Chances for a low-grade student (for Duke, that is)

Colleges and Universities A-Z Duke University
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<p>Hey I was just wondering my chances for ED at Duke; I'm a rising senior, Asian (Chinese), from a competitive high school in Virginia, which apparently has not gotten many students into Duke, and compared to most of the other applicants on here, it seems like I might be a bit on the lower end. I'm not going to list my classes but I'll give a brief description of every year..</p>

<p>SAT: 2200 (720 CR, 710 M, 770 W) (may retake)
SAT II: (Projected) Math IIC, USHistory, Lit all 700+
GPA: W 4.51, UW 3.83
Rank ~ Top 7%
APs: Calc AB: 5, Stats: 4, Spanish 3 (blah)</p>

<p>Freshman year: 2 Honors (Bio, Alg II) W: 4.09, UW: 3.75
Sophomore year: 3 Honors (Chem, Trig, Span) W: 4.0934, UW: 3.57
Junior year: 2 Honors (Eng, Phys), 3 APs (Stats, Calc AB, Spanish) W: 4.85, UW: 4.0
Senior year: 4 Honors (Adv Math Topics, Microscopy, Shakespeare Online, Spanish 6), 5 APs (Calc BC, Enviro, Phys, Lit, Gov) W: 5.53, UW: 4.0</p>

<p>Extracurriculars: (suffering, as I didn't really start doing anything until Jr year)
Model UN: 3,4
NHS: 3,4
Beta Club: 3,4 (Pres)
Junior Statesmen: 4
Frisbee Club: 4
Amnesty International: 4 (Founder)
Volunteer: Habitat for Humanity (3,4)
Volunteer: Relay For Life (1,4) (Group Leader 4)
(200+ hrs. Community Service)</p>

<p>Distinctions:
NHS, Wyndham Blanton Scholars Forum, Eagle Seal for Community Service</p>

<p>My recommendations should be great, and I plan on getting my congressman to write an extra letter. I'm a good writer (ok, who says they aren't?), and I'll definitely be sure to let my passions and personal voice shine through. </p>

<p>Ok so I ended up listing most of my classes anyway. Every time I look at it, I seem to be lacking in every department: rank, rigor of classes, and ECs. Is there any chance? I feel pretty crappy (at lack of a better term) compared to some of the other people here, but maybe I'll get lucky? Any input would be great, thanks!</p>

2

<p>It looks like you have a shot at Duke, yours stats are pretty good and to be honest, I got in Duke ED with stats similar to yours. The only thing that might make a difference is whether you are applying for engineering or not, I heard engineering might be easier to get into.</p>

3

<p>i would reccoment not having your congressman write a letter for you unless you have an close personal relationship with him. i worked for a U.S. Senator (who i will not name) and we got requests for reccomendation letters all the time. it is a sample letter and colleges know that. I had my supervisor at the senator's office write a letter for me but not from the senator himself. i wrote and signed many letters of reccomendation from the senator during my time at the office - they are virtually meaningless unless they are personal.</p>

<p>on another note, if you apply regular i dont think you have a chance unfortunately. ED is another thing all together. i had stats similar to yours and got in ED. anybody needs luck though, so having scores on the lower end of the spectrum is definetaly not going to rule you out - it will just make it harder. Good luck!</p>

4

<p>i agree with ssorman. it's going to be a very generic letter unless its a personal relationship you have with him, and that it could be more beneficial to take a "step down" from the congressman himself and have a supervisor write a letter. they'll be the people who know you and your work better anyway, etc..</p>

<p>and i always believe that having scores on the lower end of the spectrum doesn't rule you out. you've still got a chance- moreso if you do ED. you certainly are not a "low-grade student" (reading the title made me think someone rocking a C gpa would be asking for their chances, and clearly, you're far from that) but there is stiff competition, especially between Chinese/Asian students. flaunt your strengths-- if you're a great writer, then write an incredible essay.</p>

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<p>Thanks a lot guys, about the advice and the perspective about the letter. I already have tons of ideas for what I'll write about for the essays, and I just hope my luck will let me slide!</p>

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<p>Just to reiterate with everyone else, yeah, you've got a good shot as long as youve got excellent recs and essays.</p>

<p>My stats:
SAT: 2090
ACT: 31
Final GPA: 4.3 (w), 3.9 (uw)
Rank: 14/515</p>

<p>We pretty much had the same class load for high school too, and as you can tell, youre test scores are better than mine. Don't get over zealous comparing test scores to everyone on here though...people on these boards happen to be smarter than the average Dukie haha.</p>

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<p>just some food for though...here are some stats on the duke class of 2010.</p>

<p>SAT/ACT scores:
for Trinity (arts & sciences) the middle 50% range of SAT scores was 2040-2320 for pratt (engineering) it was 2120-2330. the middle 50% of ACT scores were 30-34 (trinity) and 32-34 (pratt).</p>

<p>Class Rank:
about 25% of those enrolled in trinity were in the 10 in their class (not %...top 10 students) and 27% in pratt. 50% were in the top 5% of their class in trinity and 59% in pratt. (those students who are entolled but did not recieve a class rank in high school are included in these #'s - they are part of the statistics not expressed here. i.e. the 41% of pratt who were below the top 5%...)</p>

<p>minority representation:
25.4% of the entire class is asian/asian-american/pacific islander, 9.4% is african american/black, 6.9% us hispanic/latino, and 0.3% is native american/american indian, natice alaskan/hawaiian. the totla minority representation is 42%.</p>

<p>georgraphy:
14% are from NC, 14% from the northeast, 19% from the mid-atlantic, 24% from the southeast, 10& from the midwest, 11% from the west and pacific states, and 8% from abroad.</p>

<p>Acceptance Rate:
Trinity accepted 19.7% of all applications (12.4% of those accepted were early decision). trinity enrolled 43.6% of those accepted (27.8% of those enrolled were ED).
Pratt accepted 27.6% of all applications (8.1% of those accepted were ED). pratt enrolled 32.9% of those accepted (24.3% of those were enrolled ED).</p>

<p>i hope these stats can help you out. i calculated them myself so there may be errors. all of the numbers are from the duke admissions website: </p>

<p><a href="http://www.admissions.duke.edu/jump/applying/who_2010profile.asp%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.admissions.duke.edu/jump/applying/who_2010profile.asp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>Thanks a lot ssorman! That's a lot of interesting statistics, thanks for enlightening me. =) Here are some more I'll pick out for myself.</p>

<p>Acceptance rate for ED was: 30.3%
Accepted student w/ rank of 5%-10%: 12.5% (eesh)
SAT I
CR: 680-770 (I was 720)
M: 690-790 (I was 710)
W: 660-760 (I was 770)</p>

<p>So I'm generally on lower spectrum of the test scores and rank.. hopefully I can make up for it with my essays/recs.</p>

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<p>(shameless) bump</p>

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<p>To put it on terms of the old SATs, which for most people are still easier to judge by, Duke's CO09's stats were 1370 - 1550, and for CO10 its 1380 - 1550</p>

<p>However, the above are actually the kids coming to Duke, not for those accepted which might be lower or higher</p>

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<p>Bump.</p>

<p>Another question, because I started a lot of my EC's Junior year, how detrimental would that be for my chances? (I actually have an explanation for this too, that I plan on using for my EC essay)</p>

12

<p>In answer to your question on starting Extra Curriculars your junior year, Duke generally likes well-rounded students, so starting your freshman year would have been great. But Duke looks less at how much you did for how long, and more at how involved and active you were in the extracurriculars you decided to join. I myself went from one EC to another my first two years and really got into two or three of them the last two years, and I'm at Duke. You should be fine if you made a concentrated effort to be dedicated and involved in your EC's. Good Luck!</p>

13

<p>Thanks a lot! Yeah, one thing really led to another, but I'm very involved in the clubs I'm in, and have leadership roles in most of them.</p>