HELP! Is being in the top 10 (1-2%) of hs class really important?

Colleges & Universities A-Z Duke University
1

<p>Duke is my #1 school. I'm planning to apply ED. My extracurriculars are, I think, above average and my standardized test scores should come out fine.</p>

<p>I'm currently 7th in a class of 530 kids at my school. But 2nd Semester junior year is killing me and I'm afraid that I might go down, possibly from 8-10 (hoping not 10 though or even lower, I like single digits). </p>

<p>I heard that being in the top 10 of the high school class is really important in the Duke Admissions process. Could going down in the ranks, in general, look really bad?</p>

<p>I'm being a nervous wreck about this.</p>

2

<p>Um..I got in and I wasn't in the single digits as far as ranking goes. Then again, my school doesn't do weighted grading so we have 93847598437598437 people ranked first in the class. I was in the top 5% though. I think Duke cares more about your grades and course load than your exact numerical rank.</p>

3

<p>It's not necessarily top 10. My counselors told me it was top 5% of the class. In an average high school of 1-2K students, you should be fine if you are top 20 or above.</p>

4

<p>I got in ED at 8/432.</p>

5

<p>i got waitlisted...10/955 i think it had nothing to do with anything really...just really a crapshoot...don't try to make the college application process some kind of numerical equation...factor in the unpredictable as well...i am sure you will be fine applying ED...GOOD LUCK!</p>

6

<p>^^^ agreed. I wasn't even top 10 PERCENT of my class, much less top 10 overall. Being the valedictorian is only one of many many ways to shine through.</p>

7

<p>Take a look at the statistics for the Class of 2010:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.admissions.duke.edu/jump/applying/who_2010profile.asp%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.admissions.duke.edu/jump/applying/who_2010profile.asp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Make sure your teacher recommendations are top notch and that the teachers you choose can express themselves well with the written word.</p>

<p>Take great care in crafting your essay. Admissions personnel get very tired of reading the same essay themes over and over. There are some great books with advice about crafting essays. Choose an experience or a topic that reveals something unique about you and not just another "I realized when I went to ---- or volunteered at ----- just how ------ life really was."</p>

8

<p>top 10% helps but it will not get you in or keep you out
for duke, you need to have leadership in ECs and dedicate a lot of time to them and have really good essays
i got in and im in the top 5-10 % of my class</p>

9

<p>I think if your test scores are high.. you don't necessarily have to be in the top 1-2% for Duke.. 5-10% will do.
I'm not sure of my rank.. but I know that I was in the Top 10 last year.. probably more so towards the bottom than the top.</p>

10

<p>I was 11th, and that didn't hurt me (stupid unweighted grades!). I think if you have a high GPA and lots of courses, you'll be fine with top 5% or so.</p>

11

<p>To portray an extreme example, I was almost certainly not in the top half of my high school class and was definitely not in the top 25%.</p>

<p>Of course, this was four years ago, and a very special high school. But it shows you that being top ten isn't the key element.</p>

12

<p>Keep in mind that Duke only admitted about 40% of the valedictorians who applied, as well as only about 40% of the applicants with SAT's (M+V) of 1550 or higher. So, unless you're a URM or athlete, the odds are greatly against you getting in if you're not at or near the very top of your senior class... unless you do something truly spectacular like cure cancer or end the war in Iraq. I'm sure there are exceptions. Hope springs eternal...</p>

13

<p>How do they know who the valedictorians are? Don't schools have different methods in identifying their valedictorians? Also, doesn't this happen in the last few weeks for their senior year. I am curious about this 40% of the valedictorians who applied statement statistics. Any thoughts on what might be going on here?</p>

14

<p>They almost certainly mean that Duke only admits about 40% of the students who claim to be valedictorian.</p>

15

<p>Here's a link to the Duke website listing this statistic:
<a href="http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/2007/03/admissions.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/2007/03/admissions.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Here's the quote: "Almost one in six applicants with a class rank was ranked first in his or her class. Duke admitted only 43 percent of the 1,381 valedictorians who applied for admission."</p>

<p>Reading that article, I noticed that I flipped the 60/40 numbers on the SAT statistic in my earlier post. Duke admitted around 60% of those with SAT's of 1550 or higher (not 40%)</p>

16

<p>LOL...60% that's a big diff...looking at the stats...I think Duke cares more about SATs. I may be wrong though....</p>

<p>Actually...I'm not
<a href="http://apps.collegeboard.com/search/CollegeDetail.jsp?collegeId=535&profileId=1%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://apps.collegeboard.com/search/CollegeDetail.jsp?collegeId=535&profileId=1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

17

<p>The emphasis on test scores is probably why I got into Duke since I was only in the top 20% of a standard competitive public high school but yet had a 35 on the ACT as well as had decent AP results to post at the time. Every other part of my app was killer though so idk...</p>