Probably a one in a million chance, hell, I might as well try! I had a rough time in high school, but still graduated with a 3.8 GPA and a 30 on the ACT- second highest test scores in my whole school! I took 5 out of 6 APs offered at my school, several honors classes, and a dual enrollment course. I grew up in rural NC, so I did not have access to the resources most competitive applicants would, there were barely 2,000 people in my town, and we simply did not have the facilities, programs, activies, or teachers that other schools would. However, I tried to make the most of it, no use crying over split milk as they say, and I was very determined to succeed.
I also have Autism, so doing activites and connecting with others took a lot of work, and I faced a lot of challenges during high school. I never got to play sports due to my uncoordination, haha. However, I had many valuable experiences and ECs that I included on my freshman application.
Winning the school science fair, 2nd place regional science fair, getting to present my research at the state science fair as well. I have a research paper but did not include in my application since it wasn’t published. I was in NHS and a part of my school’s leadership team, I did lots of community service with my local animal shelter. I also did a lot of service in my school system: tutoring elementary school kids, doing school assemblies/planning them, speaking at school board meetings, hosting STEM night, and planning other school events. I also volunteered with the national park identifying microorganisms and bird banding.
I was president of my school’s GSA, and was a head editor for my school’s lit journal. I was a member of the library board, and the science club. I won several awards, including the highest GPA in Spanish I, AP Scholar with Honor, and a Scholastic Gold Key. Starting at age 16, I worked a seasonal theatre job full time during summer and almost 30-40 hours a week in winter. During my senior year, I worked at a sandwich shop for around 30 hours per week each week from December-April. I also did seasonal work at a retail store this winter after my first semester of college. While I was at my original school- which was a lesser known, but rigorous LAC- I was in the honors program, the peer mentor program, and the disability culture club.
I had known Duke was my dream school ever since I was a kid. This only solidified when I went on my first campus tour, and got to speak with many talented and friendly students who gave me good info on the programs and resources available to them. Visting Duke felt like a dream come true, and I fell in love. Yet, my odds weren’t that great. Especially with my GPA. When the rejection letter came- following several others, I ended up having to attend an instate LAC that wasn’t a good fit for me. I ended up getting a 3.4 GPA for my first semester, due to my own fumbling in a math class. I decided to take a gap semester off to explore my options for transferring, start working again, and see if I can do more volunteering and get involved in my community again.
I’m thinking about retaking the ACT or getting an associate’s in Computer Science at my local community college. I’ve also applied at UNC Chapel Hill and Wake Forrest already, two other campuses I have visited and shown interest in. However, I just cant let my Duke dream die. Would it be better to go to CC, keep working, and try to get some more research experience in before I apply to transfer to Duke? Should I retake the ACT and try to superscore? (I had a 35 and a 33 on the reading and grammar sections, math was my blunder)
Thank you for reading my spiel, friends.