Chance a prospective blue devil for Duke ED!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Duke University
1

Hey guys!
I’m a rising senior who is seriously looking into Duke (stellar academics, “work hard play hard attitude”, amazing faculty, amazing opportunities, etc.)

While I still need to visit and finalize my decision, I am pretty confident (judging from what I’ve seen/heard) that Duke is my #1 choice and I would like to apply ED to Duke.

I was just hoping that some of you CC’ers could give me some advice/feedback/input on my chances of being accepted into Duke.

GPA: UW: 3.85 (3.7 freshman year, 3.9 sophomore and junior) W: 4.18 (School doesn’t allow weighted courses until junior year, with few exceptions)
ACT: 35C (34E, 34M, 34W, 36S, 10 writing)
SATII: 780 Bio, 770 Chem, 800 Math II
AP: Chinese (4), Chemistry (5), Psychology (5), Calculus BC (5), Statistics (5)
Senior Schedule: Multivar Calc, AP Physics 1, AP Biology, AP Eng Lit,
Course load: Took a rigorous course load (all honors classes available, AP’s listed above, took 1 “easy” elective each year
Class Rank: N/A (within top 20% according to school profile at top ranked high school)

Awards: nothing special

EC: Cross Country (JV 9-12)
Online internship+worked on projects involving statistics
Hospital Volunteering (40 hours, not impressive)
Research at top medical school (assisted grad students/postdocs as well as conducting my own research projects, >900 hours)

Recommendations: pretty decent or pretty good
Essays: will be pretty good (I hope)

Intended major: Statistics (also premed)
Applying to Trinity

Thanks guys!

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Bump

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Several questions:
What region of the country are you?
Are you Asian? If so scoring a 4 on the AP Chinese exam stood out to me.
Based on your EC profile above it appears you are a closeted premed and selected stats as a prospective major because you thought it was easier to get in. What is the real truth?

Grades and standardized tests look fine. However you really need a compelling story, which I don’t really see.

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"Based on your EC profile above it appears you are a closeted premed and selected stats as a prospective major because you thought it was easier to get in. "

Huh? Pre-med is not a major so OP couldn’t apply to that. Plus, they even explicitly stated that they’re interested in applying to med school, so doesn’t seem like they’re trying to hide anything. Majoring in statistics and fulfilling the pre-med requirements sounds like a reasonable approach to me for somebody interested in medicine.

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@sgopal2 Yes, I’m asian. I live in TX.
What is “closeted premed” supposed to mean?

Thanks @bluedog !

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I’d say high match. The research at a top medical school stands out to me. When did you start to get that many hours?

I believe what @sgopal2 was suggesting was that perhaps you were one of the people who apply for a less competitive major in hopes of switching to the more competitive one you actually wanted after acceptance. But as @bluedog said, Duke doesn’t have a premed major anyways.

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Started summer of freshman year.
Trust me, I’m not. I like medicine and statistics. I thought Duke considered school (Trinity or Pratt), but not major?

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I do believe that is the case, as I’m also interested in Duke. I didn’t think that you seemed like a “closeted premed” anyways, just explaining what he/she meant.

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Yeah, thanks @Frigidcold

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Volunteering in a hospital and also working in a med school lab are dead giveaways for a premed track.

If it really is what you’re interested in, go for it. However based upon what you wrote in the profile above many readers might wonder the same things I wrote above.

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I did say I was interested in premed. There is no premed major and I don’t have to major in something like biology as long as I fulfill the prereqs.
What are you implying?

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What I’m implying is that there is an over abundance of Asians who are interested in the premed route. Colleges don’t have room for all of them.

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Duke is a reach. You apply to a school vs major. Your application will be read by a regional admissions staff person. They will reject about 50% of the applicants in their respective regions. Your app will be rated in six areas: grades, rigor of coursework, standardized test scores, essays, recommendations and extra-curriculars. Your grades will be rated on the low end since you estimate that you are in the second decile. I think that will be your biggest stumbling block for Duke. They will rate your course rigor according to what you took vs what was available to you at your school. Your ACT is strong. Your research seems like a very strong EC. You need an outstanding essay and recs.

Asians make up about 30%, so not a URM. Also, Texas is a big feeder so not an underrepresented geographical location (check the common data to see if they consider that).

Good luck!

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@panicatcollege you seem to be worried that I’m anti-Asian which is the farthest from the truth. The fact of the matter is that Duke has lots of students to choose from with your profile and background.

Do me a favor: look at the past few years of accepted students threads. Randomly pick out 9 other Asians who applied. Then create a similar blinded profile for yourself and put it in the pile. Show all 10 profiles to your parents and see if they can pick you out. If they can’t pick you out from the bunch then you have a problem.

Good luck.