<p>Duke is my dream school and I wanna go there just so bad......I wanna apply to Pratt so I can major (double) in both Pratt and Trinity. I am planning to apply early decision.
Profile:</p>
<p>Grades:
Very competitive public high school. Top 15 percent for class rank.
GPA unweighted: 3.9
GPA weighted unknown
Very rigorous courses. 3 APs junior year, 5 senior year. 5 on AP US history and Calculus BC, 4 on chemisty. Got all As on AP courses except a couple of A-s. Got a B on Precalculus because I had a really hard teacher. But that prepared me for AP calc. That is the only B by the way.
ACT: 32 (retaking this month)</p>
<p>Background:
First generation Chinese American. (Got to USA three years ago, currently an US citizen.) Western Chinese.
Very unique background story under the communist regime(private)
Planning to stress about diversity in my essays.</p>
<p>Awards and experiences:
Player in Seattle youth symphony orchestra. Been playing music since elementary school in China. Planning to minor on music in college.
All-state and all-northwest musician. Played in concert with Pacific Northwest ballet.
Technician licensee on ham radio. Vice President of school ham radio club. Ham radio volunteer in Seattle Seafair.
Chief editor of school newspaper. Stories and poems published.
120 volunteer hours for local library.
(How do I bend my resume to my advantage? I know a lot of people applying to Duke will have strong resumes)</p>
<p>Essays:
Killers.</p>
<p>Legacy:
None(does this hurt me a great deal?)</p>
<p>Applying for financial aid.</p>
<p>I worked my butts off in three years and overcame many educational and cultural and language obstacles to do things listed above. Duke is my No. 1 and I wanna go there sooooo bad......Please help me.</p>
<p>Just improve your ACT score and apply early decision. Your odds of admission are marginally better than average. If you manage to successfully convey your obvious passion for Duke to the admissions officers, you should be in a position to be accepted.</p>
<p>Thanks Kualakoala. I heard there are three initial pools: simple admit, simple reject, and a large middle pool. Which pool do you think I will be put in once I apply ED? </p>
<p>Hey Peter!
Gonna be friendly here haha, as I’m also applying early decision to Duke. I’ve got quite a few similarities to you - I’m Chinese as well, ~top 10%/5% in my class of 500(school does not rank), very similar GPA, slightly more APs than you, mostly A’s and A-'s, except for freaking AP US History (still got 5 on the exam :D). </p>
<p>Advantages/Strong points you have:
-being first generation (i’m second, born and raised in the US)
-Essays (I hope they are as good as you say they are)
-Focused extracurriculars - I see your passion for music</p>
<p>Weaknesses: (in my honest opinion)
-Not extremely outstanding extras. I’d say my extras probably trump yours, but mine aren’t extremely outstanding either. (to name a few notable ones: wrote a research paper, did research at NIH over this summer, states at Intel science fair)</p>
<p>You have probably a similar chance as I do to get into Duke. Did you ever visit Duke?</p>
<p>I read your story and background. Yeah you’re a very competitive applicant with high grades and stuff like that.</p>
<p>I think yours excurriculars are excellent but I won’t say it’s better than mine. Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra is the biggest in US and has very very selective auditions. So are All-State and Al-Northwest auditions. (All-Northwest band members are the best from the whole Pacific Northwest of USA.) I’m planning to submit arts supplement and play for Duke’s orchestra or band if I do get in.</p>
<p>Also volunteering in Seattle Seafair should probably boost my chances.</p>
<p>Your extracurriculars are just as solid as mine nevertheless. (Not trying to be cocky, just honest.)</p>
<p>I talked to my counselor today about the high acceptance rate of Duke ED and she said it’s because most legacies and recruited athletes apply ED. So don’t be too hopeful. (Try hard though.)</p>
<p>I have have a very very unique background back in China.</p>
<p>Duke is just awesome if u go to their campus, by the way.</p>
<p>I’m a Duke alumni and volunteer as a interviewer for the Admissions Committee. Here are my thoughts:</p>
<p>GPA looks great, but then I saw you have a class rank of top 15%. Do you mean that most of the kids in top 10% have near perfect GPA? Wow.</p>
<p>ACT: the 25-75th percentile for Pratt applicants last year was 33-35. Your score of 32 means you are well below the 25th percentile. Students who are accepted below the 25th percentile typically have something else extraordinary about them. As you can tell this is your weak spot. </p>
<p>ECs: the music accomplishments look great. I also like the Ham radio stuff. Make sure you definitely talk about this in your app or interview.</p>
<p>You say you want to go to Pratt, so I assume you are interested in engineering. What ECs have you done that shows a passion for engineering? The music stuff is interesting but doesn’t give me an idea of how committed you are to STEM. Is it the Ham radio experience? How does this relate to engineering? This connection needs to be made more clear in the application.</p>
<p>The experience you mention about growing up in a communist regime should make for an interesting essay, definitely use this. Overall the applicant pool for Pratt is intense. Last year ED only 152/552 (28%) students were accepted to Pratt. Keep in mind however that most who apply will have considerably higher scores and GPA than you. Your life story however is interesting. If you put the pieces together cohesively you might make for a compelling case.</p>
<p>Being a first gen American, particularly if you’ve overcome obstacles and challenges in your life, can be huge. Use that to your advantage. If you aptly demonstrate you’ve been able to succeed despite these major hurdles, then your application will get a big lift and I’d say your chances are quite solid. Duke wants people with unique experiences and background – particular those that haven’t been afforded all the advantages that others have, but have demonstrated success nonetheless (not sure how well off your family, school is though right now, so this might not 100% apply to you). Without that, I’d say you’re “competitive” (i.e. not rejected immediately) with good “stats” and ECs, but your ACT is a bit on the lower end (but not terrible). First Gen American = your hook.</p>
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