Chances for ED Please? TRINITY!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Duke University
1

<p>Heyyy so I'm applying to Duke ED and I'd really like to be chanced! I'll chance back if you post a link :)</p>

<p>Demographics:</p>

<p>Gender: Male
Ethnicity: Indian-parents from India, second-generation
School: One of the top public schools in NC, 7-point grading scale (We usually have about 40-50 UNC-CH acceptances and 80-100 NC State acceptances per year)
Financial Aid: Parents make >$150,000, but aid will be needed for privates
College Major: Biology/Chemistry/BioChemistry or something along those lines to get me into med school haha</p>

<p>Numbers:
Class Rank: 8/429
GPA UW: 3.86
GPA W: 4.91
SAT: 2160 (CR: 680, M: 720, W: 760, E: 12)--Retaking October
ACT: 32 (E: 35, M: 30, R: 32 (scored a 33 on a previous date, so this will go on my Common Application), S: 32, E: 10)--Retaking October
Subject Tests: Math II-760, Biology-680 (may take Chemistry this fall for RD applications)
AP Tests:</p>

<p>APES: 4
AP English L/C: 4
AP Biology: 4
AP Psychology: 5
AP Calculus AB/BC: 3/3</p>

<p>Sophomore Writing Test: 4, 20/20</p>

<p>Academics:</p>

<p>Freshman Year:
Honors English 1: A
Honors Geometry: A
Honors Biology: A
Honors World History: A
Sports Medicine/Athletic Training 1: A
Spanish 2: A
Debate 1: A
PE/Health: A</p>

<p>GPA UW: 4.0
GPA W: 4.5 </p>

<p>Sophomore Year:
Honors English II: A
Honors Algebra II: A
Honors Chemistry: A
Honors Spanish III: A
Honors Civics/Economics: A
Honors Pre-Calculus: A
AP Environmental Science: A
Debate II: A</p>

<p>GPA UW: 4.0
GPA W: 5.0
PSAT: 178</p>

<p>Junior Year:
AP Calculus AB: B
AP Calculus BC: B
AP Biology II: A
AP Psychology: A
AP English Language/Composition: A
Honors Spanish IV: B
Physical Conditioning I: A </p>

<p>UW GPA: 3.57
W GPA: 5.14</p>

<p>Senior Year:
AP Chemistry II
AP Literature
AP Government
AP U.S. History
AP Human Geography
AP Statistics
Honors Debate IV</p>

<p>Extra-Curriculars:</p>

<p>Knights in Action (9-12)
Freshman Year: 25 hours at the YMCA
Sophomore Year: 25 hours at the YMCA
Junior Year: 25 hours in the E.D. at Carolina’s Medical Center
Senior Year: 25 hours in the E.D. at Carolina’s Medical Center</p>

<p>Debate(9-12):
Co-Captain of Debate Team and Public Forum Debate Head Junior Year, All-Team Captain Senior Year </p>

<p>HOSA(10-12):Not an officer, but I partake in the officer meetings and help plan trips to regional and state competitions; aspiring to be President senior year (haven't had elections yet)</p>

<p>Internship:
70-hour academic medical internship at a private neurology practice last summer where I shadowed the head doctor and assisted in the research department. Also, I wrote a paper on the effects of Parkinson’s disease on the body.
Will complete another 70-hour internship at a Cardiology practice this summer where I will shadow the head doctor and write a case study for a medical journal (as planned).</p>

<p>Spanish Club (11-12):
Co-President (12), Vice-President (11)
Help in organizing community service events for Spanish club members (over 100)</p>

<p>Spanish Honor Society (10-12):
President Junior year and will remain President Senior year </p>

<p>Student Humanitarian Organization (10-11):
Co-founder
Secretary 10th grade, President 11th grade, cut 12th grade
Raised money for countries in need of aid who have been affected by natural disasters</p>

<p>Awards:
Mu Alpha Theta (Math Honor Society): 11-12
Spanish Honor Society: 10-12
National Honor Society: 11-12
Junior Marshal
HOSA (10): Placed 9th in Kaiser Permanente Health Care Exam and 10th in Nutritional Knowledge Test at State Competition
HOSA (11): Placed 9th in Job-Seeking Skills (Regionals) and 3rd in Nutritional Knowledge Test at State Competition (Qualified for Nationals)
HOSA (11): Partook in HOSA Nationals for 5 days this summer</p>

<p>Summer Programs:
Attending Summer Ventures in Science in Math this summer, which is a state-funded month-long program where I stay in a college dorm and study science and math. It's prestigious in that only 300 students get selected out of the 1500 that apply (this is what a rep told me). This summer, I studied Flight Science in which I built rockets from scratch and launched them 300 meters in the air while studying the logistics behind achieving maximum flight time and the physics associated.</p>

2

<p>My advice to you- write about something that’s not cookie-cutter- i.e. don’t start talking about how you were passionate about debate and how it shaped you, since talking about generic ECs is as bland as it gets. You really need something in your essay that shows you are a lively, unique individual</p>

3

<p>Hey, the first thing is that I would not say “25 hours volunteering” because 25 hours is really nothing. So it is best to keep it vague and let the admissions board guess.</p>

<p>Your grades were good, but you got B’s junior year, and that doesn’t mean an automatic rejection, but junior year was the last year the admissions board will see your grades before they make a decision on you, so it was important. But this means you need to excel in other things. Your activities and other things are fine. Market yourself to the best of your ability. I am not saying lie and be deceitful, but show the best aspect there is to you and you should be a competitive applicant. This year duke’s acceptance was less than 15, and it is going to be less this upcoming year too. You need to show them what you will contribute to Duke, and why you are a fit. Duke wants students who do not know PI to the 50th digit, but ones that are both intellectually superior and socially as well. We have fun and great school spirit while also having the most brilliant minds in the nation.</p>

<p>Try taking the ACT again, I would say 33+ is a safe score. For SAT IIs, getting 90% or higher is the best for these tests, but if you are maybe 80%+, you should be fine but you need to be good. For Pratt, I know that math is important because engineering revolves around math. So show them you are strong in chem/bio SAT II’s. These tests you can study for. I recommend Princeton Review.</p>

<p>Overall, you are a solid kid and just make sure you show the real you to Duke, that is who they are looking for. Private Message me if you have any more Q’s, but other than that, good luck man. trd123</p>

4

<p>I would advise you AGAINST applying ED. Those B’s your Junior year might hurt you unless you can show a turnaround your Senior year. If you apply ED, you will not be able to do this, therefore (hopefully) get straight A’s in the fall and apply RD to Duke, showing an upward trend. Otherwise, you risk getting waitlisted and possibly rejected…</p>

5

<p>For my school, first semester ended after the RD deadline, so it doesn’t matter in terms of grades if he applies ED or RD in my opinion. do your own research, and see when your hs’s first semester (or whatever period you have) ends, and if it is before the RD deadline, then jshain is probably right about it, but then again, ED does show you are highly interested. this is the part where you start making your own decisions based off your thinking :slight_smile: haha</p>

6

<p>@dd1993: I’ve already written my essay and feel as if it is pretty powerful. It is not about anything EC-related, but about a personal issue I faced as I grew up. Thanks!</p>

<p>@trd123: I will be receiving our school’s community service award, which was my goal. I wanted to focus more on interning and school ECs as they are more meaningful to me than helping little kids play sports. As for the B’s, 2/3 were in Calculus AB/BC, which is not a strength of mine. Also, we are ahead of most schools in North Carolina as many strong students will not reach even Calculus AB until their senior year, while I, along with a great majority of strong students from my class, took Calculus BC our junior year. Hopefully Duke admissions will take that into consideration, as well as the 760 Math II and 720 SAT Math (I’m going to try and raise this to 750+ in October). Also, my ACT SUPERSCORED is a 33, so would that make a difference? Thanks!</p>

<p>@jshain: Read what I said above about Calculus AB/BC. Also, I know my recommendations will be stellar and my essay is very powerful, so hopefully the admissions committee will see that. And yes, my school’s first semester ends after the RD deadline lol. Thanks!</p>

7

<p>You should NOT apply ED. Your junior grades are very poor, definitely need your senior year first semester grade to show that you are capable of succeeding in AP classes.</p>

<p>Also you mentioned “Parents make >$150,000, but aid will be needed for privates”; with your familial income, you may receive very poor aid. Locking yourself with ED is not the greatest idea.</p>

<p>Also as the poster above said, don’t even mention 50 hours at YMCA over two years. Keep it vague if you must mention it.</p>

8

<p>@noobcake: How are they “very poor”? Just because I didn’t make straight A’s they’re horrendous? I took 5 AP classes my junior year, which is A LOT compared to 99% of American high school students, and I did very well (if you consider Calculus AB/BC as one class, which technically is what it was, I only made 1 B while making 3 As in my AP classes, so I am capable of succeeding in AP classes). I passed all of my AP exams with 4s and a 5, excluding Calculus because it is not my strong suit, as I had previously mentioned. </p>

<p>Also, I’m ranked in the top 1.8% in a very competitive class where the top 50 students take between 3-4 APs each. We have almost 50 students/year get accepted into UNC-Chapel Hill, with a solid number of Ivies/Dukes/Top-20 schools every year. I’m not trying to imply that I’m right and you’re wrong, and I wouldn’t post my “resume” on CC if I didn’t want CONSTRUCTIVE criticism, but I feel like the “noob” in your username is starting to show in your comments.</p>

9

<p>lmao, attacking me personally because of my screen name.</p>

<p>3.57 unweighted is a poor GPA no matter how you spin it. Of course getting B’s in high school calculus is not a failure, but I’m certain that there were students at you school who were able to succeed in AP Calculus. </p>

<p>I’m sure that you have high aspirations and think highly of yourself, but you do have to realize that you are not trying to be a part of the 99% of American high schools who take less than 5 AP classes per year. Once you arrive at college, whether it be Duke or any other school on your college list, you will realize that there will always be people more intelligent or diligent than you are.</p>

<p>As far as I know, Chapell Hill is mandated by either its founding charter or state law to accept a certain percentage of in-state students. This fact makes “40-50 UNC-CH acceptances and 80-100 NC State acceptances per year” so much less impressive considering that your class has over 400 students.</p>

<p>You came here asking for chances, I told you what I thought.</p>

10

<p>I wasn’t attacking you personally, just telling you what I think.</p>

<p>Yeah…for JUNIOR year. As far as I know, colleges look at the other 2 years PREVIOUS to that, so don’t base my chances off of ONE year. And yes, there were students who got As. Calculus is not my strong suit, so I got Bs. I’m sure there’s one subject you’re not too hot in, it happens to everyone.</p>

<p>I don’t think highly of myself…I think I’m a hard-working high school student who likes to live a normal life on the side. And yes, I do know there will be people smarter than me in college, I never tried to deny that at any point. It’s common sense. </p>

<p>Look, it’s still impressive, you can’t deny that. Even if they do have to take a certain percentage of in-state students, that doesn’t demean the fact that our school has one of the highest acceptance rates into UNC-Chapel Hill compared to almost every school in North Carolina. </p>

<p>If you had chanced me with decency, maybe threw out a tip or two, or tried not to put down my grades (which are actually pretty good, and no I’m not thinking highly of myself; show my transcript to someone, and they’ll say the same), then I would not be having this discussion with you, but instead would have thanked you for taking time out of your day to give me advice, which you blatantly didn’t.</p>

11

<p>I think his grades are fine. Rank 8/429 is very respectable. FYI the grading scale is a bit tougher, so obviously unweighted grades will be slightly lower. I don’t know how 3 Bs qualifies as “very poor”, even for Duke. </p>

<p>To OP, remember that this is CC; keep some perspective and take what you hear lightly.</p>

12

<p>Anyone else please?</p>

13

<p>Agree with the above posts. It’s really hard to do “chance me” threads for schools like Duke because you really have to have special qualities that will enable you to get through the crap shoot that it is to get admitted since Duke admission counselors look at everything. </p>

<p>I just wanted to post on this thread because I saw you write “College Major: Biology/Chemistry/BioChemistry or something along those lines to get me into med school haha”. Let me just say though, that it really does not matter what your major is if you’re interested in medical school. I know some people who are Art History majors at Duke who are applying to medical school. For medical school, you just need to get some pre-reqs out of the way like 4 chems, 2 bios, 2 physics, calc, 2 writing/englishs, etc. I mean it’s cool if biology and biochemistry are really what you’re interested in, but I’m just trying to make the point that you don’t have to feel confined to the fact that you HAVE to major in a science in order to go to medical school.</p>

14

<p>Oh yeah, I understand, but science is the one thing that really interests me, but I’m not 100% sure which major I want to pursue out of the 3. I’m also contemplating transferring to Pratt my sophomore year and majoring in BME. I’m still trying to figure that out, but I know I want a science major.
Thanks!</p>

15

<p>The first 3 or 4 of your “awards” aren’t really awards just so you know, and your test scores are about average for people applying to duke, which you can interpret as being either good or bad. Although you are correct that colleges will look favorably on your grades before junior year, the fact that there was such a noticeable drop once you took on a heavier course load looks very bad. I agree more or less with what trd and noobcake posted. My school gets dozens of students into UC Berkeley each year, yet judging from the calibur of people rejected from schools like Duke, I would say you’re going to need one heck of an essay to stand out.</p>

16

<p>i"m not sure about the superscored. Just try to get the highest ACT you possibly can, and along with that high score, make sure the rest of your application stands out as well. Some schools superscore, some don’t. To superscore though, you will need to send all the ACT scores to the school so they can superscore it, it can cost a lot so think about that.</p>

17

<p>you might be deferred, because your grades started slipping a little junior year and duke will want to see how you do on midyear reports during senior year</p>

18

<p>I’ll agree with some of the other posters when they said that you’ll need an AWESOME essay. I got in to Duke off the wait list review this year, and as you know, the wait list held more than 3,400 students. I wrote an awesome essay that appealed to the admissions council, and I sent in some very interesting supplements. I’m sure you can do it! You mentioned that you had already written you essay; my advice is to edit and re-edit your essay. Get two or three friends or teachers to look at it. If you feel that your teachers are editing your essay too much, then tweak it to what fits your desires most. Hopefully you wrote about something that GREATLY impacted your life.</p>

19

<p>My school is going to send them First Quarter grades, so would I still be fine if I do well in all of my classes? And I feel like my essay is very passionate and interesting, as told to me by a former Princeton admissions officer (who was my SAT tutor lol). </p>

<p>Also, instead of taking AP Government next year, I’ll have AP European History. Will that make a difference?</p>