Duke Legacy Early Decision

My Dad graduated from duke and he is a pretty involved alumni. He does interviewing and hosts other alumni events and donates. I was thinking of applying Early Decision, and I know the duke legacy admit rate is around 30%, so what do you think it is for Early Decision Legacy? I have a 4.7 GPA on a 5.33 scale and 34 on the act.

I think your odds are good ED. There is no reason to say no (because legacies who aren’t good candidates will be turned down) and your dad’s involvement is a good reason to say yes. Good luck!

Overall ACT range for the whole class last year was 33-35. So you’re in the admit range – but so are about 30,000 other Duke applicants. So how do you break out of that pack?

Duke is a huge ED school – 51% of seats get filled via ED. And unlike a lot of big ED schools, Duke is very transparent that applying ED is a tip in your favor. So if anyone (legacy or not) is really targeting Duke, you should apply ED.

I’m not sure if Duke actually requires/encourages legacies to apply ED (like Penn specifically does). You should probably ask them how ED/legacy compares to RD/legacy.

Duke is a great school and the ED/Legacy combo seems too valuable to pass up to me. I think its pretty much a guarantee with those two, as it shows interest and it shows that duke isnt just an afterthought/fallback school, and I have the grades to get in regardless.

Agree that the OP should play his ED and legacy cards. But that’s hardly a guarantee. The OP’s 34 ACT is just average for Duke students. Duke has many thousands of applicants with that score.

Overall ED admit rate is only 20%. Overall legacy admit rate is perhaps 30%. My guess is that most to all legacies apply ED. So what are the odds on a legacy/ed/34 ACT application? Maybe its 40%? Definitely not 100%.

not 100% but I don’t really see any way they could reject me as I already have a relationship with the officer from my region, he was at my house for dinner.

“but I don’t really see any way they could reject me as I already have a relationship with the officer from my region, he was at my house for dinner.”

Make sure to put that attitude into your “why Duke” essays. You sound like the second coming of Grayson Allen.

If you have a friendly relationship with your college rep, you should ask him or her how much of an advantage ED would be as a legacy.

Read the last entry from the thread: Duke Class of 2023 ED Results.

I’d say that you have a good shot with your scores/GPA putting you squarely in the mix. The fact that your dad is an active alum who knows important Duke people probably will tip you in. My husband & I are alums, and our son & the vast majority of our friends’ kids (most are double legacies) did NOT get in to Duke, yet are at fantastic, rigorous schools. My son applied ED to Duke, got courtesy deferred & then rejected – but he’s very happy at Cornell-- especially as he knows he got himself in all by himself without any help from us. I have many other Duke friends whose kids were rejected by Duke & are at top schools like Williams, Wake Forest, Emory & Georgetown, etc. Quite frankly, the alums whose kids get in seem to be (a) rich – no FA needed and/or (b) connected. Coincidence? Maybe…but probably not.

Curious, OP, care sharing what the result was?