<p>African American Male
GPA 3.7UW 4.2W
Sat I : 2010
SATII: havent taken yet
EC's: pretty good
Rank: School does not Rank but I would be in the top 10%</p>
<p>Having worked for the admissions office, I know that your standardized scores/class ranking/numerical stats don't really mean that much at all. The way admissions officers describe it is more like a bar to get over before being considered. i.e. they aren't really going to even bother looking at someone that much if they have some dismally low scores (ex.: 1.2GPA, 900 SAT). On the other hand, they regularly reject people with perfect 2400 SAT's and 4.5 GPA's. Everyone that gets in has amazing grades. Grades aren't especially impressive to them. The thing that gets you in is what you do that is unique or how you excelled and/or made a real difference in something in particular. To make a long story short: Have good grades, be interesting/unique.</p>
<p>Bob is exactly right. Congrats - you meet the bare absolute minimum of probably being capable of succeeding at Duke academically... along with several thousand other people. You aren't showing anything that proves that you'd be worth having at Duke, just that you could handle the courseload. What does that mean, EC's "pretty good"? Does that mean you put in your 20 hours of community service that you need to graduate and played a sport for a few years, or did you start a non-profit to raise funding for blind children? Huge difference - and guess which one is going to get into Duke and which one won't! If you haven't any drive or initiative and haven't done anything interesting aside from get good grades, then I'd say your chances are around zero. So what DO you have that would make Duke want to have you?</p>