<p>@Hersheybars315: Duke has no such established percentages or quotas. </p>
<p>@bluedog Ah, I completely forgot that there was even a deadline for evaluations. I definitely won’t have time to do an interview then. I feel slightly better about my excessive number of recs now since they should probably take the place of an interview… even if they’re not actually marked as replacements for the interview.</p>
<p>Is it worth it for me to send in a 5th rec then in place of the interview? I think that’s really pushing it, but I really don’t know anymore. It sounds as though Hersheybar315 is considering the same thing (assuming he/she has 4 recs as well because 2 required + 2 additional), but I already thought 4 recs were way too many already.</p>
<p>@Hersheybar315 As TopTier said, Duke has no established percentages or quotas, but neither do most other schools. However, race is still a considered factor in admissions. Schools want a diverse student body, and Asians are already over-represented in many highly selective school. Certain other minorities (namely African American and Hispanic) are considered underrepresented and thus they do have a bit of an edge aka a hook.</p>
<p>That said, even if anyone is considered an URM (underrepresented minority) and has a bit of an advantage, they still must be highly qualified in their own right to even be considered for admissions, just like the rest of the applicants.</p>
<p>There are several threads over in the College Admissions forum if you want to really get in depth about this particular topic.</p>
<p>@Constantius: I believe that – for Duke – you have gone ever so slightly off-track in post #22 (however, I easily could be wrong). Institutionally at Duke, “diversity” is NOT a demographic census aimed at ensuring some general number of cohorts “x” or “y” are included in '19 (and you certainly said this in #22’s initial paragraph). Rather, Duke seeks a well-rounded class (as well as some well-rounded individuals). The compelling reason for this is simply additional enhanced education, SO much of which is student-based. Peers who bring differing experiences to the “intellectual marketplace” enrich Duke’s culture, improve their classmates and the faculty’s daily lives, and – perhaps most important – enhance education (in its broadest sense) through their different and frequently crucial viewpoints that are based upon their atypical backgrounds. Therefore, an applicant from a traditional URM who has had a “standard, upper-middle-class childhood” may potential have a less diverse background to offer his peers than a candidate who is not a URM, but who brings important experiences to Duke. I suggest that this is the appropriate "diversity context” that applies at our university.</p>
<p>@Constantius , re #21: There are several posts to this thread, and elsewhere, that emphasize the fact that the “additional” recommendation that may be submitted instead of an interview (it, like the interview, are entirely optional) only applies if the interview has not been offered. If the interview is offered, but it never occurs, an additional recommendation is not authorized. I agree that a fifth recommendation is certainly excessive. </p>
<p>@Constantius lol yes I actually will have a total of 7 recommendations- 3 teacher, 2 additional, one from guidance councelor and another in place of the interview. I know it’s prob too many but I feel each one gives a different perspective of me. So yes I think it would be fine if u sent a fifth recommendation- I don’t think it will hurt </p>
<p>@Hersheybar315: I am sure seven recommendations will provide additional perspectives, one of which may be implied – this kid is “over the top” in his admissions mania.</p>
<p>I’m a little concerned about the number of recommendations that people are submitting. Is this commonplace? (It may be a moot point at this stage in the game). My son submitted two teacher recommendations, one personal and the guidance counselor recommendation for a total of four. He had his interview last week. Would there be any reason at all to add to that?</p>
<p>@runner444:</p>
<p>No, four recommendations are PERFECTLY fine.</p>
<p>The obvious problem is, some applicants – a few of whom have posted to this thread – and their parents invariably evaluate such decisions only from the “me” perspective, rather than (in this case) from the Duke Undergraduate Admissions perspective, as well. The “mes” feel that a few more recommendations won’t burden Duke, but just might enhance their individual selection probability. However, imagine only two additional – and essentially superfluous – recs times the likely 33,000 Duke '19 candidates. That would be over 65,000 more recommendations to review, analyze, evaluate, systems input, and potentially discuss at the Committee level. I know – absolute fact – that the staff in Undergraduate Admissions has great patience and an unlimited capacity for hard work; nevertheless, were I an admissions reader reviewing a file with five or six recommendations – half of which are entirely irrelevant, adding nothing substantial – I’d not be too pleased with the candidate. </p>
<p>Oh no- so would my 7 be too much? I don’t want admissions to just skim through my applications or be displeased with me because of the quantity </p>
<p>@TopTier Thank you for the detailed response. I appreciate it!</p>
<p>@Hersheybar315: You made the decision to provide seven recommendations; now you must accept the consequences, whether favorable, adverse, or neutral. Accountability is what adulthood is all about and, if you mature and bright enough to attend Duke, you are an adult. </p>
<p>Do you know of instances where people got rejected because they had too many recommendation letters? I am just confused because i want to know if suppose a student has excelled in all other aspects of the application but is rejected just because they sent in too many recs</p>
<p>@Hersheybar315: No, I certainly don’t know of any examples, nor have I heard of any, and I strongly believe denial for excessive recommendations would be most unlikely.</p>
<p>However, I ask that you SERIOUSLY consider something. YOU – and no one else – are responsible for your application; that obviously includes being thoroughly familiar with the pertinent Duke application instructions (all, readily available on-line) AND strictly complying with them. Duke’s directions are unambiguous regarding the maximum number of recommendations permitted (see: <a href=“Apply - Duke Undergraduate Admissions”>Apply - Duke Undergraduate Admissions). The foregoing Duke directive require three recommendations (one from your GC and two from recent teachers) and optionally permits one additional letter of recommendation. That’s a maximum of four (five if you are not contacted for an alumni admissions interview, which is also discretionary). You’ve already submitted SEVEN recommendations.</p>
<p>Is that fair, when other applicants adhere to Duke’s clear, published maximum recommendation quantity limitations? Are you someone special; the instruction that apply to EVERYONE else are irrelevant for you? Moreover, if every one of Duke’s (probably) 33,000 Class of '19 admissions candidates submitted two unauthorized – and likely entirely superfluous – recommendations, how much extra and unscheduled work and additional cost would that create for Duke Undergraduate Admissions?</p>
<p>Learning to “play by the rules” is an important part of your education. </p>
<p>I’m sorry I must have gotten confused with common app. On common app they allowed me to submit up to three teacher recommendations and two additional recommendations. I know the guidance councelor has to submit a recommendation for everyone too. Then, because I didn’t receive an interview they allowed me to submit another recommendation. I thought if duke had restrictions on the additional recommendations they would be placed on common app. On common app duke allowed be to submit up to two additional recommendations. I’m sorry I don’t mean to offend anyone and I certainly understand that it would definetly be unfair if I was allowed to submit more recommendations that anyone else- however on common app duke did not make it clear that I would have only 5 total recommendations max </p>
<p>My daughter applied to Duke last year, and the instructions were a minimum of two teachers references with a max of three and up to two other references. Those are in addition to the guidance counselor reference. So that’s a total of six references, and if an additional reference is allowed in lieu of an interview, then Hersheybar’s seven is fine. She only sent three references, but she certainly could have sent more.</p>
<p>Duke is not required to “place” anything on the Common Application; rather, you are supposed to consult Duke’s website for the University’s-specific instructions. It would have been wise, @Hersheybar315, to read – and unfailingly to comply with – Duke’s application directives. Also, how do you know you won’t be accorded an interview? The local alumni interview teams have until the end of this week to contact you to schedule a meeting (<a href=“Apply - Duke Undergraduate Admissions”>Apply - Duke Undergraduate Admissions). I understand that’s unlikely, due to your overseas location, but – once again – you appear to have made an unsubstantiated assumption that is contrary to Duke Admission’s specific written guidance. </p>
<p>Yes I understand that duke has until the end of the week to notify me of the interview- therefore I have not submitted my seventh recommendation yet </p>
<p>@TopTier In post #22, I was mostly talking about just highly selective schools in general. I claim to know no specifics about Duke - that’s your area of expertise, obviously.</p>
<p>As for #21, I am very aware that an extra recommendation may only be sent in if there is no interview, but I’m assuming that I never receive one in the end. It’s almost 2 weeks into November and still nothing. I already think my 4 recs are excessive, as I said, but I briefly pondered about sending a fifth as more of a hypothetical situation than something that I would actually do.</p>
<p>Since it’s possibly (not certainly, but possibly) implied in post #28 that I’m one of the so-called “me” applicants you mentioned, I would just like to say this in my defense: I initially submitted a total of 4 recs - 2 teacher, 1 additional, and 1 counselor, but I had a 3rd teacher requested on Naviance for a few other universities I would apply to. I was not planning on using his rec for Duke at all, and he explicitly told me that he would not be able to make the deadline for Nov. 1 anyway. Almost a week after I submitted my app and got my materials in, he submitted a rec out of the blue and told me that he would be penalized by the school district if he was requested but did not submit a rec, bringing my total up to 5 recs. He was also the one that told me to request him in the first place, and that’s to no fault of his own; our school is trying out Naviance and the counselors have been very uninformative towards both the students and the teachers, so we’re left trying to figure out how everything works on our own. 4 recs would’ve been okay, the 5 I ended up sending in is probably excessive, but I had absolutely no control over one of them.</p>
<p>Also, unless I’m missing something, the Duke site only states how many recommendations an applicant is required to send and how applicants may send in an additional rec, but it doesn’t specify the true maximum it allows. I assumed that the real maximum would be defined by whatever is on the Common App, which is 3 teacher recs and 2 additional recs.</p>
<p>However, assuming that the maximum teacher recs allowed are 2 even if the CA says 3, is it worth the time for me to contact admissions telling them about my situation with the 3rd rec and asking them to ignore the recommendation?</p>
<p>@neogeezer: That was last year; the current instructions differ, which is why I provided a specific URL to document the now-applicable application directive. To reiterate, the following recommendations are permitted: (a) one mandatory from the GC; (b) two (not three) mandatory from recent teachers; (c) one (not two) optional from an unspecified individual; and (d) potentially, one optional from an unspecified individual, if an admissions interview is not offered. </p>
<p>I respectfully suggest you not confuse applicants with superseded, erroneous information (i.e., seven recommedations are no longer “fine”). The following provides Duke’s current recommendations limitations and requirements: <a href=“Apply - Duke Undergraduate Admissions”>Apply - Duke Undergraduate Admissions;