Duke ED chance???

Colleges and Universities A-Z Duke University
1

According to an article I read, Duke divides the app into 6 components and gives a rating on each from 1-5. They are listed below along with my credentials and what I think my rating is.

http://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2015/03/ferpa-request-gives-inside-look-duke-admissions-process

HS curriculum: 8 AP classes at end of junior year. Approx. 6 community college classes for senior year. (4-5)

Academics: 3.9 UWGPA, 5.1 WGPA. top of class out of approx. 400 students (5)

Recommendations: They should be pretty strong. Not expecting anything extremely special/personal. (3-4)

Essays: my strong suit. will be strong but nothing life-changing. (4)

ECs: strong leadership, really shows passion. No real spike, but multiple really compelling activities. (4)

Test scores: 1400 SAT. going to take it again this Saturday, hopefully, I can get around 1500 (3)

So, what do you all think my ratings should be?

2

Are you applying to Trinity or Pratt? The scoring is slightly different

3

I’m assuming you’re applying to Trinity. If so here is my best guess

Curriculum: 5 x 2 = 10
Achievement: 5 x 2 = 10
Recs: 3.5 x 2 = 7
Essays: 4 x 2 = 8
ECs: 4 x 2 = 8
Test scores: 3 x 2 = 6
Sum: 49

If you retake and get 1500 your total score would rise to approx 51. Either case looks like you’ll be above auto-deny but below auto-admit.

4

Out of curiosity, what is your understanding regarding the auto-admit threshold for Trinity? For Pratt? I didn’t realize there was such a thing at Duke.

5

This is just my guess for the current values. If you want details see Rachel Toor’s book (2001)

Trinity:
auto deny < 45
auto admit > 55

Pratt
auto deny < 67
auto admit > 88

Auto admits still need Dean approval so it’s not entirely automatic. But auto deny doesn’t need Dean approval.

6

@renaissancedad I believe almost all of the top schools have similar numerical rating systems and thresholds. But they are not widely known.

7

@sgopal2 I plan to get the book but was wondering how Recommendations get “graded”?

It seems that some kids might get lucky and choose someone who writes very well whereas another student chooses a similarly “highly-placed recommender” that does not really write that well?

Are there certain characteristics of a great recommendation letter? Is this discussed in the book?

Thanks

8

@yearstogo

Its been a while since I read Rachel’s book. I don’t remember her going into a lot of detail on the ratings criteria. As with most subjective things like this, it is largely in the eye of the beholder. To get a 5, however I think you really need someone to write the magic phrase “best in career”. Almost anything else will be scored a 3 or 4.

9

@sgopal2 Yes, I am applying to Trinity. Thanks for the feedback.

10

@sgopal2, it doesn’t surprise me that most top schools use somewhat similar criteria - grades, curricular rigor, test scores, essays, recs and ECs covers just about everything. I could see interview feedback, supplements, and hooks also factoring in. It doesn’t surprise me that most top schools use a similar breakdown, or that many schools would use a numeric cutoff as a quick screening device. What I found surprising was the notion that there was an “auto-admit” threshold as well as an “auto-reject” cutoff. It makes some sense, given that one of the major problems top schools have is being deluged with applications and not having the time to adequately review all of them, but from another point of view it would be a bit disappointing to have “holistic admissions” reduced to a numerical scoring exercise.

11

@renaissancedad Yes I can completely understand as well. But let me just clarify. Even an applicant who is ‘auto-deny’ still gets a full round of review by 2 admissions staff. Auto-deny just means that they won’t go before the full committee for deliberation.

Similarly the ‘auto-admit’ category skips committee and goes right to the dean for review. Looks like based on this Chronicle article, auto deny is approx 33% of the applicants, and auto-admit is only top 5%:
http://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2010/03/application-increase-overwhelms-review-system

12

^ Thanks. That’s very helpful. I found this quite from Dean Guttentag particularly useful:

I think that’s the right spirit.

13

Yes Christoph Guttentag is certainly of high character. I’ve met him once and was very impressed how thoughtful he is. Duke has a lot of applicants to chose from, no doubt. But its clear they give careful thought to everyone who is admitted, and its not formulaic.