<p>I'm a junior in high school these are my current stats but i highly expect my GPA to improve and SAT/ACT score will definitely improve. (I've only taken the SAT once)</p>
<p>Schools- Duke ED, Wash U. (St. Louis), Rice, Emory, Vanderbilt, UVA, Colgate, Tufts, BC, UNC-CH, U Richmond, U Michigan AA, Bucknell, U Miami (FL), UMD, Elon, JMU</p>
<p>Stats:
[] SAT:1860
[] ACT: 30
[] GPA: 3.5 Unweighted
[] Rank: School doesn't rank
[] Other stats: Junior Class President, SGA President (Senior Year), Editor of Newspaper, Captain of Cross Country Team, Tour Guide, Ambassador of Prestigious Summer Travel Program, Student Conductor/Director of Musical Band, been playing piano for 8 years, participated in many state competitions. I've done multiple community service programs internationally, over 100 hours in Peru, Spain, and Morocco. Applying for research internship at NIH in the summer. </p>
<p>Subjective:
[] Teacher Recs: Very close with teachers, excellent recs
[] Counselor Rec: great
[] Hook (if any): legacy at Duke and Tufts</p>
<p>Location/Person:
[] State or Country: Maryland
[] School Type: Private- Episcopalian
[] Ethnicity: White (50% Lebanese.. so maybe Arab American )
[] Gender: Male</p>
<p>Your EC’s are on par with Duke’s expectations but your GPA and test scores are way, way too low for Duke. If you can somehow get your GPA up to about a 3.75 (which is still low) and your SAT to at least 2200 then you have a shot because of your legacy and EC’s. (Duke’s average SAT is somewhere around 2200.)</p>
<p>As it stands: High reach (as in less than 10%) for Duke</p>
<p>WashU: high reach
Rice: reach
Emory: high match
Vanderbilt: reach
UVA: reach
Tufts: high match
BC: high match
UNC-CH: high match</p>
<p>Sorry to tell you this but I think the other posters (except for that last guy) are being too unrealistic. 3.5 GPA for Duke is really low, and 1860 SAT & 30 ACT are really low as well. My friend got into Duke ED with like a 4.0 and 22XX on the SAT, and even he barely made it. Honestly a lot of the schools you have listed require near 4.0 GPAs and near 2200 test scores. I think MW2 has the most accurate assessment of how the schools will work out for you.</p>
<p>thanks for your opinion, I agree 3.5 is pretty low, but since I’m applying ED and I have legacy I thought it might give me a fighting chance. and a 30 on the ACT is the average score for an accepted Duke applicant. but my grades have shown an upward trend, (3.4 freshman year, 3.5 sophomore, 3.86 expected junior year, and probably even higher senior year). So these are my current stats but they should improve and I’ve only taken the SAT once in December so hopefully the GPA and test scores will improve. But a 30 is average for Duke. thanks for your input though! more will be greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>if another person calls 3.75 low, i swear to god, i’m going to go apeshyt on this site. diggg?</p>
<p>like, you know what? i’m a perfectly intelligent person. perhaps i should’ve worked a lot harder, but i’m coming out with around a 3.2 unweighted–and that’s with the hardest schedule in my grade. i also got a 36 on my ACT, and i just got back a 2370 SAT. i don’t think a 3.75–that’s more a’s than b’s, ladies and gentlemen–is anywhere near low. it’s fair to call a 2.5 low, because that means a student’s pulling c’s and d’s; that’s average and unsatisfactory, respectively. but please, PLEASE, do recognize that for the majority of american students a 3.2-3.5 would be cause for celebration.</p>
<p>that’s all.</p>
<p>by the way, get your test scores up and that legacy status at duke and tufts should help a lot. good luck, my man, and don’t let d0uch3lords keep you down, bruhbruhh. peace</p>
<p>@danders617
A 30 ACT is 25th percentile at Duke, you need to get that up to have a good chance.</p>
<p>@hahaheywhatsup
If you’re applying to the top schools in the nation a 3.75, and most definitely a 3.5, is low. There are hundreds of thousands of students with 3.75+ applying to college next year…</p>
<p>MW2, you seem like you know what you are talking about, so if I could get my UW GPA to about 3.66 and my ACT to a 32/33 and SAT to a 2150, would ED Duke with legacy and all the other stats be a match for me? Like it’s my dream school, and I am more than willing to work my a** off to get there.</p>
<p>sure, you may be intelligent. Grades, and test scores for that matter, don’t really show true intelligence. Personally, I only have a 3.5 UW with a 35 on my ACT, and I think I’m an intelligent person, but the truth is a 3.5 is considered a low GPA. We’re not being “d0uch3lords” as you put it, we’re just giving danders an honest look instead of saying “YOU’LL TOTALLY GET IN MAN!!” so he is less disappointed if he gets rejected.</p>
<p>I agree with you that GPA is pretty stupid, and that because I was lazy and didn’t really try in HS that it could mess up the rest of my life, but in reality you just have to deal with the fact that a 3.2-3.5 is a low GPA, especially for schools like Duke.</p>
<p>Also, a 2.5 GPA would mean the student is getting Bs and Cs, not Cs and Ds, so im questioning how intelligent you really are :)</p>
<p>yeah i agree with jettski. i want the most honest opinion. It’s just I want to make sure my chances aren’t being immediately thrown away because of my GPA. I am very sure my test scores will be much higher, and I will have great recommendations. I take an extremely difficult course load in my school, so I think Duke will see that. And in my opinion i have very strong EC’s. So I want the honest opinions and nothing else, but there are many other parts to an application besides GPA, although I know GPA is the most important. But I highly doubt if Duke sees on my application a 3.5 UW GPA they’ll immediately throw it in the trash. But thanks for your honesty.</p>
<p>hahaha i apologize. i’ll edit that shyttt soon. but i think that you have to look at the GPA in context; if you’re pulling a low-3, like I am, in extremely difficult classes, i feel like that’d look a million times better than if you were to have a 3.95 in all regular classes. the OP didn’t specify his course difficulty until now, so i couldn’t have really judged his grades fairly if i didn’t know what kind of classes he’s taking.</p>
<p>i know that, as an athlete, the bar at top universities are set lower–my 4.2something weighted is one of the better GPA’s for my top ivy’s 2012 recruiting class. like ol’ folks ****in’, i guess it all depends.</p>
<p>If you accomplished this you would be in the running. It would never be a “match” though (it only is for the most talented of applicants). Your chances would triple at least though. Keep in my that Duke uses a numerical system for admissions based off of (if memory serves):</p>
<p>Course rigor
GPA
Essays
Reccs
Test Scores
EC’s</p>
<p>Wherein each category is given a ranking out of 5. People can get in with a 3.66 but they have to make up for it in other places.</p>
<p>@hahaheywhatsup
It’s because of athletes and the like that the bar for those trying to get in on purely academic merit is so much higher. That said, the main purpose of grades is not to show intelligence, but rather work ethic/management of your life. If you’re a college level athlete then your commitment to the sport and to excellence demonstrates a similar thing.</p>
<p>They never release exactly how this is scored so my opinion is mostly speculation. I do know that to get a 5 in EC’s you usually have to do something on the national level or something incredibly impressive. Also for test scores I’m guessing that 2330 or over is a 5. As for essays/reccs I would caution you from ranking them so high because you must keep in mind that the “average” meaning 3 is still very good for essays and the average recc for someone applying to Duke raves about the person’s ability. To get a 5 on the essay I think you’d have to be really creative or just reveal a highly desirable characteristic about yourself in an interesting way. Reccs are impossible to rate. I also suspect that getting a 5 in course rigor means you have to take classes outside of school or self study AP’s or something. I also speculate that you cannot get a 5 for GPA unless you have a 4.0 UW or are valedictorian/salutorian.</p>
<p>course rigor: 4
GPA: 2 (most people applying have near perfect grades)
essays: probably not 5 unless you spent an inordinate amount of time on them or are an exceptionally good writer
recs: don’t know how this works at all
test scores: 5
ec’s: 4</p>
<p>So you are pretty similar to me and I got in, but then again they say the transcript is the most important part so who knows how much your grades will hurt you. Also (can’t remember) if you’re an URM that helps a ton.</p>
<p>What is your rank? It’s about rank, not GPA. A 3.7 is top 2% at some schools and top 25% at others.</p>
<p>OP, if you are well within the top 10%, get a 2200/33 plus and your parent has been an active and/ or generous alum, you have a shot at Duke no matter what your GPA. If you’re outside of the top 10%, your parent would need to be a very powerful alum or you need to get very good at basketball fast:)</p>
<p>course rigor: haven’t given me enough info
GPA: 2
essays: can’t rate
recs: can’t rate
test scores: 3 (2200 is about average for Duke)
ec’s: 4</p>
<p>Except keep in mind that, because you’re a legacy, you get some “extra points” in one area or another. And yeah you pretty much need to be in the top 10%…</p>