<p>Until today I never visited the Duke board. Boy, was I surprised to know that a school like duke had full-tuition scholarships. In an hour, I was searching Duke's website for info on these scholarships. I was surprised to know that these scholarships were nearly unobtainable. Competition surrounded them. If almost 18,000 students are eligible for a Duke scholarship who was in the running to really get one? Those 18000 are brilliant. Who tops the entering freshmen class AT DUKE? What does that require? I figured Duke's scholarships were like Rice's when it came to who and how many would get them. Again, I was wrong.</p>
<p>It requires something special.
Are you from NC? If so, your chances are higher because they have their own scholarship (may include SC too actually), the BN Duke one.
Also if you're African American, they have their own scholarship too.
The two hardest to get would be the Robertson and the AB Duke. You need more than great stats to get these, but if you do, they're amazing. The thing that I am most jealous about the AB Duke scholars is that, aside from full tuition, they get to study at Oxford in England for free for a summer! I would so love that. And they have other perks, and the Robertson is pretty sweet too. Anyways, you probably already know all of this if you went and researched the scholarships.
But the people I know that got these scholarships are pretty amazing (I'll just talk about the Robertson and the AB Duke since I don't know any BNs). Well, first of all, I had great stats, 1500+ SAT I, 800 SAT IIs, top 2%, leadership, some awards, nice recs, pretty good essays, and I wasn't even CONSIDERED for ANY of the scholarships (but I still chose Duke anyway). The people that I know that got these scholarships usually got into other really great schools or programs, like Princeton, Yale, Stanford, or even the Rice/Baylor Medical Scholars program (basically he was accepted to medical school). They just really stand out from the applicant pool in a way apart from just academic achievement. There are some amazing people in our class... sorry I can't give details because I kind of forget, but hopefully the other Duke kids at this board can fill in the blanks a bit here...</p>
<p>I am African American, but I live in MA.</p>
<p>For African Americans, there is a very competitive Reginaldo Howard scholarship. I know two of the kids on scholarship from our class and they are absolutely brilliant. They both were at the top of their class, amazing extracurriculars, had stellar SATs, and got into Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, and Yale among the two of them. So, needless to say, competition is incredibly tough. I also know two black friends from high school who are at Harvard and Yale who applied to Duke (they were accepted) but didn't get invited to compete for the scholarship.</p>
<p>blah
my SATs sucked (no joke) :(
i just had research. and mediocre art, and maybe a little music. (and grades/rank/essays/recs if you want to count those)</p>
<p>qubic-didn't you apply ED?</p>
<p>i did - which was why i NEVER expected to be considered for AB</p>
<p>(ok, so maybe my SATs didn't suck that much, but being asian and all... i wasn't too pleased)</p>
<p>folks SATs aren't the be all end all of anyone's application. my SAT 1s were 1390 and you know what I am a finalist going to Duke in April to interview for the Robertsons. it's about who you are a person, what you have accomplished, what your vision/goals are, how you are a person, your interests and passion, being academically strong, and being an ethical person. it's the sum of who you are as a person not a mere quantative SAT number.</p>
<p>okay, now I'm confused. On one end of the spectrum, the people who are scholarship finalists are brilliant and talented, an amazing feat due to the strength of Duke's applicant pool. On another end, these finalists are odinary teens who possibly aren't that brilliant academically. Hmmm...no wonder why these scholarships are competitive.</p>
<p>Private_Joker I am accomplished in multiple areas. My strength isn't standardized testing. I have taken more A.P. classes and tests than the average applicant, have tons of local/state/regional ECs and awards, won many state and regional oratory/debate awards, I explored my interests in social activism and politics more than the average student has. They don't pick people who are mere flukes. I am also a Coca Cola Scholar and Toyota Community Scholars semifinalist (I still waiting to hear back and see if I am a finalist). I have incredibly strong essays (and I am not just tooting my horn here I spent about three to four months editing and revising them). They look for students who are overall strong in everything. And I think I exhibit that (with the exception of my average SAT scores for the Duke applicant pool).</p>
<p>Right, I agree with Seven Nights. My SATs are not amazing, but I have a lot of science accomplishments: Intel STS semi, Siemens semi, Intel ISEF finalist, published paper, science olympiad regional/state medals, 2 summers of research, presentation at a national symposium, and a ton of other awards, etc. In addition, I am involved with competitions that are not science related, such government and italian. I also have 8 years of violin (not much compared to most musicians) and an innate passion for the arts (submitted portfolio). In school, I have 11 APs, ranked #1, great recs, etc. However, I don't think I'm incredible at any of the things I do, nor am I a genius in the least. As Seven Nights said, Duke likes applicants who are "overall strong in everything."</p>