@SadOnion: I agree, it is worth a shot. Please don’t get overly “personally invested” in the results, however; that’s when people get hurt by the process.
@TopTier I’m not. I’m confident in what I’d be able to accomplish at any given university, Ivy level or not. So though it’d be really nice to go to somewhere like Duke and I’m still going to hope for it, I’ll be sure to keep my expectations realistic. Thanks for the concern, I’ve seen loads of people be crushed from just what you mentioned.
I highly doubt UCD would reject you, but you just wanna cover all your bases because the UCs are so competitive 