<p>Take a look at my post on the Duke RD Decisions page.
Can someone explain this to me?
Yield protection?
Too strong of a focus on leadership skills, UW GPA?? (On their part..)</p>
<p>Ummm- "Essays: Genuine interest in college basketball (Why Duke?), designing my own automatic bar for my friends"</p>
<p>good scores - not a lot of depth......</p>
<p>you'ld get a lot more response if you actually figured out how to link to your prior posting.</p>
<p>duke's one of the hardest schools in the nation to get into, i dont know why anyone should think they're a guarantee, unless you're the next gerald henderson</p>
<p>Maybe you just belong at MIT</p>
<p>be nice, please. the OP does have exceptional scores and it is a fair question....</p>
<p>I don't know. Maybe it's because you wrote about basketball for a "Why Duke" essay? Duke is an academic institution first not a sports team.</p>
<p>Cali, I bet Duke would rather accept students who both have a life and are academically qualified, as opposed to just academic robots. I do agree that a basketball essay might not have been the wisest topic due to the amount of applicants who probably wrote/mentioned Duke basketball.</p>
<p>Perhaps the "Gang of 88" is in charge of admissions and is determined to purge the school of athletes and sports lovers?</p>
<p>Yeah, this post is really annoying.....you sound very arrogant. Also, I think the person who quoted your "Why Duke?" bit is right on.....they say numerous times that they don't want people to write about Duke basketball in their essays (at least I've heard that). haha. I'm sorry you didn't hear that before you wrote your essay......</p>
<p>Also, please do at least tell us what page your stats are on.......I looked through about 5 pages because I thought it would be toward the beginning, but, no, it was on the last page. ;). haha.</p>
<p>Yes, you have great test scores and some involvement with politics, but other than that, you don't seem particularly well-rounded or much besides an academic machine at all, basically. I mean, anyone can join a club or Mathletes, and really, how much genuine activity went on at a John McCain office in New Jersey (and I'm assuming you didn't spend more than a year or two there)? Aside from that (which don't sound like huge time commitments either), you don't seem like a particularly interesting person. If I had loads of free time (and by free time, I mean being able to start my homework before 9PM every night), I'd expect good grades too. Which I have anyhow. Even so, you're in the bottom half of your first decile, and perhaps no one else in your class does activities either, but considering Duke usually attracts students that are either fairly outstanding in one subject or generally well-rounded, why should you be one of their top candidates? You write an entire essay on college basketball, but where's any activity and passion (ie athletics?) that shows you aren't some gangly pasty white kid who googled the first thing that Duke students are typically passionate about? Where's any activity that shows that you aren't a complete shut-in who just memorizes Collegeboard tests all day?</p>
<p>Not trying to be harsh, but in posting this topic, you kinda asked for it. Congrats on your other acceptances there though, it sounds like you'd fit in better at MIT anyhow (not to let this be a negative reflection on MIT--I know fine people who go there).</p>
<p>just wondering why you bother to create this thread then</p>
<p>
[quote]
General Comments: I really don't care. I already got into MIT and Dartmouth. Duke doesn't mean much to me- you guys lost to Villanova!! I laughed so hard. I still got some other colleges to hear from. Congrats to all who were accepted! Otherwise, you'll find somewhere better.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Maybe Duke didn't think you really wanted to go there - and you don't. An incredible student in our school also did not get into Duke and got waitlisted. She thinks Duke may be waiting to see if she asks to stay on the waitlist after she hears from the Ivies next week. Duke is not her first choice.</p>
<p>...Or maybe the Duke adcom could tell that you're an arrogant twit, and therefore decided:</p>
<p>"Hey, we're only going to let this twerp in if he comes groveling back to us. We don't need him."</p>
<p>Boom, roasted. Pride goes before the fall, 174...</p>
<p>To be honest, I kind of thought the same.</p>
<p>I was expecting a likely letter more than a waitlist, to be honest, although I wasn't exactly expecting that, either.</p>
<p>are you serious OP??</p>
<p>you got into MIT!! that's so unreal!
You would have chosen that over duke anyway so why the hell are you complaining?</p>
<p>Hmmmm..."I really don't care. I already got into MIT and Dartmouth. Duke doesn't mean much to me- you guys lost to Villanova!! I laughed so hard. I still got some other colleges to hear from. Congrats to all who were accepted! Otherwise, you'll find somewhere better."
There's your answer. Out of 24,000 applicants, you can't feel entitled to an acceptance just because you have good stats. This process is about finding one school to spend your next four years at, not to see how many schools you can be accepted into to flaunt your awesomeness at life. Duke probably saw that you wouldn't take them seriously.
You should feel extremely fortunate to have several other terrific options. Think about how all the waitlisted/rejected people who actually love Duke feel.</p>
<p>You just sound extremely arrogant. If I was an adcom and that showed up anywhere in your application, I'd feel no obligation to accept you, not that you're entitled to admission anyway. I think you're forgetting that these are people. If you do something that doesn't sit well with them (i.e. coming off as egotistical), they throw you in the rejection pile and move on to the next kid with perfect scores. I mean, your "you guys lost to Villanova!! I laughed so hard" comment was hardly mature. I can only speculate that you made a similar mistake on your app and that's what did you in.</p>
<p>Duke did lose.</p>
<p>you have great test scores, strong grades, and did nothing outside of school to make you stand out. there are tons of kids with great academics and so then it becomes a matter of who can show that they've got personality and depth. i don't mean to be harsh and definitely props on the academics, but from the looks of it MIT sounds like it'd be a better fit for you anyways</p>
<p>not to mention,
you sound like a complete D-bag</p>