubs: Rotary Interact, Multicultural Club, Spanish Club, French Club, Junior Statesmen of America (President, Spring 2008-Fall 2009). Volunteer work done in all, as well as traveling to debates and minicons for JSA.</p>

<p>National Honor Society, President 2009-2010
Foreign Language Society</p>

<p>Extracurricular: Special Olympics volunteer - March 2009, Peer tutoring and National Honor Society community service 2009-2010, community service hours while studying abroad in Cádiz, Spain</p>

<p>Studies Abroad - the crux of my application
Summer 2008: Traveled to Marbella, Spain with a student group to study Spanish Language and Culture via an immersion program in the international Enforex School for 3 weeks. There, classes were taught for 3 hours each morning by native Spanish speakers; amongst other students from across Europe.</p>

<p>Summer 2009: Traveled to Cádiz, Spain with a student group to take advanced courses in Spanish Language for 3 hours each morning at the local school, along with living with a local family in a homestay. In the afternoons, we performed community service by cleaning up the local beaches and creating a project at the end.</p>

<p>Misc.
For my intended major of linguistics, i should also note that i taught myself french throughout my sophomore year and the summer of 2008 to the level where i will taking AP french this upcoming year. additionally, i have started teaching myself russian this summer and will continue to do so throughout the school year.</p>

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<p>Like I tell everyone else, these threads are pretty pointless, but I will try to help as much as I can and maybe others can join in.</p>

<p>1) Your SAT is a little low for Duke, but not terrible, what is your score out of 2400 though?
2) GPA looks good enough, in the range
3) Subject tests, not great, but in the range, won’t stand out
4) Clubs, EC’s and sports, again they are ok. A little leadership in there which is nice and lots of community service.
5) Study abroad is great, nice to see…</p>

<p>But I’ll stop there, because I am not saying anything you don’t already know. Duke looks at an entire application and GPA, SAT, EC’s are just part of it, essays are a BIG part of it.</p>

<p>In RD it will be extremely tough, last year Duke accepted 15% of RD applicants. So take it for what it’s worth, that’s all I have.</p>

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<p>yeah i understand i am on the low end of the range, duke is a reach school for me. i am taking the SAT again in october, and out of 2400 i have a 2090 (740 writing). as for the regular decision, im considering whether or not it’s worth it to actually apply for ED as i was planning to apply under 3 restrictive-EA programs that would prevent that from happening.</p>

<p>i appreciate your response and i can kind of tell that most of these posts are redundant like you said, but any feedback is welcome. thanks again</p>

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<p>has your hispanic heritage been an important part of your life? duke tries to look for diverse students and i think you can be a great candidate for that. if you apply ED your chances will be much higher!
good luck!</p>

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<p>I believe I will be applying ED now, but that means that I also cannot apply to EA to BC and Georgetown as well, but I really am torn with this decision. I’m leaning towards ED to Duke, how much would you say that increases my chances?</p>

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<p>I mean, it definitely would increase your chances, especially as a URM. But how much? Who knows? Nobody can say. But the ED acceptance rate is about twice the RD rate. Apply to Duke ED if you’re sure it’s your first choice.</p>

<p>I noticed from other threads that other top choices of yours are UVa and Gtown. Just thought I’d throw a little comparison in since I lived in Va for a while, and also across the bridge from Georgetown. All good schools, obviously, and you’d get a quality education as any of the three. Va is a lot more southern than Duke - which might seem odd since it is located farther north, but the student body as a whole is more southern (e.g. wearing sundresses, khakis, button downs to football games, secret societies, etc.; although the fball coach has told the student body to stop doing that in the past few years, so there’s been a transition to UVa orange t-shirts). Duke is more geographical diverse as a private school obviously, but is just more “northern” in my opinion. Duke has more “prestige” as a more selective/private school, but you’ll get a quality education at either. UVa obviously a lot bigger as a public school. UVa has a larger engineering school (and school overall) than Duke, so if you’re interesting in something Duke doesn’t offer, UVa might. I think Charlottesville is a much nicer city than Durham, but accessibility to other nice cities is actually worse in Charlottesville than it is in Durham, in my opinon. So, you’d pretty much never leave Charlottesville (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing if you like it a lot), while Durham is at least super close to Raleigh and Chapel Hill.</p>

<p>Georgetown and Duke both have their strengths. I’d easily choose Duke over Gtown for science, engineering, etc. and Gtown over Duke for IR, Government, etc. all else being equal. Pub Pol might be a toss up as both have really strong programs. Although you’d have more of an “in” going to Gtown at internships on Capitol Hill, although plenty of Duke students get those too…just even more Gtown students. But the main difference is the campus. Gtown is urban in a very expensive chic area of DC, with almost certainly a more rich/preppy student body than Duke (and Duke is already preppy, believe me, so that’s saying something). That’s what happens when you have a Coach store, Ralph Lauren, Kate Spade, Lacoste, etc within walking distance from campus…Duke’s campus is a lot more sprawling, lots of grass; good for those people into biking, the outdoors, sports, quiet, large science labs, etc. Duke also has a Greek system while Gtown’s only has a few that aren’t officially recognized. But Gtown is a better fit for somebody who really seeks the urban lifestyle (and can afford it), while Duke is probably a better fit for somebody who likes a more laid-back, sprawling campus with greenery. I’ve also heard Duke’s fin aid is a LOT better than Georgetown’s, plus living expenses at Duke are much lower. Obviously, UVa, being public, doesn’t offer good aid to out-of-state students. But their program specialties are, again, a big factor to consider. All great schools - you can’t go wrong.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

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<p>Wow, bluedog, thank you so much for that response. I really am being grateful when I say that it helped to clear up so many things about Duke, UVa, and Georgetown, since those are my 3 top schools. I am trying to make a difficult decision though, but UVa helps since there is only RD. However, I think I will apply to Duke ED, which means that now I cannot do EA to Georgetown. Both schools I would be thrilled to attend, so my only worry is that now I feel as if I have lowered my chances at Georgetown and Duke is already a tougher school. Do you think my chances will go down significantly by switching from EA to RD? And also, if I am now applying ED to Duke, what else can I do to improve my app? I know the 610 math as of now is low, but do the other parts of my app help to make up for it? Sorry for so many questions, but I really do appreciate help with this decision.</p>