<p>Sophomore in Arizona.
Parent legacy and applying ED.</p>
<p>Unweighted GPA: 4.0, Weighted: 4.6
SAT: 1970 (First time taking it. I'm expecting above a 2100 when I take it officially)
Class rank: 4/500</p>
<p>Extracurriculars: (name and positions held, years i plan to do it, hours per year)
1. Panacea Secretary and Co-founder-community service club (10,11, 12) 100 hrs.
2. Interact- community service club (9) 20 hrs.
3. Viola (9-12) 200 hrs.
4. Basketball Team Captain (9-12) 225 hrs.</p>
<p>Honors or Accomplishments:
1 vs. 100 game show contestant "super smart kids episode"
Spanish Honor Society
National Honor Society</p>
<p>Research Experience:
UCSD Lab assistant in the med school 200 + hrs.</p>
<p>Planning on raising my SAT.
Joining more clubs centered around science and math.
Planning on participating in several science competitions such as Siemens.
Joining speech and debate, so I will get a few awards from that.</p>
<p>you'll have a shot but you must get your SATs up. your ECs are decent, but not outstanding. obviously your grades are on par. You might want to find a way to "stick out," ie your essay or something. Any chance you've got an "mitigating" background (ie you struggled through something and persevered)? This could include race, or "socio-economic" status.</p>
<p>Yeah, I know my SATs are low, but I had a slight panic attack because it was my first time taking them.
My ECs are my weak spot, but if my SATs, grades, recs, rigor of schedule, and essays are fairly good, will that be the deciding factor?</p>
<p>And nope, my life has been pretty boring. I was thinking about writing an essay about my height (I'm shorter than 5 feet tall) and how it lets me see things in different ways, literally and figuratively. And considering the only sport I play is basketball, it kind of creates some difficulties. I know that doesn't really count as a struggle that I've overcome haha</p>
<p>Tell your parents now to give as much money to the Alumni Association as possible if you want to be given preferential treatment as a legacy. All legacies are not created equal, you see <wink>.</wink></p>
<p>Duke (as is Brown) very lenient with the uber-rich or big donor legacies. Normal legacy without the donations or possibility for big donations is a whole other thing. If you parent is active in alumni organizations that would be helpful as well.</p>
<p>Your SAT scores are very low (FYI), and I would encourage you to do something that would make you stand out more. Get an internship, start your own organization, get published in a significant magazine/journal/newspaper, etc. You need a hook. Remember that with top schools you are competing with kids that did amazing things OUTSIDE of school. Usually legacy is a hook, but think about it, they accept less than half of the legacies that apply probably. Most children of Duke alumni applying to Duke have good stats. You are going to have to stand out, and it DEFINITELY doesn't require URM status or coming from a disadvantaged socioeconomic background. You need to accomplish something significant or become involved in something significant outside of school. The legacy status is a plus regardless, but not as much of a plus without the afforementioned things.</p>
<p>Yeah my SAT scores are horrible, but that wasn't an official test that I took, it was just a practice one. I know it's going to be a lot higher when I take it officially. But don't a lot of legacies only apply because of their parents or relatives or whomever. And don't they usually apply regular decision? I would think it would be an extra hook to be a legacy and apply ED..?
I'm also working on some internships for next year and I'm doing some science and math competitions because the whole newspaper/magazine/journal thing isn't really what I'm interested in, so I think thats comparable.</p>
<p>I agree it is a hook to apply ED as a legacy. I wouldn't begin to tell her though that "she's probably in." I'm telling you, as Davida noted as well, have your parents throw some serious money the AA's way and she's in. Otherwise, probably not, imo. </p>
<p>Alumni money talks at Duke probably as much as anywhere in the country. Said to say, but that's what it's come to.</p>
<p>Well I would be applying for financial aid, which obviously shows that my family doesn't have the money to just give to Duke. Are you saying that without giving money, I don't really have a chance?</p>
<p>You're still a sophomore so you have time to rev up your stats. Duke is very straight forward in how they assess the applicants. Basically, they give a score for difficulty of curriculum/school, class rank/grades, essays, recs, ECs, and SAT scores. High SAT scores can be the swing vote for them. </p>
<p>My husband's cousin's daughter was NOT accepted at Duke 4 years ago when she applied with stats stronger than yours and she was an alum. She was at a rigorous prep school with very good grades, but her SAT scores did not make the cut, she was told. She ended up going to GW and taking off time, then successfully transferred to Duke with excellent college grades from GW.</p>
<p>No one's "messing with you" hilary.
A little taste of Duke's history of admitting the well-connected
and those with money, in comparison to fairer need-blind admissions:</p>
<p>I understand that people are better off being wealthy and donating money to Duke, but does that mean that my legacy status won't be taken into consideration or will it completely eliminate my chances?</p>
<p>hilary-
There's a big difference between acknowledging the widespread but little discussed practice of development admissions and saying that, unless your parents can donate big bucks, you won't get in. Work on improving the aspects that you can, write great essays, earn terrific recs, and give it a shot. Your legacy status will certainly not hurt.</p>