<p>Duke is my top choice, and although I'll only be a junior, I plan on applying Early Decision!</p>
<p>Nationality: Ugandan (first generation college student)
Gender: Female
Home state: New York
*(my family income is $70,000 -do you think i'll get sufficient aid?)</p>
<p>SAT - 2220
SAT II - US History: 780, English: 780
GPA - 4.0</p>
<p>Freshman Year - Honors English
Sophomore Year - Honors English, Honors Chemistry
Junior Year - Honors Trigonometry, AP US History, AP Language
Senior Year - Honors Precalculus, Honors Economics, Honors Government, AP European History, AP Biology, AP Literature</p>
<ul>
<li>I'm captain of the varsity field hockey team since sophomore year</li>
<li>President of the Human Rights Club</li>
<li>Vice President of SADD</li>
<li>Secretary of the Youth Against Racism club</li>
<li>Also in Student Government, Youth Leadership, and Lions Club</li>
<li>Over 1000 hours of volunteer at the local hospital</li>
</ul>
<p>You have a fairly decent chance of getting in. Your SATs are solid, and your high GPA is great. Your ECs are also pretty good; you have a pretty solid focal point as far as your club involvement. Make sure, however, that you have some very good recommendations, and most importantly, you have an essay that can shine the best light on you. With your list of ECs, it’ll be easy to write an essay that sounds too cliche or fake; be sure to have someone proofread and give you feedback on your essays so it sounds real and sincere. </p>
<p>As far as financial aid, Duke offers financial aid to family’s who make up to $100,000 a year. However, expect to be offered more loans than grants. Duke, however, has one of the best financial aid programs that I know of; if you get in, they’ll make sure that you can afford it somehow.</p>
<p>um… you’re getting in… the question is will it be ED or RD… it’s not 100% lock as some might believe, because i have friends who were defered with similar stats and background, but your chances are very good.</p>
<p>i have a question about first generation… doesnt this mean your parents or grandparents did not go to ANY college? so if your parents went to school abroad you are not first gen… right?</p>
<p>my sibling is applying this cycle… i did not apply as a first gen college student because i know my parents went to school abroad and immigrated here (with myself and my sibling)… also i didnt need boost as i thought my profile was pretty good. but if it helps my sibling, that would be great.</p>
<p>thanks
PS the school they went to was in a “developing country” if that helps</p>
<p>If you weren’t a minority you’d have a good chance. Since you are a minority, you have a GREAT chance. Whether or not that is fair is up to you, but whatever the case WELCOME TO DUKE :).</p>
<p>Your FA should be pretty good since your family income is 70k. From my experience, Duke was more generous to me than FAFSA was. Have you ran numbers through the fin aid calculators online?</p>
<p>Duke will atleast meet the FAFSA and CSS need so no worries about applying ED just make sure to run your numbers through a EFC calculator and talk to over with your parents.</p>
<p>Applying early will not affect your financial aid. Although you will not receive a “firm” offer from Duke you will receive an estimate. Duke does not use financial aid to entice you (meaning that if you are early they have you locked in and they don’t feel like they need to give you more), they meet 100% of your demonstrated need. Fill out the FAFSA calculator or the Duke calculator, my guess is you will get a nice FA package. But know that you WILL have loans, Duke expects you to make a financial commitment to attending college, you will not have loans if you family makes <$40,000.</p>
<p>If your family income is less than $60,000 there is no parental contribution.</p>
<p>If your family income is less than $40,000 there are no loans at all.</p>
<p>Loans are not considered parental contribution because it is looked as the student making an investment in his/her education. And loans are capped at $5,000/yr starting at $40,000 all the way up to $100,000.</p>
<p>With $70,000 I imagine (just a random guess off the top of my head) that loans will make up $2,000-$3,000 (probably 2K), work study will make up ~$1800 and parent contribution will be minimal maybe $4-5,000 (this is where I had to guess the most). Meaning that grants will make up about $45,000 a year of the $53,000 total bill (includes room and board).</p>
<p>DISCLAIMER: This is a total guess (while slightly informed it is still a guess) please fill out fafsa and the select form to get a better idea.</p>
<p>The loans you receive are federal loans. The loans you should be receiving will most likely not accrue interest as an undergraduate. These loans typically have a payback period of 10 years and are locked in at a fixed rate which I think is 5% right now (perkins loan) or 6.8% (stafford loan, my guess is you’ll receive perkins) either way they are the best types of loans you can get as an undergraduate.</p>
<p>If Duke says $8,000 EFC it looks like you will have $8K from parents, $2-$3K from loans, and $1800 from work study. So you are looking at roughly $12K there. The rest should come from grants, meaning $41,500 (about) in grant money from Duke University.</p>
<p>So when you graduate you will have $8-12K in loans to payback over 10 yrs at 5%</p>
<p>$12,000 in loans at 5% over 10 yrs comes out to $127.28 a yr (assuming no fees). So as you can see VERY manageable.</p>
<p>actually, i dont think duke gives that much financial aid
theres a really smart girl at my school who is hispanic, first generation to attend college, and everything.
her parents make <50,000 per year and duke offered her zero financial aid.
brown is giving her a bit more than half off. so she is goin there brown.</p>
<p>I’m sorry 2468 but all I can say to your comment is that it is flat out wrong.</p>
<p>Duke commits to 100% of your demonstrated need. That is based off of your profile form and the FAFSA.</p>
<p>As for your friend, the fact that she is Hispanic plays ZERO role into financial aid, the fact that she is first generation plays ZERO role into financial aid, and the fact that she is very smart plays ZERO role into financial aid. NEED based financial aid is not a scholarship therefore the ONLY thing that it is based on is parent’s ability to pay. </p>
<p>Now if she is a Hispanic student who does not hold a green card or is not a US citizen then the financial aid package is different because international students have different financial aid than Permanent Residents and US Citizens.</p>
<p>If she is a US Citizen or PR and her parents make less than $50,000/year she would be receiving an extremely generous financial aid package. Because her parent’s make <$60K her parent’s would have ZERO contribution. She would have about $1-2K a year in loans, $1800 in work study, and the rest would be grants (roughly $49K in grants).</p>
<p>Now of course this student had to actually FILL OUT the financial aid application in time in order to receive this.</p>
<p>“I’m sorry 2468 but all I can say to your comment is that it is flat out wrong.”</p>
<p>I would say “flat out” is a bit strong. </p>
<p>OP, if you are not international I think your “chances” for admission are very good. But I don’t think Dukes interpretation of “demonstrated need” has the best reputation around here.</p>