chance me please, im so nervous

Colleges & Universities A-Z Duke University
1

<p>im a junior in HS</p>

<p>school-private high school, selective and challenging. blue ribbon school (one of top in nation)</p>

<p>GPA-my frosh and soph year werent fantastic by any means, and not to say i have an excuse but both those years i had a grandparent die and my dad lost his job twice.
overall GPA-3.4 (as of now)
frosh-3.3
soph-3.5
junior 1st semester-3.4</p>

<p>scores-
ACT-first time: 32
SAT-first time: 2100, second time: 2260</p>

<p>courses-
frosh-took 5 courses, 4 of them honors (no AP's available)
soph-took 5 courses, 4 of them honors (1 AP available)
junior-took/taking 5 courses, 2 of them honors, 2 of them AP (only non honor/ap course is english, which has no honors option). Also taking an independent study this year on creative writing.
senior-will take 5 courses, 3 AP (again english has no honors option and AP lit isnt my bag, im going more for creative writing type classes. if you guys think taking AP lit will help me get into duke if i wanna major in creative writing english, let me know). Also will take senior FOCUS, which is a year-long course in which i will be intensely researching a topic of interest (for me its creative writing). i will not be taking history this year.</p>

<p>ECs-
frosh- co-head/founder of ultimate frisbee team/club, FLEA (my school's satirical newspaper) editor, lacrosse team
soph- co-head/founder of ultimate frisbee team/club, FLEA editor, lacrosse team
junior- co-head/founder of ultimate frisbee team/club, FLEA editor, varsity lacrosse team, varsity winter track team
senior- co-head/founder of ultimate frisbee team/club, FLEA editor, varsity lacrosse team, varsity winter track team, planning on starting up a free-write club (details not fully worked out yet)</p>

<p>awards/honors-have a short story published in a national sci-fi magazine, won a writing contest in my county (its for a magazine in the community college of my county). honor roll soph and junior year. CLASS RANK IS NOT GIVEN OUT AT MY SCHOOL.</p>

<p>comm service-60 total hours of community service, worked at/raised money for a camp for inner city, underprivileged kids this summer.</p>

<p>other-planning on attending writing college program this summer (pref UIowa, which is the most prestigious in the country. backups are UVA and Brown).</p>

<p>if i apply ED next year, do you think i can get in (i know my GPA is an absolute killer).
ALSO-would it be wise to get in touch with admissions officers at duke/heads of departments at duke and just give friendly updates or some **** like that, or is that only annoying and does that look desperate?</p>

2

<p>also-if it wasnt clear, id be applying to trinity</p>

3

<p>I hate to say it but, if you are not an URM, I think you will have a very tough time getting in even if you apply EA. Unfortunately, your GPA is going to bring you down.</p>

<p>**Also, Duke recommends 4 years of Social Studies. You said you are not taking history senior year, so if I were you I would make sure that you have 4 other social studies credits.</p>

<p>Also, you may want to step up your community service. 60 hours is not a lot over 4 years.</p>

<p>Make sure you have safeties and good luck.</p>

4

<p>Apply ED and see. Your GPA as you said isn’t great, especially per Duke standards, so try and do something unique this summer and apply ED and see what happens.</p>

5

<p>Have more community service , and take 4 years if social studies and four years of a language</p>

6

<p>I was always raised in by the “try to be unique, rather than doing the president of x clubs, x hours of community service” school of thought. by that token, rather than trying to do MORE things I’d focus on being the best at a few of the things you already do.</p>

<p>you seem passionate about ultimate frisbee. is there a chance you’re any good? good enough to make/win state? nationals? I don’t know much about ultimate, but I do know it’s a pretty niche sport, so it shouldn’t be too hard to move up the ranks as a team, especially if you have a single-minded group of people to do it with. </p>

<p>you also seem passionate about writing, which as an individual endeavor is far easier to get good at. you just have to invest the time and get good. perhaps try to publish more things? I don’t know what the benchmark is for “good” writing, but whatever it is, go beyond it. </p>

<p>bottom line, I’d work on being the best at what you already do, rather than trying to do more things.</p>

<p>oh, and bring up that GPA. if you can get your junior year GPA to 3.7-3.8ish and then get your first quarter senior year grades to be really banging, then you’ve got a nice upward trend which will ameliorate your low frosh/soph years. </p>

<p>stay hungry and fight for what you want. if you work hard, you’ll get it.</p>

7

<p>@court922 yeah, comm service will go up to hopefully around 100 or so. i WOULD be taking four years of history, but the thing is that ive decided to really hone in on writing and to free up time to take FOCUS i need to drop a class. the one thats least important to me is history, as i dont love the class and it would be my only non-AP class next year. physics is a requirement for me, so i gotta take that next year, and english and math are required for all four years. i could drop latin, but id be in AP next year which is a nice incentive.</p>

<p>@theyeaman for us, frisbee is more of a “clort”. we do sport-type things and earn sport-type credit, but we don’t actually get to compete (seeing how there is only one other ultimate team in our area lol). im already the “captain” (club leader/co-founder), so can’t get much higher than that! as for writing, thats my “marketing strategy”. in other words, im going to show colleges that im dedicated to writing and that id wanna major in that in college. ive won a competition, entered another two (havent heard back yet), gotten published, and i am taking an independent study for writing and am doing senior FOCUS (see original post for description) on writing. doing my best, and will def go above and beyond for writing, like you said. gpa wise, im giving it my all this semester. the other few were low cuz i am a lazy son of a b*tch lol, but i realize now that ive been too lax about my studies and need to kick it into full gear. will a really solid upward trend mean anything now, even though my first semester grades in junior year took an ever-so-slight dip from soph year second semester?</p>

8

<p>a solid upward trend is still, unfortunately, an upward trend. and there will be plenty of applicants whose grades started high and stayed high throughout high school. if you can really kick some serious ass 2nd semester junior year and 1st semester senior year, you’ll get your GPA high enough, and with enough of an upward trend, that it won’t kill your application. unfortunately, that’s as good as your GPA ever will be able to be–not a liability. you really have to go above and beyond on the writing.</p>

9

<p>I just don’t think your chances are high. You take five classes a year, maybe that is regular for your school, but it seems odd for a blue ribbon school. For my school, 22 courses is the minimum requirement for graduation, so it just goes to saying that you aren’t partaking in a rigorous schedule, which further mars your gpa. If you are only taking 5 classes, you should be able to get good grades. I know schools all have different approaches to number of courses, seven is usually typical, but i have seen kids on cc with as many as 10 courses each semester. Say what you will, but many Duke applicants take 7 ap classes their senior year. i had a friend last year (junior year) who took 6 ap classes and took 9 ap tests. Also, blue ribbon isn’t saying much. you have legit scores for a lot of great schools. you might look into lac’s like davidson (great school and legit sports if that’s an appeal for duke), pomona, cmc, pitzer, denison, or colgate. there is no doubt you will be admitted to some great schools based on your scores and presumably your character judging on transcending difficult personal circumstances (i.e. family death, father’s lost job). duke is just a very elite school and the admissions are becoming increasingly more competitive. my interviewer told me this year, after the rise in apps, it is going to be rough come april. good luck, try it ed maybe</p>