Chance me for Duke

Colleges and Universities A-Z Duke University
1

Background:

International student from Taiwan(Asian). I’m applying for financial aids.

My scores are:

SAT: 1490
SAT Math 2: 760
SAT Physics: 730 (I know they’re not good tho but I’m not very familiar with these tests:(
GPA: 87.52/100 or 3.94 unweighted
Quarter grades GPA: 4 unweighted
AP: I don’t take any AP since the curriculum system in Taiwan already covers those levels in AP.

My ECs:

I’m a lead singer and conductor in the school choir; won 1 regional 2nd prize; 3 national 2nd prize; 2 national 1st prize.
Accepted into a professional choir and held a 800 people concert at which city mayor came.
Done an engineering research project and wrote a paper about it which won the third prize nationally. Paper will be published in a book next year with other works from my classmates.
Translator for Japanese students who came from our friend-schools in Japan; took them on a 3 day trip for 3 times in 2017 and 2018.
Done a cultural project about conservation of those traditional sounds in Taiwan; wrote a 1000 essay and won the third prize nationally; essay will be published in a book next year.
Organized and held a free summer camp for children in rural areas; taught them about basic English and Egypt myths; raised over 100k NT dollars.
Archaeology; Visited several historical spots around county; wrote an essay about my experiences; essay won the second prize nationally.
Played the leading role in a play in my 9th grade; we won the first prize nationally; was invited to perform around Taiwan for three times.
Some other voluntary/community works for more than 250 hours.

Essays:
The common app one is very outstanding. I wrote about my conducting experiences in the school choir. Everyone including my teachers was impressed after reading it.
Duke: Trinity one is good. Background one is great. I wrote about my identity as a Taiwanese who was born in a small country.(very small i bet you can hardly find us on maps) Sexual orientation one is very genuine. (btw I’m gay haha)

Letters of rec:
My counselor is my research project teacher. He knows me very well so I guess is pretty great, probably 10/10.
One is from my Chinese teacher for more than 2 years so I guess 9/10.
Another one is from my English teacher…maybe 8/10?
Optional one from a teacher outside my school who was a former wallstreet banker/harvard alumni and he insisted on writing his letter for me so I guess 8/10.

I haven’t been contacted an interview lol. Wish I can get one.
About the financial aids. I know it’s really difficult to get in if I apply for aids but I still did. Both my parents are professors and they make about 10-11k every year.

I understand my grades aren’t good but I don’t know if my ECs are good either. Please chance me and thanks for any thoughts! :slight_smile:

2

Oh I forgot to mention, I applied ED to Duke last week.

3

Maybe grading is different in Taiwan, but for US schools that grade on a 100% scale, an 87.5 would not be competitive for Duke (an 87.5 would not not be a 3.94 on a 4.0 scale either). Also - as you know - Duke is not need blind for international applicants, so applying for financial aid will hurt your chances.

4

@TheBigChef thanks for your reply! Yes, the grading in Taiwan is different from that in USA. In Taiwan, 80-100 is a 4, and the reason why I have two GPAs is because I went to two different high schools and they have different gpa calculation systems so I calculated my gpa in two different ways.

5

Your EC’s that highlight national prizes within Taiwan are great! However, the stats (GPA/Test Scores) are concerning since they are not on par with most of the successful Duke applicants. However, they are not in the low side either, so it’s not a huge concern to be honest. Since you are applying for financial aid as an international student, that will significantly decrease your chances of admission since international financial aid is much more competitive due to the non need-blind policy for international applicants. At this point, if you do end up getting an interview from a Duke alum (which you might not due to availability), I would try to stress some of your unique EC’s and try to paint your application in that way to the interviewer. Your choir and engineering EC’s definitely look interesting to me. Good luck with ED!

6

You are a very qualified applicant. However, your need for financial aid does lower your chances significantly. Duke explicitly states that they only meet the demonstrated aid for around 25 international admits each year.

7

@doublepenguin @Areslol1 thanks for your replies! I really appreciate them! However, as for interviews, I haven’t been contacted for one and wish I could get one. About the engineering paper: I studied whether smiling could make people look younger in computers’ minds, and found out it makes people look older actually! haha! So I guess my choir and my engineering paper are what make my application unique and wish they could make good first impressions on my application. Again, thanks!