I’ve posted my stats before, but I’ve been thinking a lot about Duke and after touring the campus and hearing about their facilities (like the marine lab), I think I want to try to apply early decision even though I know it’s a long shot… I’m applying to safeties so no need to lecture me on that 
I would just like advice on how to improve my chances and if it’s worth it for me to apply early (or if I should save that for a different school…)
I’m a junior, female, asian, from VA
Class Rank: #2
GPA: 4.56
SAT: 1460 (math: 740, english: 720, essay: 6/5/6
ACT: 33 (english: 35, math: 34, reading: 33, science: 30, essay: 10)
EC:
varsity swimming, states ('14, '15)
class vice president ('14, '15)
scholastic bowl ('15- current)
varsity cross country, regionals (started this year)
sailing (started this year)
girl scouts
NHS (will have 100 community service hours by graduation, hopefully sooner)
Model UN (started this year)
part time lifeguard in the summer
nominated for art honor society this year (so will be part of it senior year) and won 3rd place for my portfolio at a city art show this year if that counts for anything
volunteer swim coach for little kids last winter and will also continue next year
I quit swimming year-round (and school swimming) bc I didn’t enjoy it and wanted to try new things… I don’t know how much that will hurt…
I know everything is pretty bland… so I was wondering what I could do to raise my chances.
Some things I want to try:
-volunteer each week at a local marine Muesum
-submit an art supplement…? (which is water themed, but I am pretty average in art so I may just write abt it in an essay and not actually submit anything)
-take the act and sat one more time
-try to earn my gold award
Are these helpful activities and would they do anything to boost my app? Should I try anything else? I listed what I would be fine doing even if it wasn’t for an application, but should I focus my efforts on more unique/substantial things?
Thank you!
@billcsho for now it’s a 4.0
^^ wow v rude…
I think you have a decent shot!
I’m not positive, but raising your ACT to a 35 might help, or raising your SAT above the 1500 threshold.
As for the arts portfolio, It won’t hurt to submit, but if you’re average, then I personally would not suggest it. After all, many kids considering pursuing art colleges end up applying to good schools, like Duke, and are accepted because of their art talents. However, you could always give it a try and work hard to make it impressive!
Best of luck! Your class rank and GPA are very impressive by the way!
@jsmith217 I’ve only taken the act once but I thought I did the best I could… I’m taking it one more time though so hopefully all goes well.
Art wise, I won 3rd place for my portfolio (and got $50 yay) but it was all ceramics pieces. So while I think my ceramics are up to par, my drawing and painting skills are lacking. I’m working on it so if I improve enough this summer I’ll submit a supplement.
Also do you think early decision will impact my chances at all?
Thank you!
@agentaquastar Applying early decision generally improves your chances, but only to a certain degree. Near all the student-athletes, children of donors, a considerable portion of legacy students, and other “special cases” apply through the early decision round. For the average unhooked applicant, the actual acceptance rate is well below 25%. And believe me, being an Asian applicant can be a huge hindrance when applying to any top 10 school, even in the early decision round.
@ldoc97 I know I don’t have a great chance of getting into duke, but if it’s my number one choice should I just apply ED? Or is it so skewed to legacies that it really wouldn’t matter either way?
@agentaquastar You should definitely still apply early decision if Duke is your number one choice. After all, if you’re going to use your early decision “trump card,” you should use it to apply to your dream school. However, in this day and age, so many other factors are at play in admissions; so go in expecting the worst.
Crafting everything around your marine interest is a great idea! I know everyone is making it hard for you because of scores (certainly, you should care about those), but it’s also important to have a well-crafted narrative that screams “you.”
The Marine Lab is adored at Duke and if they give you the ol’ “Why Duke?” essay then I highly encourage you to write about it. The Duke in Australia program can also directly tie into this “water” story–taught by Alex Glass who also teaches Duke’s “Dynamic Oceans” class. A bit more on it in case you want to mention it in your app: https://sites.duke.edu/dukeinaustralia2017/program/welcome/
@allthelamps thank you so much! I’ll try my best
I think you have a very good chance of getting in. (It’s a top 10 school so it’s impossible to say for sure) Only thing in my opinion that could hurt you are the ACT and SAT scores, especially given that you are Asian, but your ECs in my opinion more than make up for it.
Update:
I got my sat II scores back today.
Lit- 690
Math II- 710
US history- 790
Should I retake any? Or should I just send in my ACT score?
Recently I got the position to be a marine museum volunteer where I’ll teach kids about marine life and help them handle sharks and other creatures this summer! (I don’t know if this will help me much but I’m just excited about it )
I also started volunteering at my local hospital’s garden where we help kids plant and learn about the environment over the summer.
I don’t have any ideas for getting the GS gold award yet though…
Lately I’ve been interested in environmental engineering but I’m not completely sure…but I know Pratt is really hard to get into without physics so I think I’ll just apply to trinity? I’d like to do something environmental design related…