grade factor?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Duke University
1

<p>i'm a junior right now and am fishing around and i'm really considering duke right now (pre-med). anyhow, i was wondering how important grades are to duke. i haven't made all A's, however, i believe my stats are mentionable. o_O</p>

<p>-chinese american (1st gen. to take college in america, if that helps, heh)
-top 3-4% (so far) out of 1200 juniors with a gpa of 4.05ish
-1450 on the SAT (760m, 690v), 680 on writing, but im retaking that this saturday, still need to take the IIC and some others, maybe history or spanish...
-was in gifted/talented program at school
-countless hours of community service, leadership positions in 2 or 3 organizations, church, nhs, who's who award in sophomore yr, national honor roll, etc...
-can get some good recommendations
-plan on doing early admission</p>

<p>my ranking comes from the weighted gpa's we have, where regulars = 4.0, pre-ap/honors = 4.5, and ap = 5.0. i'm loaded up with ap and preap (graduating with 7aps and 10preaps by the time i finish my junior yr, 14ap by the end of my senior yr), however, i have not made all A's, but due to the weighted gpa and that most people dont take as many ap as i do, my ranking is way up there. so, are grades a major factor for duke, considering that ap classes, or at least here, are 1000000x harder than regulars classes, or do they (hopefully) not consider grades as much and only look at the rigorous coursework you've taken?</p>

<p>or, maybe i'm just getting it all confused and gpa = grades? because my number grades are not all A's, however, most of my classes have grade-A gpas (4.0 and above), hence why i have a 4.0+ overall gpa.</p>

<p>and if not duke, what other good schools, premed preferably, are out there that i could seriuosly consider?</p>

2

<p>way too early for schools</p>

<p>no interesting ex's</p>

<p>you seem to fit a mold</p>

3

<p>john hopkins prob.</p>

4

<p>To be honest, who's who and nat'l honor roll are somewhat meaningless. Admissions officers have told me that they dont really even consider them. Other than that you seem pretty solid. Try to find/do something that is interesting and makes you stand out.</p>

5

<p>hmm, alrite, thanks for the input. im assuming from all the replies that grades are not a major factor in getting into duke. thank you. =)</p>

6

<p>you are seriously misinformed, grades are the second most important part, sometimes the most important. rigor of the courses taken is the most important. so if you have good grades in easy courses and bad grades in hard courses, the higher gpa will win.</p>

7

<p>To me, 4.05 seems kind of low on a 5.0 grading scale.</p>

8

<p>yeah, however in our 9th and 10th grade year, we're not even allowed to take any ap classes, only preap and regulars, which will drag down the overall gpa. therefore, its IMPOSSIBLE to hit a 5.0 and the valecdictorian gpa is like 4.6 (for a lucky year). so, thats why i'm top 3-4% on a 5.0 scale.</p>

9

<p>so is it all about overall gpa...</p>

<p>...OR...</p>

<p>...is it about number/letter grades for each class per semester?</p>

10

<p>The range from 4.05 and 4.6 is still quite a jump.</p>

11

<p>lets not forget im 3-4% out of 1200 students though. that should tell you that achieving something like a 4.6 is quite difficult at where i go to (considering that getting A's in every ap class here is utterly impossble, even for the brighest kids, and that only 2 ppl make a 4.6 every yr, and the next lower one gets a 4.5, then a 4.4, and then gpa/ranking starts to get even closer, by the .01s, as u get farther down the range, etc. and also that to be top 10% here only requires a high 3.9/low 4.0. surprise, surprise. o_O). </p>

<p>but any how, is it gpa or letter/number grades?</p>

12

<p>Your school sends a transcript with both semester grades and your cumalative gpa. Duke likes to see improvement in gpa with each year. I think it's important to take the hardest classes available while still getting A's in them. If the quality of your school isn't top-tier, then even top 3-4% isn't that impressive. It means that 35-45 students are ranked/higher gpa? better than you in a lesser competitive school. Duke looks at everything in perspective because people grade differently all over the country. Usually the school profile that is sent along with your transcript will give them an idea how valuable a 4.06 is compared to a 4.06 from a different place.</p>

13

<p>hmm, alrite, thanks for the input.</p>