<p>Hey! Sorry this is the fourth time I've asked this on this site today but I just found out how to ask it on the Duke Forum (yea... im new here haha). So, I'm considering applying early decision to duke engineering. I have read that for the Duke class of 2017, 2,540 students applied under Duke's Early Decision program. 753 of them were accepted (that's 44% of the entire incoming class). 618 will enter the Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, and the other 135 to the Pratt School of Engineering. Students of color comprised of 29%. So my questions:
1. How many of the 2,540 students applied to the Pratt school? I ask because I want to know what the acceptance rate of early decision students applying to the Pratt school, since I want to apply there and want to know how much applying early decision helps.
2. Is this 29% out of those that applied or were accepted? Either way that seems like an unusually large percentage. I want to know this because it would let me determine if my being African American will help a lot because they accept a large percentage, or if it wouldn't help much because a large percentage applies and so I wouldn't stand out as far as ethnicity.
3. I'm interested in biomedical engineering, but since duke is ranked extremely high (3rd in the nation according to us news) for biomed, so would i have a greater chance of acceptance by stating that im interested in electrical (or any other) engineering on the supplement questions (since the students who state an interest in biomed would be top notch and so more competition)? Thanks for any helpful responses!</p>
<p>bump, im interested as well</p>
<p>Take a look here:
<a href=“http://admissions.duke.edu/images/uploads/process/DukeClass2017Profile.pdf[/url]”>http://admissions.duke.edu/images/uploads/process/DukeClass2017Profile.pdf</a></p>
<ol>
<li><p>380 students applied ED to Pratt in the Class of 2017 - acceptance rate was 36%. Note that while the acceptance rate to Pratt is higher than Trinity, it is a more self-selecting pool with higher GPA, test scores, etc.</p></li>
<li><p>Applying as an African American to Pratt will definitely help you, but hard to say how much. They don’t publicly disclose acceptance rates by race, but based on reports from the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, acceptance rates are significantly higher for African Americans to top notch universities (and, likely, much higher to science/engineering programs due to under representation).</p></li>
<li><p>Duke doesn’t admit based on major - they admit based on school. So, put your major preference as what you actually think you’ll study since your application will probably align with that better. You don’t need to declare a major until the end of sophomore year and can switch by checking a box. Other schools - like JHU - admit to the BME program on its own, but Duke does not. Applying as an ECE will not help you.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Hope that helps!</p>
<p>I don’t think you should apply based on where you think it will be easier necessarily as adcoms can frequently see through that. Just apply where you think you’d be happiest - I understand that you’re unsure, though, which is understandable. It’s easier to transfer Pratt -> Trinity, so perhaps it makes sense to take a couple engineering courses freshman year and then assess how you like it.</p>
<p>As far as chances, can’t really say, but your objective stats put you in the bottom unfortunately. I don’t know what a 4.02 weighted GPA translates to on an unweighted 4.0 scale, so can’t comment on that. However, you’ll see that your 560 SAT reading is well below the 700-780 50% range of accepted students, the 790 math is very solid, obviously, and in the 750-800 range, whereas the 650 writing again is quite below the 720-790 range for accepted students. It is clearly a good thing that your math score stands out as solid for someone looking to get into engineering, but Duke engineers are still typically very well-rounded.</p>
<p>This is not meant to discourage you, but rather encourage you to emphasize what you would bring to the Duke community in your application. You certainly have a chance - you need to aptly demonstrate something that sets you apart, though, to make up for the “well below the average Duke accepted applicant” test scores. Good luck!</p>
<p>I attended an info session at Duke just a month ago. They said that you are required to stay in the college you apply to for your first year. If you want to transfer between Trinity and Pratt, you can do so after your first year. Of course, you can always take classes from either college, but it would certainly make much more sense to apply to the college you most want to be in.</p>
<p>It’s good that you challenged yourself! You need to bring up your SAT as it is too low for Duke. Have you thought of taking the ACT? Good Luck!</p>
<p>The “you must stay in your school one year” thing doesn’t mean <em>too</em> much when it comes to course choices:
- People who get in to Trinity who are thinking about engineering must take a first year seminar, unlike people who start in Pratt (even if those Pratt people end up in Trinity)
That’s basically it.<br>
Students who choose to go from Pratt to Trinity have a form to fill out, and it is almost always (maybe always?) approved. Students who choose to go from Trinity to Pratt have a form to fill out, and the Pratt deans will look at your science and math scores to make an assessment on likelihood of success in Pratt based on those.</p>
<p>^ I’m a class of 2017 student who was accepted to Pratt…I switched to Trinity before I even got to Duke. I just sent them an e-mail explaining why I didn’t feel comfortable being an engineering student.</p>