Hi, so my dream school would be Duke. However, I am finishing up my sophomore year and have ended up with Bs in both in my math class and AP World History. I am wondering if I can still get in with these stats if I improve my grades next year. This is the first time they have dropped this much. Also can someone tell me if Duke recalculates GPA because at my school 90-100 is an A. Do they recalculate only 93-100 to be an A?
I go to a very competitive high school. It is public but everyone is very smart and half the kids have perfect 4.0s. Is it ok if I just focus on having a good weighted GPA? Do colleges look at the unweighted?
I’d recommend that you give up the idea of a dream school and work to create a solid college list that includes reach, match, and safety schools that appear affordable (find out your parents’ budget and run the net price calculator for each school) and that you would be happy to attend. The people I see who get hurt by the college admission process are the ones who focus on one or two hyper-competitive schools and then don’t get in. Cast a wide net and recognize that Duke is a reach for pretty much everyone – and having B’s and C’s on your transcript (as noted in your other post) makes Duke even a bigger stretch (assuming no major hook).
^^^That’s good advice!
I agree because I think too many students/families overly weight “prestige” in the college application process. Prestige can certainly be a legitimate factor but when students are applying to all 8 Ivies, then clearly it is THE factor. The Ivies, after all, have evolved into very different schools. There are very few students for whom all 8 would be a great fit.
The top 20 or so “prestige” schools, as a result, are hyper-competitive. The chance of acceptance in RD for an “unhooked” student are pretty substantially below the overall acceptance rates, which are often well down into the single digits. I’m not at all saying you shouldn’t apply to Duke or some other “prestigious” school that you can afford. I’m just saying the odds are long for almost everyone. It’s nothing personal, just tremendous demand for a limited number of seats.
The great news is that there are many, many schools with beautiful campuses and plenty of amazing people–faculty, staff, and students. I had barely heard of Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) before a friend who is a professor at another school in MA recommended it to us. They said a friend’s daughter had gone to an Ivy League school, did not like it, transferred to WPI, and loved it. They graduated and got a great, high-salary job. (WPI student starting salaries are some of the highest in the country.) We visited and fell in love with the beautiful campus and the great vibe and energy among the students.
The vast majority of the most successful people do not attend Ivy League + MIT + Stanford. These are great schools, and many grads do great. True. But the same can be said for many other places. Of the handful of wealthiest people I know (and they are wealthy), one attended a smaller Ivy, one a flagship public (but not a top-ranked one), and the other 3-4 non-flagship, lower-ranked publics.
Look at academic departments, look at the student vibe, look at other things you might like (location, weather, off-campus activities, etc. These things are just more important to a positive college experience. Then work hard, engage with those around you, take advantage of opportunities, treat others with respect and dignity. It will all work out great. Good luck!
Thank you so much. I really appreciate the advice and I agree as well! However, I do not want to attend Duke just for the prestige factor. I am truly in love with the location as it is close to home and will hopefully have many great research opportunities, which I am super interested in. We have also visited campus numerous times. I am just asking to find out whether a low GPA will hurt me, even if I pull it up significantly in the next two years. I feel like I want to apply early decision to have better chances.
I’ll look into the Worcester Polytechnic institute further. It seems like a great school. Do you go there?
No, I’m very familiar with Worcester (pronounced Wuss-ter, or Wuss-ta by locals) though. WPI was the top choice of one of my kids for almost a year, but they chose another school at the last minute. They had a great overnight at the other school (and got a bigger scholarship), which carried the day, but today we all wish they had ended up at WPI instead. We visited three times, and my kid got to know the AO for our region very well. I’ve been to the school and city several other times for my own work. A good friend teaches at another university nearby and is familiar with it. Worcester is also the home of Holy Cross and about a half dozen or so other colleges (Clark, Becker, etc.)
Worcester is a typical old New England industrial city, actually the 3rd largest in NE I believe (after Boston and maybe Providence). The city has been experiencing a major renewal over the last decade or two. The downtown is undergoing a huge renovation now. WPI is in a nice part of the city with a couple of parks and stately old neighborhoods around it. The school itself is driving a lot of this development on its side of town. Other areas of the city are frankly not as desirable. There are beautiful areas right outside the city, including Mt. Wachusett, about 25-30 minutes away, which has hiking and skiing. Boston is about a one-hour commuter train ride away.
We loved the campus vibe every single visit. Students were very impressive and enthusiastic. They really seemed to love it there (which is not always the case on visits). Program is unique, very hands-on and project-oriented. The vast majority of freshmen do a major team engineering project, things like Water for the World, Food for the World, Housing the World, etc. I believe there are four 7- or 8-week terms, and students take 3 classes at a time. You can actually declare “no grade” in a small number of classes. A fair number of credits are earned on projects and coops.
Campus appearance is a very subjective thing, but we all thought it was very nice. There has been a lot of construction in recent years, and we thought they’ve done a nice job with it, including the new sports field and student gym. It is a campus in a city, not an urban campus that is integrated into the city. The campus is relatively compact for the number of students. It has nice old collegiate buildings and some brand-new ones, like the biosciences building. The campus look might not be for you, but I know a student from our neighborhood (different region of the country from NE) recently visited numerous top STEM schools and liked WPI the most.
Students often move into high-paying jobs after graduation. I usually see it in the Top 20 for starting salaries. Students typically do a few internships/coops, which can lead to jobs with those companies. Also, most grads are science/engineering/math majors, which tend to receive higher pay.
I think it is ranked 50-something in national universities by USNWR and has seen a big bump in applications over recent years. Good luck!