@LesPronoms: as you know, BME at Duke Pratt is one of the toughest to get in. However your stats and ECs look pretty darn good. How have you demonstrated your interest in Duke?
@sgopal2 I went to a couple of Duke events at my school and got the local admissions representative to know my name (we’ve amicably corresponded). I (unfortunately) couldn’t do my alumni interview because I was in India when my interviewer contacted me, so I unfortunately had to bow out (no internet connection made it hard to arrange an online interview as well). I did send him my resume (at his request) and he sounded pretty impressed.
@LesPronoms: deadline for alumni interviewers to return their reports is not until Feb 15. Why didn’t you reschedule your interview after your India trip? Not having an interview may impact things. Have you sent in an additional letter of recc in place of the interview?
@sgopal2 I did tell my advisors to send 2 research recommendations, but I think only one will be considered, however, so I’ve told my sophomore year advisor to hold off on sending until I get a confirmation from the admissions office.
Duke allows an extra recommendation in lieu of interview. See http://admissions.duke.edu/application/instructions#recommendat-optional-recommendation
@sgopal2 and @LesPronoms (re #24): That “extra recommendation in lieu of interview” is:
- Entirely optional, not mandatory;
- Legitimately available ONLY if an interview was never offered (if an applicant opted not to be interviewed or could not establish a mutually-satisfactory venue/schedule for the interview, the second optional letter of recommendation actually should not be submitted).
bump! /5char
Why do you keep bumping this thread up - what exactly do you expect people on an internet site to tell you? You are coming off as desperately in need of ego stroking. You’ve had a 2 day run - we all agree that you are the best applicant that ever lived - don’t you have heart valves to replace?
@need2learn Specifically in the hopes that alumni from schools such as Rice, Duke, WashU, etc. (such as sgopal2) can come on here and either give me a reality check or tell me a little more about what their respective schools seek in a potential undergraduate. I’ve tried posting in the school-specific forums to no avail.
Sorry if I came off as ego-stroking - most likely a side-effect of senior-stress before April 1st. I won’t be posting on this thread again (after this one of course).
JHU: Low Reach
Duke: Low Reach to Reach
Rice: Solid chances
UCB: Almost IN
WashU: WL
You do come across as being slightly arrogant. Never bothering to adjust your schedule to interview with Duke, and the frequent bumping. You are lucky that Duke doesn’t practice yield protection.
Let me ask you the tough question: if you did a research project at Stanford then why didn’t you apply there? Or were you an EA defer from Stanford and now Duke JHU WashU etc are your backups?
Sorry for the brutal honesty but you need to see the point of view of an AO.
@sgopal2 I never applied to Stanford. JHU, Duke, Rice, etc. were my top choices from the beginning (and I know, it was extremely dumb of me to not move my schedule around, but I was offered a set of dates that the interviewer had not scheduled himself on, and I couldn’t make any of them because of my untimely trip).
And the only reason that some of the STEM items on my EC list come from Stanford is because it is simply the closest university to home (which is important for a non-mobile junior in high-school) that had a lab opening pertaining to what I wanted to study (Bioinformatics in the context of BME).
If Duke indeed was at the top of your list then most applicants would have bent over backwards trying to interview.
Interviewers are busy people. I get that. But you didn’t ask to be reassigned to someone else. Why not?
Although the interview at Duke plays a relatively minor role from my angle it appears that you have another top choice. I honestly don’t know what the AO will think.
With Stanford’s great engineering program seems strange you didn’t apply there.
@sgopal2 and @LesPronoms: I suspect the OP’s rejection of Duke’s interview offer will not be determine his fate. However, I largely agree with post #32. Duke’s academics are first-rate, but we seek so much more in a candidate – and we offer so much more to every undergraduate – than only “classroom” intellectual/educational growth. Your failure to interview compels me to question if your “fit” with Duke – despite prodigious “numbers” – will be a mutually beneficial one (especially one that rewards, nurtures, and acts as a catalyst for your classmates).
For the Class of 2019:
- Forty-eight percent of the freshmen have already been admitted through ED.
- The RD acceptance rate will approximate 8 percent.
- Over 20,000 of your competitors will also have truly distinguished secondary school records; I do not doubt that your “numbers” will be assessed as excellent, but scholastically-focused results/scores alone typically are just the threshold that then leads to the intense competition for the ~900 remaining “seats” in '19.
As usual, I completely agree with @TopTier .
@LesPronoms: My son has similar stats as yours and got into berkeley/eecs (through regents) and also received ucla regents invite. Ofcourse he did not do all those internships at Stanford. He is also interested in bioinformatics.
I don’t know if you have researched this or not but look at the faculty at UCLA and UCSD working in
bioinformatics. Both the schools will provide you with excellent opportunities/course work in the field.