Chance me Duke ED

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi! I’m applying to Duke University ED and I wanted to know if any of you had any input on my chances of getting in!

White female

ACT: 35
SAT:1520
Subject tests: 790 bio, 740 chem, 730 world (took a couple others but didn’t do as well)

Class rank: N/A (my school doesn’t report this but top 10% for sure)
GPA (weighted): 101.5
GPA (unweighted): 96.8

AP scores:
World History (5)
Stats (5)
Bio (4)
Lit (4)

IB scores:
IB Math SL (6)

Senior schedule:
IB French SL
IB History of the Americas HL
Talented Writers (creative writing class you need to apply for)
IB English L&L HL
AP Calc BC
IB Bio HL
IB Physics SL

I’m enrolled in the IB Diploma (as you could probably tell lol) and my three SL’s are Math, French and Physics while my 3 HL’s are HOTA, Bio and English

Extracurriculars:
Model Congress (9,10,11,12) – Exec board member (11) President (12)
Math Club (9,10,11,12) – Exec board member (11) Co-President (12)
Junior Class (11) – President
Literary magazine (9,10,11,12) – Editor in chief (12)
Trivia Club (10,11,12) – Co-captain (12)
JV Tennis (11)
Spring track & field (11)

Work experience:
Ticket taker at my local beach (8,9)
Soccer coach at the recreation center (8,9,10,11)
Busgirl at a restaurant (11,12) (recently promoted to waitress)
Intern at local politician’s campaign (12)

Community service:
Reading and writing tutor at my church (10,11)
Volunteer at local film festival (10,11)
Organized a cancer fundraiser that raised $2000 for the ACS (11)

Duke is my dreammm school so please let me know what you think, and what’s realistic!!!

2

Looks like you would have a good shot anywhere. You don’t mention and financial constraints or state of residence.

3

I’m from NY and I do have some serious financial constraints. I know applying ED can be a shot in the dark in terms of financial aid but everything I’ve read about Duke tells me that they’re pretty generous in that area.

4

Applying ED is not a good idea unless you are sure you can afford going to a school. I think Duke is a full need school so you should be certain you can afford the EFC. If you have serious financial constraints, you might think twice about ED anywhere. Duke is one of the most expensive schools in the world.

5

You seem like you have a strong shot! If finances are a big issue, I would talk to your parents/college counselor about EDing since I’ve heard that colleges can be less generous in ED for aid since you’re committing so strongly. At least that’s what I’ve heard, but I would talk to someone more qualified than a high school senior like me :slight_smile:

Duke does have merit based aid too, which I would check out and consider!

6

I’ve used the net price calculator and my EFC would be roughly equivalent to a state school. I know the net price they show you isn’t guaranteed, but I’m willing to take the chance. I don’t think I could get into duke RD, and their ED acceptance rate is much higher than their RD.

7

Even if the price is the same as your state school, you’ll want to verify that your parents can pay that amount.

ED acceptance rates are higher, but that is where all those athletes come from! None of the schools publish the stats of ED acceptances vs. RD acceptances.

8

Plenty of schools publish the stats of ED vs RD acceptance rates, including Duke:

http://admissions.duke.edu/images/uploads/process/ClassProfile2020web.pdf

9

Well, yes, every school publishes stats including number applied and number admitted. But they don’t show the middle 50 percentile for ED vs. RD. I am guessing that many of those stray outlier low-stats dots on the admissions scattergrams are ED athletes, but there is no way to know.

10

True, the middle 50% stats are calculated after the RD round is completed. So in all likelihood the ED stats for middle 50% are a bit lower vs RD. For Duke the yield in the ED round is about 98-99%, whereas in the RD round its about 30%.

There are a total of 21 varsity sports between the mens and womens teams at Duke. If you assume that between 5-6 spots per year are offered that only amounts to a total of 125 students per year. This is less than 3% of the total number of acceptances given out each year. Lets just say for arguments sake that of the 125 athlete slots, 90% are given out during the ED round. This still leaves about 600 spots during the ED round that goes for other students.

Now the ED round is still probably dominated with other hooked students: legacy, carolinas, faculty kids, etc. But even in that case it probably doesn’t account for more than another 300-400 students.

I went to a lecture earlier this summer by Dean Guttentag. He was very clear in saying that applying ED to Duke definitely increases your chances. So if you are sure that Duke is for you, then by all means apply ED, its your best shot.

11

good info. Thanks.