juicycampus.com speaks the truth!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Duke University
1

<p>shameless attention getter.</p>

<p>forgive me, and the chance me please, ill help with an essay in return (not qualified to chance, obviously)</p>

<p>ED at Duke, I've decided it's my best shot at ED (PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong)</p>

<p>Other Schools I will be applying RD to:
- Reaches - Stanford, NU, NYU, Wash U, Notre Dame
- Safeties - UW Madison (legacy), Marquette and Tulane, small Christian colleges (Wheaton, Northcentral, etc)</p>

<p>Senior
Male, Caucasian
Location: Extremely small town, Wisconsin
School: Public, top students go to Madison, a few in the past have gone farther
Financial Aid: Yes</p>

<p>Academics - this is where uncertainty settles in my gut
- UW GPA - Around 3.9
- W GPA - Don't know, did max AP course offered at school and 12 credits at local university
- Rank: 5of100, will be better at the end of this year</p>

<ul>
<li>Noteworthy: Will have taken 2 UW Extensions courses (Latin, Hebrew) and 4 classes at local university (2 semesters of English and Philosophy)</li>
</ul>

<p>Scores - ugh
- ACT - 32(C), 36(R), 34(E), 31(S), 28(M) - retook this month, legendarily hard science, should improve
- SAT II - Lit (730) and Math 2 (590), hahaha, i'm really very mad about this. Retaking in December (earliest). Ridiculously uncharacteristic enough to be ignored? Bad enough to avoid ED and wait for better scores?
- AP - US Hist - 4, Land and Comp - 4, Lit and Comp 3 (sophmore yr), Will take AP Calc test this June. Those are all of the AP classes offered, and my scores aren't even good.</p>

<p>EC's
- 4 year FBLA Member - held officer positions
- 4 year varsity soccer, 3 years competitive club soccer, 1 year wrestling
- 3 year Math team, 4 year Classics Club, International Club, Spanish Honor Society
- 2 year (max allowed) National Honor Society
- Also: City-wide Robotics team, Companion Program (needy kids), Youth group, significant mission trips, many hours of community service, started church ping pong club</p>

<p>Volunteer Experience: A lot, won't take up space with it though, sorry if that's not PC</p>

<p>Employment - hook?
- Own and maintain successful web design firm. Have gotten significant local recognition, plenty of commission. Life-altering commitment, I madly enjoy it.
- IT assistant at school, work during the school day, made website, etc</p>

<p>Honors and Awards - bit meager here
- Won State for FBLA Competitive event, Top 20 at Nationals, fully expect nationals again this year, hopefully in Top 5,
- Evan Baxter Creativity Award, sort of a big deal
- Dozens of stupid sports awards (letters, scholar award)
- School does department awards at the end of the year, bound to get at least one
- High Honor roll, school achievement awards
- Homecoming court? just kidding</p>

<p>Recs and Essays
- Recs should will be as good as possible, English teacher that is like family, History teacher that loves me
- Essays should be good, I've written competitively before and my dad will help with editing, he has lots of published work</p>

<p>Other - English is a second language (since 3 years old, does that even count?), fluent in Italian, spoken at home. Consider myself thoroughly Italian, often visit relatives in Northern Italy. Both my parents are methodist pastors, my faith is big part of me. Also, like I said, my dad publishes work, maintains a popular(among Hebrew scholars) blog, and is deeply ingratiated in the university community.</p>

<p>I've heard that duke doesn't mind if omit SAT2 scores and possibly even AP scores. If this is true, I'll be doing that. </p>

<p>Thanks a million, and remember, I'll help with an essay in return</p>

2

<p>megabumppps</p>

3

<p>i'm skeptical at whether or not it's your best use of ED. i'm tempted to say that you'd have a better shot at Northwestern and NYU early decision. stanford is a crap chute both early and regular decision so definitely not there. for notre dame you have to be one of the top applicants to be admitted early (my brother goes there). washu i'm not too familiar with. test scores aren't the greatest, especially for ND, but they're not terrible (although i'd definitely get that math score up). are you applying to trinity or pratt?</p>

4

<p>Tough to say.
Test scores aren't very impressive.</p>

5

<p>WashU is big on test scores. Altho Stanford is now officially Subject Test optional, they have a long history of favoring high subject test scores, and 3-4 are better than two. Apply to Tulane EA, or use their personal app.</p>

6

<p>thanks for the input,</p>

<p>I read somewhere that if you take the ACT, you do not need to send the Subject test scores in. (for Duke)</p>

<p>In that case, they won't be seeing that shameful 590</p>

<p>Also, I'm applying to Trinity, so maybe my math scores needn't be that high</p>

7

<p>You're right about the ACT--if you submit that and that alone (which I recommend you do), then you don't need to send SAT Subject Test scores.</p>

<p>..and even if you're applying to Trinity instead of Pratt, your Math scores have to be up there. Contrary to popular belief, Trinity students can do math and science-related things (hmmm I guess that's where they get the "and Sciences" part of Trinity College)</p>

8

<p>i'm think I'm going to give it a go, omitting my sat 2 scores</p>

<p>hopefully, I at least get deferred</p>

9

<p>Only apply early if Duke is your first choice school. If you like NYU just as well, you have a better chance there. But if you really want Duke, obviously apply to the school you want to go to.</p>

10

<p>out of my first choices: Duke and Stanford (reaches as they may be)</p>

<p>ED Duke seems the most plausible, at least a referral</p>

11

<p>Duke ED is definitely easier than Stanford (SCEA, I believe) in terms of acceptance.</p>

12

<p>^for sure no question about it. stanford scea gives you a meager 6% advantage...not even worth your time.</p>

13

<p>juventus: You shouldn't base where you apply early on what is 'easier'...
You should base it on which school you like more.
If you would rather go to Stanford than to Duke, I'd say by all means apply early to Stanford.</p>

14

<p>I want admission into both schools equally, but I think RD to Stanford would make me more competitive. ED to Duke represents a definite possibility of admission.</p>

<p>Thanks for the posts.
Does anyone know if the counselor rec is required?</p>

15

<p>Yes...I believe it is a required element of the Common Application</p>

16

<p>Just raise your ACT score a little bit and use that. I got in with JUST a 35 on the ACT. No need to over analyze the word "optional".;)</p>

17

<p>lol JUST a 35? Cuz we all know how unimpressive a 35 is on the ACT...</p>

18

<p>i think he was trying to convey that he only submitted ACT and no SAT stuff, which isnt the norm...not trying to downplay his 35, which is of course really good. But yeh, they dont care -- either the ACT or SAT is the same</p>

19

<p>getting a 35 is not as hard as you may think :)</p>

20

<p>Yeah...ACT hands them out like candy.</p>