Today I received my RD decision from Vanderbilt engineering and was flat out rejected (didn’t make wait list). I didn’t want to go to Vanderbilt but I really want to go to Duke which is even more selective so I’m starting to realize that I will likely have a similar fate when Dukes admissions come out on Thursday. My SAT scores are weak by their standards (2130; 1410) and my essays weren’t extraordinary. Beyond that my application is pretty great (4.0 unweighted GPA, 12 AP classes by graduation, 4 would-be AP credits at Duke, 2 sport Varsity Captain, lots of volunteer work, etc.). The only advantages I can see with Duke are that my supplement was better (my desire to go there showed through those essays), I had an interview with a Duke alum that went well, and two people from my school have gone/are going to Duke (one of which is in my graduating class and is significantly less qualified than me but is a legacy and applied ED) vs zero to Vandy so Duke has a reference point. It’s going to be incredibly frustrating to be rejected from the same school that accepted a classmate who has an inferior application in almost every aspect, but I find it highly unlikely that I’ll be rejected from Vandy and accepted to Duke without any family ties to either school after seeing some of the SAT scores of other denied applicants.
Is there any reason for me to believe that I have a chance of being accepted? Has anyone ever heard of an account of someone being accepted to Duke after being denied from Vanderbilt or a school of equal merit?
I live pretty close to Durham and know a lot of kids who go to Duke. Not gonna lie, Duke is a hard school to get into. Our class president got waitlisted this year: he had a 4.0 UW, played varsity sports, was in a ton of clubs, and he applied to pre-med. IMO, I think you’ll get in. If your supplements and interviews are really as good as you say they are, then you should have a good shot. Are you also applying to Duke engineering? If so, then your SAT might a bit of a problem because it’s in the lower percentiles for Duke’s engineering school. However, Duke engineering is a bit easier to get into than the school of arts and sciences. You seem like a very qualified student and I sincerely hope you get in (and this is coming from a UNC fan). Good luck!
Thanks I really appreciate the support. Its tough to work so hard for so long just to come up short because of something as trivial as SAT scores but I guess that’s a part of life. Yes I applied to Pratt, I was considering applying to Trinity for the reason you mentioned and attempting to transfer into Pratt after my first year, but I figured I would write a better essay for Pratt and my student profile definitely favors a path of engineering so I decided to go with that. I missed 4 questions on the math section of the SAT and got a 730, I understand that there needs to be some kind of standardized test, but I just feel like making 4 mistakes out of 80 9th grade level questions under strict time constraints is not a legitimate evaluation and should not make the difference between being admitted to or denied from a college. Luckily I’ve already been accepted to UVA so if things don’t go my way, I’ll still have a great school to fall back on. I’ve seen some people with much higher scores than me on here get denied from Vanderbilt though so if Pratt really does care about test scores as much as I’ve heard they do, then the odds aren’t in my favor. I guess I just have to leave it up to chance and hope for the best of luck at this point. Thanks again.
First, congrats on your acceptance to UVa, and excellent school.
Note that just because your classmate has perceived stats “lower” than yourself does not mean you are safe. College admissions have numerous factors that different institutions place different priorities on.
I saw a video the other day – an interview with Dean Guttentag, who said Duke receives two times the amount of Valedictorians of the entire admissible class. Obviously, more than half the valedictorians at the very least will be rejected. Which can be also translated into great news for us who aren’t valedictorians that we actually have a chance.
Remain positive though this entire process. I know kids who couldn’t get into UVa despite their tremendous efforts.
Good luck Thursday!