<p>I have narrowed my college list down to several colleges including Duke University, UNC, Wake Forest, USC, Davidson College, and Wingate University as a back up. My top choices are Duke, Davidson, and Wake but the problem is that none of them offer early action, they only offer early decision. With each being a highly respected private liberal arts college, the tuition is far from affordable. Each will cost approximately $60,000 per year. My family is not wealthy, so I know that we will qualify for substantial need-based scholarships, but even then, I do not want to graduate college with $80,000 of debt. My parents can't provide substantial support during college again because of other financial needs. I know that I will be able to get into Davidson and Wake but Duke is my reach school. I have a SAT score of 1930 (Taken nearly a year ago and I will take it again in a week. I don't feel that breaking 2000 will be a problem.), an ACT score of 32, and I currently have a 4.8 GPA as a junior (This should go up to a 5.2 if things go well next year). I am heavily dedicated to my extracurricular activities. I am a member of approximately 10 clubs and I hold (or have held) officer positions in each one of them. I currently have nearly 400 hours of community service and plan to reach 500 by the time I graduate. I also hold a part time job but I will be quitting soon as i am taking nothing but AP courses next year (It was hard enough with only 2 this year!). I know that I am not the perfect student who will get the rare merit scholarships from these universities, but I am a good student who works hard and gets great grades. I just want to know if applying early decision to one of these schools would be a safe option for me. I have toured Wake and liked it and am touring Davidson in about a month. I plan to major in chemistry and minor in biology and eventually go to med school with Duke, Wake, and UNC med schools being my top choices respectively. Is it worth the risk for me to apply early decision to help my chances of getting in and secure my spot earlier? If I were to apply early decision, which should I apply to? (I can only apply to one college early decision) Thanks for your insight!
Please remember money is an issue </p>
<p>You can run the NPCs for each of the schools. I think they would be close to accurate. You can also then see what the differences are in the need formulas are at the schools and also see how close the numbers are. If your family owns a business or has unusual financial situations, the NPCs are often way off, but otherwise for schools with not that much merit money and meeting close to full need, they are pretty close. Also ask your parents what they can afford. If it’s not close to the expected contributions that the NPCs are delivering, you know then that you are highly unlikely to get enough aid from any of those schools, and you need to look for more affordable choices. </p>
<p>The problem with applying ED when fin aid is an issue is that if your family wants you to get the best offer, that is not going to happen with ED You get the award package early, in a vacuum, and you have to take it or leave it in a short period of time thereafter. With a firm commitment from your parents as to what they can pay and if everyone understands how ED works, you might want to consider, say Duke ED. Their packages do tend to be generous. The ED boos might be essential in getting you accepted there, as your stats are low for Duke. You are correct that unless there is something else in the picture that is a hook, merit money for Duke Davidson, Wake would be unlikely. </p>
<p>That you include UNC-CH in the mix and a less selective school, will give you a good idea when you get NPC results as to the type of spreads you can get in offers and you can decide whether it’s worth having that kind of choice on a RD basis or taking the chance on one of the smaller packages ED. </p>
<p>Thank you cptofthehouse! I understand that Duke is a long shot but I figured that it would be a good reach school for me. I think that I have decided not to apply ED to Duke but I am still undecided over Wake and Davidson. I believe that while the chance is slim for merit scholarships at either school, I do stand a better chance getting them there because I am above the average student that is admitted at either school. I have run the NPC for Duke and it lowered tuition to $19,000 which is good for Duke but is not something that my parents can pay substantially for and I will likely end up with over $50,000 in loans. I am just trying to weigh my choices and decide which school, Wake or Davidson, to apply ED to if I apply ED at all. Thanks again!</p>
<p>Frankly, I do NOT think getting your cost down below $19K at either Davidson or Wake is likely. Even if you get some merit money from them, if you do, it will reduce your financial aid to still bring your cost to about the $19K point or more. Getting $50K in merit money is close to a full ride, and you’d have to be one of the very top of the top to get it. Not saying you have NO chance, but it’s a very small one. I know some kids who have gotten the award and they are kids who got into HPY et al. Those are seriously competitive merit awards in those amounts. Be aware that merit money is integrated with financial aid.</p>
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Even with a 2000, Duke is out of reach for you. Don’t waste your ED there. </p>
<p>If you are out of state for UNC, your stats are low. UNC accepts about 1/4 of its out of state freshman applicants and most have SATs well above 2100. Sounds like you are focusing on NC. Have you thought of Sewanee, William and Mary, Furman or Rhodes? These are all good southern schools that accept students with SATs of around 2000 and GPAs such as your current one.</p>
<p>BTW-it really doesn’t matter much where you go to undergrad if your goal is med school. Good grades, summer experiences and a high MCAT score are key to being accepted. If you are an NC resident, you might consider the honors programs at Appalachian and UNC Wilmington. You would be eligible for scholarships and many special perks that would enhance your med school application. You can check undergraduate degree origins for UNC, Wake, Duke med schools at their websites. It would surprise you where the first year med students earned their bachelor’s degrees from. Aside from a few ivies, many are from state schools such as Wilmington or Appalachian and not so well known liberal arts schools. Looking at this data might help you with choosing a wider range of schools that would offer more money for your undergraduate years.</p>
<p>I don’t know much about financial aid and what not, but I do know that you have a good shot at Duke if you don’t submit your SAT scores. A 32 is better than any 2000-2100 score</p>
<p>ignore the people who have been saying a school is out of reach. No school is out of reach. Colleges look for different things I’m their applicant pool every year and know the context of your application more than we CC people could ever know. So ignore @soze . You can still get in even if it is a reach.</p>
<p>First, if you are relying on financial aid, do not ED. As you will have no chance to compare FA packages from different schools. You don’t need to pick a school for ED. Pick one with SCEA in the same tier instead. In addition, don’t be fooled by the higher ED admission rate. It would not give you a better chance if you are below their expectation (e.g. below average admission stat).</p>
<p>Soze, Duke is required to have a certain percentage of Carolina students. Used to be North Carolina but they got the requirement stretched to cover South Carolina. About 13%, I believe, and I have seen kids from the Carolinas get into Duke with significantly lower stats than from just about anywhere else (major hooks like athletic excepted). If the OP’s high school can show that kids in his academic category can gain acceptance to Duke, he can go for it. In fact ED might be the way to go as that is a category that Duke is always on watch to fill, the required Carolina quota.</p>
<p>I agree about the Carolina quota – this is your best shot. It’s the hidden back door into Duke. I am sure Duke grinds its teeth about it every admissions cycle, but it is stuck with it.</p>
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<p>Maybe (I’m not sure it’s a hard quota, I think they just give “preference” to residents).
But in any case, a 2000 SAT is way below the line for Duke without a <em>major</em> hook (I’m talking Legacy, URM or athletic).</p>
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<p>That would be nice if it were true, but it’s not.</p>
<p>It’s a hard quota. It’s about 13%. Look it up. </p>
<p>I live in NC. Although it has been several years ago that my kids applied to college, here’s what I noticed about the kids going to Duke (my kid’s HS typically had 30+ national merit commended and finalists, lots of UNC and Duke faculty kids):</p>
<p>1) Many of the NC slots were filled by those offering a special talent or life circumstances. Most had one thing they did really well -summer research experience, won literary awards at a national level, outstanding musical performance awarded at a high level (beyond your typical allstate stuff), or started a service club or community project and spent many hours on this one project. I recommend that you trim back on your ECs and focus on doing something really spectacular in just one of them (since you are interested in medicine, maybe extensive volunteer work at a hospital-start a visiting program for seniors or kids, etc.) </p>
<p>2) NC slots may be filled by faculty and legacy. Several Duke faculty kids from my kids’ HS went to Duke. However, they still had amazing stats (SATs over 2200, special talents, mostly 5’s on the AP tests). These students received the faculty/staff discounts, not scholarship money-Duke has an amazing deal here.</p>
<p>3) Unusual stories such as immigrating to America, overcoming adversity, being from an underrepresented minority can help as can being an athlete. We know several swimmers who went to Duke (no scholarships here). Again, these students had spectacular stats to go along with the talent.</p>
<p>4) Don’t consider UNC a “safety” if you are from one of NC’s large cities (Charlotte, Raleigh Durham, Chapel Hill)-the acceptance rate is lower-bigger pool of high performing kids. UNC pulls students from all over the state in order to meet its mission. I am always surprised with who got waitlisted at UNC from my competitive community. If you are from a small NC town or rural area, your stats are excellent for UNC.</p>
<p>It is fine to reach for schools such as Duke but make sure you have a few schools where you are a top candidate and more likely to receive money. If you are planning on med school, you really need to minimize undergraduate debt-make undergrad as cheap as possible, excel there and go after the top med schools.</p>
<p>BTW-Davidson should be considered a reach as well. They are a national LAC pulling from all over the country and have a less than 25% acceptance rate. Scholarships are offered to those at the top of the applicant pool (near prefect SAT along with special ability/talent, research). Furman tends to get a lot of kids that want to live in the south, got into Davidson but were not offered enough money. You are also more likely to get money from an LAC if you are not from the area-check into the midwest. There are many outstanding LACs who love getting sharp southerners and will pay for them-Carleton, Macalester, Oberlin, Grinnell, Kenyon are a few that come to mind (D chose this route).</p>
<p>I agree with @hornet – you shouldn’t be overly confident about your chances at Davidson. It is worth noting that Davidson, with fewer than 2,000 students, is one of the smallest schools that competes in Division 1 athletics, and about a quarter of all students participate on these teams. Thus, a good proportion of the students had this “hook” for admission (and make up a good number of the ED admits). That leaves fewer spots for others obviously. Some of these student athletes will also have somewhat lower stats, but this shouldn’t be taken as reflecting the rest of the student population. Overall admission rate is 21% (for the class of 2018); yield has always been high (40% last year).</p>
<p>You have nice stats, and your profile is desireable for many colleges. I am assuming that your GPA over 4.0 indicates many HNs, IB, or AP courses; rigor is always good. But, honestly, you have to be more realistic about the FA, and maybe these posts will help convince you to round out your target list with particular consideration for affordability and competition. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t apply where you want to; just add more affordable safeties. </p>