Chances for Duke + more?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I am a rising senior who is interested in applying to the following schools:
Duke (ED)
UVA
Michigan (Ross)
Wake Forest
Boston College (Carrol)
Villanova (Business)
NYU (Stern)

I am a Virginia resident and I am a legacy at both Duke and UVA.

Grades:
UW- 3.75
Weighted- 4.36
No rank yet
IB Diploma Candidate
Senior Year: HL English, HL World Topics, HL Chemistry, SL Mathematics, SL Spanish V, TOK II, and AP Statistics

Scores:
SAT: R+W- 710 M- 770 C- 1480 (plan on taking again)
ACT: Taking in July

ECs:
Cross Country 9, 10, 11, 12 (Captain 11, 12)
All Conference: 10, All Region: 11, Team MVP: 10, 11, Won award for leadership in sports, academics, and community: 11
Indoor Track 9, 10, 11, 12 (Captain 10, 11, 12)
All Conference: 10, Most Improved: 10, 11
Outdoor Track 9, 10, 11, 12 (Captain 10, 11, 12)
All Conference 10, Most Improved 10, Team MVP 11
National Honor Society 11, 12
Spent time tutoring students, doing community service
Student Congress 11, 12
Went to meetings with county officials and advocated for change in our schools
Beta Club 11, 12
Club doesn’t really do much
Service Trip 9
Went to the Dominican Republic with my Dad and did service
CARITAS 10, 11, 12
Volunteered with my church to help homeless people find a better life

Work:
Not much but I helped my Dad by doing research for his microfinance company so not sure if that counts

Also, I have some safety schools like Virginia Tech, JMU, and Syracuse

What do you guys think?

2

When I recently attended a college panel of representatives from Duke among other top schools, Duke and UPenn had admitted a hefty chunk of their undergraduate class through EDs. The number escapes me, but it was above 30% for both of them. This means you already have a decent chance going into the pool for Duke.

Your GPA is fine, your test scores may be needing a small bump, but I’m slightly concerned about the fact that you’re taking both the SAT and the ACT in the future, which might cramp up how many extracurricular activities you can do in the next few months.

I see a lot of athletics in your ECs, with some awards here and there, but I don’t really see depth as much as I see breadth. You have to indicate to these schools that you’re extremely interested in studying business, as it were. I don’t see too much of varied ECs that the college might look for and I don’t really see an interest in business. You have to show to colleges why you’re interested in this subject.

Without knowing anything else about how you plan to write your essays or LoRs (I’ll assume for the sake of discussion that you’ll be writing decent essays and your teachers like you a lot) I would say the weakest part of your application are your ECs, which are not bad, by any means, but you may want to reevaluate how Duke will view your application in the ED pool. You do have the best shot with Duke than most other colleges there, simply on account of your demonstrated interest by EDing to that school.

Good luck!

3

Yeah unfortunately my interest in business came pretty recently (before I had no idea) so i wasn’t able to join any perticular clubs this past years. Thanks for the response.

4

You are a competitive applicant. Your stats and ECs are great. Write good essays and you could get accepted to any of these schools

5

I think you have a very good shot at ED at Duke as legacy status is important there.

6

You have a nice strong resume. My son applied to many of the same schools.

He applied to Duke ED - Rejected.
Princeton - Rejected
Penn - Rejected
BC - Carrol Accepted
Villanova Business - Accepted
We are from Cali - he got in the Cal schools.

He had a 3.88 unweighted GPA - weighted was somewhere around the same as yours. All APs and honors all 4 years. Got a 4 and 2 5s on the AP tests we have gotten back so far. Including Calc BC.

He got a 35 on the ACT - not super scored.

Took 3 SAT subject tests and got 740+ on all 3.

You and he have very similar ECs - he was lacrosse - and also had tons of community service and Clubs he was on the executive committee of.

BC Carroll and VSB both had crazy acceptance rates this year - both were around ~18%.

My point is that it’s rough out there… I have no idea what being a legacy means at Duke. I think you will obviously get into UVA. We were shocked when he wasnt even waitlisted at Duke or the Ivies. It’s a very rough world out there.

If you have any leverage OF ANY KIND at any of the schools - ABSOLUTELY USE IT.