Chance an Aspiring Dukie

Colleges and Universities A-Z Duke University
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<p>Hey everybody. I'm another Duke wannabe, curious about my chances of getting accepted to this fine university. I'm a half white, half hispanic junior out of The Woodlands, Texas who wants to study engineering, and as of now Duke is one of my first choices.</p>

<p>Before I get into the nasty details, I'm going to go ahead and establish that I'm not here out of some pretentious need to have my back patted, or to boast of scholastic achievements that anyone with half a brain could manage to accomplish. I go to a large public school, and I'm not the type of student who blindly chases after every club and leadership opportunity to seem impressive. I'm enjoying myself, and doing everything I can along the way to succeed while maintaining a reasonable degree of sanity. </p>

<p>Grades:</p>

<p>-On an unweighted scale, I have a 4.0, and a 4.59 on a weighted scale where honors classes are worth 5 and AP classes are worth 6.
-I'm currently number 34 in a class of about 900 (top 4%). I'm not sure where I'll be at the end of this school year, but I'll be around the same place.
-I took AP Statistics last year and scored a 5 on the AP test, and took English Language and US History this year. I'm not going to bother projecting my scores, but I probably did just fine.
-Next year I'm taking AP Government, Macroeconomics, Physics, and Calculus BC. Should be a fun year.</p>

<p>Test Scores:</p>

<p>-2320 on the SAT (800 math, 790 reading, 730 writing).
-I'm taking the Math I and II subject tests next weekend. Again, I'm not going to be arrogant enough to project scores, so I'll just leave it at that.
-I qualified as a National Merit Scholar, but my scores were hardly impressive compared to my SAT, so I only got commended.</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:</p>

<p>-Mu Alpha Theta (math honors society) in 9th grade. Terrible, unorganized club, I quit after the first year.
-Varsity choir, 10th-12th grade, making both District and Region Choir this past year.
-NHS
-Member of the National Hispanic Recognition Program, run by College Board.
-JV Cross Country, 9-11, and hopefully varsity this next year. If you know anything about high school cross country, you'd know that The Woodlands is the top running school in Texas (we've won state the past 4 years in a row) and a perennial national powerhouse (4th, 4th, and 3rd at nationals in the past 3 years). If running on a state championship varsity team doesn't earn me brownie points for college, I don't know what will.
-JV track and field, 9-11
-Part time job, summer of '09. It was a terrible place to work, but at least I got some experience. I'm looking to get a summer internship at Anadarko, a local petroleum company, but that's not going too well right now.
-Over 100 hours of community service, mostly in the form of working at summer track camps for children in the area.</p>

<p>So I think it's safe to say my credentials are at least adequate. Yeah, I'm not a student at some prominent private school who was president of seven clubs, interned at NASA, and volunteered 500 hours at a hospital, but what I've done, I've done well. If anything, my trump card is my ethnicity. Hispanics are sorely underrepresented at Duke, and of course colleges are clamoring for diversity these days. My father is a Honduran citizen and immigrant, making me one half hispanic. I'm conversational in Spanish, lived in Guatemala for 4 years, and visit Honduras every summer. So if my minority status helps at all, please let me know.</p>

<p>Thanks in advance, everyone. I will provide further information if needed.</p>

<p>EDIT: as a sidenote, would it be worth my time to retake the SAT for a higher writing score since Duke superscores? My essay was an easy 12, so I must have perfomed dismally on the multiple choice.</p>

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<p>You have a very solid chance at admissions. Good GPA, test scores, course rigor, and extracurriculars. Congrats on your accomplishments!</p>

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<p>Why are you taking both Math I and II? I guess some people like to hedge their bets, but if you got an 800 on the SAT I Math and are planning to study engineering, you should definitely take II. And it’s honestly easier to get an 800 on the SAT II math than SAT I. Although it’s more advanced math, we’re not talking Calculus here. You can get several questions wrong and still get an 800 unlike the SAT I.</p>

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<p>It helps, especially considering you’d be applying to Pratt which is even more underrepresented in hispanics than Trinity. How much it helps there’s no way to tell. And how they deal with bi-racial individuals I don’t know either. But it certainly gives you another positive mark on your application, especially since you’ve lived in Honduras, etc. If you apply ED, that’s even more of a positive.</p>

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<p>No. Your SAT is excellent. Duke has stated that the writing is by far the least important and your math + verbal is superb. Essentially, the writing portion is equivalent in weight to your SAT IIs. A 730 on one SAT II certainly wouldn’t be grounds for rejection. I wouldn’t worry about it. </p>

<p>Texas is one of the top 5 represented states (as well as NC, CA, FL, and NY) year after year at Duke, so there’s no shortage of students from your area, just FYI.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

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<p>yea, your stats are solid, and adding in the fact that you are hispanic really gives you an unbelievable advantage. if Duke is your number one, without question apply early. i think an ED application with those numbers alone would give you an acceptance. regular is always more risky and hit or miss. ik kids from back home who got rejected with stellar grades and stats. but honestly, you have an exceptional chance of being admitted. congrats and best of luck.</p>

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<p>That’s a relief… I’ve been afraid that I haven’t done enough in high school to merit an acceptance to Duke, but your faith is reassuring.</p>

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<p>The only reason I considered Math I is because I had already registered to take the June SAT before I got my May scores back, and once I saw that I got a good score, I wanted to tranfer that registration fee over to take some subject tests. But Math I and II were the only tests I think I could take right now on such short notice and do well on. I suppose I could just do Math II next weekend, but that feels like a bit of a waste of 90 dollars… oh well.</p>

<p>Getting a bit off track here, but I took the Barron’s practice Math II test today and got annihilated. The actual test isn’t nearly as hard as Barron’s… is it?</p>

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<p>Wonderful. Affirmative action is a godsend.</p>