<p>The A.B. Scholars are selected because they are at the very top of their game. One my best friends won it this year and she is just a natural genius. She's taken like a ga-billion A.P.s and maxed out our high school's math and science departments (and won the Siemens AP Award in the process). Was accepted to Harvard EA, but is turning them down for Duke. She is also President of our high school's 200+ Key Club organization. The people who win the award are 1) smart, 2) determined, 3) highly ambitious, and 4) are constantly setting the bar higher. </p>
<p>It comes as no surpise that they compromise a lot of senior leadership positions. Maybe it's not that they have all benefits and opportunities per se, but that they have the same hard working and ambitious traits that they had in high school (and that they have so clearly demonstrated through their ECs, academics, and life passions). Those traits didn't disappear folks. It comes as no surprise that they are also some of the most highly accomplished applicants coming into Duke and some of the most highly accomplished graduates leaving Duke. They are some of the smartest, hard working kids to begin with. Why else would they give this group of kids a scholarship with as much prestige and opportunities as the AB? They don't just dole them out to ordinary Joe and Elena. They give it to the best of the best. The best of the best are the best of the best for a reason. They continue to be the best of the best and that's why they have such prestigious accomplishments and accolades.</p>