Duke Likely Letter and Scholarship Finalist

Colleges and Universities A-Z Duke University
1

Hey guys, again!

So I just received an email from Duke saying I am a finalist for the Reginaldo Howard Memorial Scholarship, that covers tuition, room and board, fees, etc-- worth more than 75K a year, and that they expect to offer me admission to the college in late March!

I can’t believe this! I didn’t fill out any separate application for this scholarship. I did receive a LL from UChicago with an invitation to Destination UChicago, An early acceptance from Vanderbilt and an invitation to MOSAIC, and a LL from Washington and Lee with an invitation to DIVE. Deferred from Harvard REA.

Can anyone explain this? Anyone else get the email?

Here are stats:
[ *] SAT I (breakdown): N/A
[ *] ACT (breakdown): 33C, 34 Superscore (35E, 29M, 36R, 35S)
[ *] SAT II: 700 Biology E 720 Literature
[ *] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.91
[ *] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 26 of 471
[ *] AP (place score in parentheses): Biology (5) Lang (4) World (4)
[ *] IB (place score in parentheses): N/A
[ *] Senior Year Course Load: Human Anatomy & Physiology, AP Lit, AP Art History, Pre-Calc, AP Psych, AP COGO, APUSH
[ *] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): None!

[ /list][ b]Subjective:**
[ *] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parentheses): Sos Club for Mental Health (President& Founder) Various Volunteer work, nothing special
[ *] Job/Work Experience: Senior Lifeguard (Management Level) Swim Lesson Instructor (Management Level), other experiences at dog kennels
[ *] Volunteer/Community service: Volunteer at Five Acres Animal Shelter in St. Charles, Missouri (low commitment)
[ *] Summer Activities: Work, nothing special
[ *] Essays: Both were very strong, I spent much time on them. I’ll let you read them if you’d like, 9/10
[ *] Teacher Recommendation: 7/10, I ended up asking different teachers for more recommendations about a month after sending my Uchicago application because I thought my initial ones were weak (I waved my FERPA rights but my teachers chose to show me). However, UChicago received the ones I considered to be weak rather than the stronger ones.
[ *] Counselor Rec: I haven’t read it, but I assume it’s alright lol
[ *] Additional Rec: From the Sponsor of my club, which I spend most of my after-school time on. 9/10
[ *] Interview: Didn’t Interview!
[ *] Supplementary Material: N/A

[ /list][ b]Other**
[ *]Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes, idk why
[ *] State (if domestic applicant): MISSOURI!
Country (if international applicant):
[ *] School Type: Public
[ *] Ethnicity: Black
[ *] Gender: Female
[ *] Income Bracket(mention if FA candidate): Greater than 400k
[ *] Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): URM

Thanks for any insight anyone can provide!!!

2

My Son got a similar letter today, but for the University Scholars Program. Congratulations on your letter!!! He is also excited! They will fly him out to NC at the end of this month. He will spend three days there, during which time they will get to know him and interview him. At the end of the month they let kids know who won the scholarship.

3

Congrats @carey46 !!! Could you tell us what aspects of your application made you stand out, please?

4

They’re also flying me out for the scholarship finalist’s weekend, from March 27th-30th. And as for what make me stand out, I really couldn’t tell you-- I haven’t won any national awards, I haven’t done any research, and I really didn’t think my essays stood out all that much. I have no clue!

5

Have emails to AB Duke Finalists gone out today too?

6

Thanks a lot @carey46 !! That’s what I thought! lol :slight_smile: just kidding. Congrats again. By the way you just received an email or the portal got updated?

7

I got an email! I refreshed the portal to see if it would change, but so far it hasn’t. The only portal that changed with a likely letter was my UChicago one. @singingbear

1 Like
8

@vivliv I think all Merit Scholarship finalist emails went out this afternoon!

9

@vivliv I’m a finalist for AB!

10

@Arnkim Congrats!! Do you know how many AB finalists there were this year?

11

I have no clue. This came by surprise. @acasperxo

12

Wow.

13

@Arnkim Congrats! Good luck to all the finalists.