<p>I've been looking up ways to increase my chances of acceptance in the RD pool and have read that sending extra letters/contacting my regional admissions rep would help, but Duke explicitly states on their Admissions page that "Duke does not consider personal contact with regional admissions officers as a factor when making admissions decisions." and to "please...not send material requests to your regional admissions officer." Duke</a> Admissions
Does this mean I should just sit around until April and not attempt to do anything to bolster my application or what? Since Duke is (obviously) my first choice (because I applied ED), I want to at least try to get in.</p>
<p>P.S. Don't worry, I have back up schools that I will be perfectly content with attending, Duke just has the prestige and "feel" that I'm looking for. My life won't be over if I get rejected, come April.</p>
<p>Perhaps in January or so you could send the actual undergraduate admissions office a letter to say “this is what i’ve been doing in the past months” and show them what you’ve accomplished that is noteworthy. I know that’s what my friend did. Good luck!</p>
<p>You need to read more carefully. What is written is " Not send MATERIAL REQUESTS". What the heck kind of material requests are you planning on sending as a deferred applicant? None that I can think of. </p>
<p>Also who is the “Duke” who does not consider personal contact wiht your regional admissions officers? Of course every school does consider personal contact with the admissions officer. Don’t believe me? Pick a fight with him/her and see where that lands you. That person is often the one who does read your file along with another officer and rates it. There is no category that rates what the admissions officer thinks of you, no, but how he reads and rates the file can certainly be affected by his contacts with you. If he thinks you are a boor, spoiled, nasty, it will affect your score. What Duke is saying is that there is no official “grade” for what your contact with the admissions officer, no interview grade, but, it’s some unmeasurable thing IF the officer has some memory of you that can affect how he views your file. </p>
<p>Take a look at this:</p>
<p>[A</a> Note To Early Decision Applicants ? blogs.admissions.duke.edu](<a href=“Duke Students”>Duke Students)</p>
<p>And you have not done your homework if you did not know this already.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info!! I think I was just reading that wrong. Oh well, I understand now:) But goodness, you could be a little nicer about it next time. Degrading other people isn’t very kind:(</p>
<p>Also, I know it says that I could possibly send in another rec from a guidance counselor/teacher, but would they look at a rec from, say, my Youth Group leader? I feel like she would be able to give more insight into my actual character and personality than another teacher from school. I am a good student and impress many teachers, but I do not have as close a relationship with any of them, including the ones I asked to write my recs for the ED deadline.</p>
<p>eht1erb, I don’t think cpt was being ‘degrading.’ She was just expecting you to have read publically available information.</p>
<p>By not grading you on contact with your regional admissions officer, what that means is that you shouldn’t bother the AO for the sake of bolstering your app. AOs will be reading the many more files of RD applicants plus coordinating spring visits to schools in their region plus answering the questions of juniors looking at schools in the spring. They don’t need extraneous communication. If you have a question, you can definitely ask an AO-- but you don’t get bonus cookie points for reaching out.</p>
<p>
An additional letter of rec from a youth group leader would be considered an optional letter of recommendation and really should have been submitted before the ED deadline. At this point, that type of letter would be a non-academic update to your application and needs to provide new insight that AOs would hae no other way of knowing from your app. If it simply states, in stronger terms, what a wonderful person you are and your involvement in activities that are already in the CA, I wouldn’t send it along.</p>
<p>What you should send along is your first-semester mid-term grades (which comprise the “most important” part of a deferred ED review) along with anything non-academic that adds to your application. If you’ve earned a new award or done something impressive or anything else that you would put on your application now, send that along-- that’s what this chance is for. But Duke, like you said, already knows that they are your first choice-- you applied ED! What they want now are concrete reasons why they should admit you, and that can be demonstrated by stellar first semester senior grades and a continued level of achievement in your senior year of high school.</p>
<p>[A</a> Note To Early Decision Applicants ? blogs.admissions.duke.edu](<a href=“Duke Students”>Duke Students)</p>
<p>The foregoing link provides truly excellent guidance from Duke Admissions Officer. It was released within the last few days and, therefore, directly applies to ED applicants deferred earlier this month. Specifically addressing the questions raised by eth1erb, points 1 through 4 appear to be especially pertinent.</p>
<p>Just thought I’d say that I’m sorry for not explaining that I believe that have done my homework. I have looked over many articles suggesting possible steps to take to increase deferred acceptance chances. I just happened to come across the aforementioned statement on Duke’s website today and misinterpreted the meaning, which made it seem as if they would not consider any extra material in their decision (I guess I really shouldn’t be accepted anyway if I can’t even comprehend what they post on their website. LOL), but I now know that is not true. I just don’t want to come off as lazy or apathetic. I just hadn’t found a straightforward answer, which is why I came here, and hey, look at that, I was given the link to one article I has not found yet.</p>
<p>Hi eht1erb. You seem like a polite and earnest young person. The application process can be confusing and overwhelming. The folks on this site are usually very helpful and understanding. Good luck to you!</p>
<p>Duke is your first choice school. It’s a good idea to be follwing the admissions blogs of your top choices. With the school being ED, it’s not as though you had a number of blogs or info series to follow, just the one. So, yes, I was being a bit sharp, because you did not do a good job in keeping up with what’s going on with your top choice. It’s not just that one article you missed, it was the whole danged blog. Also you didn’t just misread the info, you quoted it and still did not get it. It’s something you should have very carefully examined. The info was essential-doesn’t it make sense that you now need to send upgraded transcripts which were not needed if accepted ED? You missed several points that you should have gotten. </p>
<p>So do read the requirements of your other schools carefully. You misstep something important, and you may not get anyone pointing out to you as you are getting here. Just a rejection with a form letter.</p>