Hi! I was wondering if anyone could chance me for the following schools: Duke (I’m a legacy), Harvard, Yale, Brown, Emory, Vanderbilt, Rice, and Northwestern.
I’ve been debating applying ED for Duke, I’d only pick Harvard or Yale over it but I don’t know if I have enough of a shot at those schools to make sacrificing the ED advantage worth it, so I’d really appreciate it if someone could weigh in on that!
Stats:
Currently a Junior attending an elite private school that’s well-known to most universities
I’m white, a girl, and Jewish
SAT: 1520, 800 Reading/Writing, 720 Math
GPA: School doesn’t calculate but somewhere around a 3.8 with my humanities grades being significantly higher (consistently As and A+s) than STEM
APs: AP Spanish Language and Culture (5), currently taking AP Bio, AP US Government and Politics, and AP Spanish Literature and Culture, predicting 5s on the latter two and a 4 on AP Bio. Every other class I’ve taken is an honors course where possible.
My school doesn’t do class rankings
EC:
Model UN all throughout high school and have won several awards
I’ve had writing published in two national literary magazines
Started and led a movement at my school that eventually resulted in the creation of comprehensive sexual harassment/assault policy after the school had issues with it, afterward I founded and currently am the co-head of SLASH, Students Against Sexual Harassment, which basically means I organize a lot of assemblies/other educational opportunities and work w the school on policy
I spent a semester abroad in Israel last year in a program that was mostly focused on the politics in the region
Camp CIT
80 ish hours of volunteering that mostly consist of volunteering in classrooms/camps and food distribution
Nominated for a national writing award – we’ll see how that turns out!
6 years of figure skating, varsity for all of high school except for last year since there’s like four ice skating rinks in the entire country of Israel, will most likely be captain next year.
That’s about it! Thanks so much in advance!
From other threads, the legacy advantage is only a factor if you apply ED. I don’t know myself whether that’s true or not, but the logic is that you only have a claim to preference if you demonstrate loyalty yourself.
Your elite private school that’s well known to most universities almost certainly has excellent guidance counseling. Your GC has a much better chance of giving you good advice than do random strangers on the internet who don’t know all the top level differentials such as your essays, LoRs, competition, track record of your school, etc.
@rinarielle - One other thing, from other threads, the legacy/Duke ED combination is nothing like an auto-admit, but I would think you had a good chance.
My daughter had very similar stats to yours and a very similar list of schools. If your school has Naviance, it will be a very good predictor of your chances at these schools. All of the schools you list are extremely hard admits, with Emory perhaps being the easiest. Make sure you have a safety. Most of these schools, with the exception of Harvard and Yale, fill a large portion of the class with ED admits. in the past Rice did not fill as large a portion of its class ED as some of the other schools on your list, but the percentage went up to about 40% this year.
Legacies get extra consideration at Duke, but the value of the legacy card is in the ED round.https://alumni.duke.edu/benefits/admissions. If a legacy doesn’t ED, Duke assumes the legacy is unlikely to attend even if admitted. My daughter was a very strong legacy at Duke Her grandparents are big donors, named Duke in their estate, are Iron Dukes, have funded 2 named scholarships, live in Durham, etc. My husband is also a Duke graduate school alum. Duke was not my daughter’s first choice, but she applied RD. Perhaps her lack of enthusiasm and fit were apparent. She applied SCEA at Yale and was deferred. She was waitlisted at Duke. Other Duke legacy students in her high school class who did not have as high grades and scores as she did were admitted to Duke ED.
The same thing happened at Vanderbilt where she was also a legacy, although not as strong as at Duke. She applied RD to Vandy and was also waitlisted. Other Vandy legacy students in her class who did not have as high grades and scores as she did were admitted to Vandy ED. Vandy fills a very large part of its class ED1 and ED2. Brown, Northwestern and Emory do as well. Brown and NW have ED. Emory has ED1 and ED2 and the option of Emory College in Atlanta or the Oxford campus. You only have one early card so play it wisely.
She was admitted RD to Rice and Emory College. She enrolled in Rice and is very happy there.
I know married friends who both graduated from Duke; the husband, in fact, also obtained an MS there. They were huge Duke boosters who contributed regularly to the university and hoped–or, rather, expected–that their very bright and accomplished oldest son would win admission.
He did not. . . much to their surprise and chagrin. The [double] legacy effect was, in his case, nil. From what I’ve heard, this is not uncommon at Duke, though–to be fair–I do know a female grad who had two daughters accepted in the last decade. I agree with other posters that applying ED will help to maximize whatever value your legacy card has.
FWIW, I attended Duke on what was then the school’s premier merit scholarship. Based in no small part on my own assessment of the Duke experience, my daughter chose not to bother applying there. She ended up at Rice, where she has had a great experience.
Good luck!