Chances at Duke? (Appreciate any help)

Colleges and Universities A-Z Duke University
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<p>A friend told me about this site and I figure why not ask around. Thanks for any ideas on what I should send in, my chances, etc</p>

<p>SAT: 1580 (800 M / 780 V)</p>

<p>SAT2: 740 MIC, 710 MIIC, 740 Writing, 690 US Hist, 690 English</p>

<p>AP: 5 Statistics, 5 US Hist, 4 English</p>

<p>Current Classes: Honors Humanities, AP Modern Euro, Spanish 4, AP BC Calc, AP Bio, International Relations; taking hardest classes available. </p>

<p>GPA: 3.558 for soph/jr year combined, 3.783 for first quarter of senior year. </p>

<p>School: Our school leaves them weighted, and it is on a 4=A, .5 extra for
AP/Honors. So highest possible is 4.5 if you had all As in all APs. I am about 8-15 range out of 70 students in my grade, in a very competitive school. People have gotten into Dartmouth, JHU, Williams, Yale, Stanford, Duke, UVA, William and Mary, etc. </p>

<p>Extra Curricular: Dorm council (student council for boarders, elected by 40 other boarders), Varsity Squash 3 years, Basketball (AAU + School), Academic "A" Team for 3 years (One of the top teams in the nation, have won numerous scholarships and $), Science A Team 3 years, Model Organizations general committees, School Play.</p>

<p>Other activities: Stand up comedy (performed at club), Worked at Ben and Jerrys for 2 and 1/2 years, worked for rivals100.com for two years. Both paid well </p>

<p>Dad went to Harvard/Duke Med. Mom went to Brown/Harvard SOPH. I spent summer between soph/jr years at Amherst taking classes. Summer between jr/sr years at Harvard taking classes, which I got 8 credits for (received B+ in both classes). The SSP thing, got a reference from teacher.</p>

<p>Submitted extra materials from Academic team tournament (Scholarship info (have won close to $2000 or so for my school with team) and program from the night I did the standup comedy set. Essays were good, as were recs, although I didnt see them. Just assuming, I mean not like the teacher is gonna bash me. </p>

<p>Oh right, received a couple honors:
-Honor roll after sophomore year, high honors after junior year
-National Merit Commendation
-AP Scholar
-Ben Carson Nominee (8th grade so not that big deal)
-Academic team has won a crapload of stuff. </p>

<p>Located in Virginia</p>

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<p>any help would be appreciated, thanks</p>

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<p>well, first of all, it sorta depends on what school you are applying to (Trin. or Pratt?). Secondly, it doesn't really matter that your dad went to Harvard or your mom to brown, the only thing that might help is his Duke med school. Even then, though, I have heard tell that Duke is slowly phasing out its benefits for legacies. That said, I think everything else sounds great. You sound like a strong candidate.</p>

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<p>I notice you weren't in the coin club.</p>

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<p>applying to trinity....yalebound, what?</p>

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<p>Why didn't you ED Brown?</p>

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<p>not applying to brown, ead harvard, got deferred</p>

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<p>u seem real strong but may i question how u got deffered from harvard with a gpa of 3.59</p>

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<p>as opposed to rejected or as opposed to accepted?</p>

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<p>im assuming rejected, that gpa is detrimental</p>

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<p>well two things, #1 i wasnt getting rejected from harvard because of legacy if anything else. that was a given</p>

<p>secondly, our school doesnt inflate gpas like most do. just to give you a sense of things, a B is a 3.0, A is 4.0, and AP or Honors adds .5. So a 3.59 is like B in AP/Honors or almost A- in regular. 1st semester this year i will have a little above a 3.7, which is basically B+ in AP/honors. The highest GPA in our class is 4.12, and maybe 3 or 4 people have above 4. We dont rank, but i am anywhere in the 8-15 range out of 72 in class, and this is one of the better classes in our schools history ive been told. Early admittances already to Yale, Dartmouth, Colombia, Penn, JHU, Duke, UVA, WM, Stanford, Williams, etc. </p>

<p>That all being said, for the places I'm applying my gpa is a little lower than it should be. Do yal think it will make the difference?</p>

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<p>welll yes i was saying in contrast to rejcection. while most schools mainly use only uw gpas then that would mean that none are inflated at all. the avg uw gpa for a school like duke is 3.7 im pretty sure so yes it might hurt but if ur essays are strong u still have solid chance</p>

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<p>thankfully unweighted gpas arent taken into as much consideration. I mean, which is better, an A in a regular class, or a B+ in an AP/Honors? Which is the student getting more out of? It helps twice too, because GPA is higher, plus they realize you are challenging yourself. Thanks for the feedback, anymore still appreciated</p>

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<p>I'd have to say that an A in an AP/Honors class is better than a B in an AP/Honors class. Although you might be winning against the regular class people, you're losing to the people who are getting 4.0's and taking all AP/Honors classes.</p>

<p>Also for clubs, keep in mind that having leadership spots in various clubs/activities is a lot easier in a grade of 70 students than it is for say my grade of 900 some students. I don't know how aware Duke is of the relationship between class size and leadership/varsity team status but I'd say that it'd be easier to be on more teams in a smaller school.</p>

<p>How's your science bowl team this year, what school do you attend? You guys planning on beating TJ?</p>

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<p>well im not going to defend myself, i just wanted peeps opinions on chances. i mean you are stating the obvious. hopefully SAT etc helps.</p>

<p>as for leadership, i disagree. if you take the top 70 of of the 900, then its harder to get elected there. varsity sports ill give you, although since we recruit, we are pretty good</p>

<p>i goto saint annes belfield, science bowl team is ok. got a kid in duke, last year had a princeton. another girl on team this year is jhu. other two are a junior and myself. we have no shot at TJ though I dont think. same with academic team. only time we coudl beat tj is in a tv tourney</p>

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<p>i think you have a pretty good chance... dont worry about your GPA too much, people tend to overexaggerate it's importance on this board...</p>

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<p>I'll wish you luck vs TJ. You're regionals are a week before Maryland's I think. Actually, our team is thinking about coming down and viewing the VA one. If we do, I'll be sure to say hi.</p>

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<p>cool. anyone have any other ideas about chances?</p>

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<p>Hey, what happened to ur school at science bowl on saturday?</p>

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<p>Hey, you sound very interesting, imdashep. Your GPA is showing a positive trend, which is always good. Duke doesn't even consider freshman year in its admissions decisions, and I think the admissions counselors know enough to realize your potential and improvement. Your ECs are interesting and quirky, and you sound like a funny/interesting kid (wait, why did you apply to Harvard?) and I can definitely see you here more than a place where people are notorious for lacking a sense of humor/being laid back. Obviously your test scores are good. I think you definitely stand a chance. I think Duke would much rather accept an extremely intelligent and quirky kid who's still working toward his or her potential than a no-personality grade-grubber who's worked his or her ass off and stabbed others in the back and is ready to burn out.</p>