Merit Scholarship

Colleges and Universities A-Z Duke University
1

<p>Did anyone here get a merit scholarship from Duke? The admissions office, apparently, gave out 500 merit scholarships when they sent financial aid packets. I did not get one and, not to be smug, but I really do not understand why with my credentials:</p>

<p>SAT: 1600/1600
SAT II's: 800 Bio; 790 U.S.; 770 French; 750 Math 2
High School GPA: 101.878%
Class Rank: 1 out of 240
5 5's on AP Exams; 1 4
Extracurriculars: Class President; Band President; Wind Ensemble; Jazz Band; Men's Chorus; Tutor; 300+ hours of community service/year; founded Peer Tutoring Program at Children's Hospital; Student Cabinet; Student Government; National Honor Society; Site-Based Committee; South town's Youth Orchestra; Tennis; Golf; Won 3rd Prize in the nationals in French Competition; won National Merit Scholarship; among others</p>

<p>As I said, I do not mean to sound conceited, but does anyone have any idea what might have prevented me from getting a scholarship? </p>

<p>(I am getting very tired of having academic decisions during the admissions process influenced by demographics, racial quotas, and extra consideration for foreigners.)</p>

2

<p>I actually mistyped...it was not 500 scholarships, I was told it was around 50.</p>

3

<p>50 really isn't that many. Some scholarships are only for residents of North Carolina.</p>

4

<p>Yeah, not getting a merit scholarship is preventing me from going to Duke. I think they should increase the number from 50 to 5000. With such a large endowment, they can afford to give every student that they want accepted a full ride. Sucks for them. They're losing talent.</p>

5

<p>I think they probably will, eventually. Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Stanford are already in an arms race (literally) to radically improve financial aid. The other schools (Penn, MIT, Duke) will have to catch up eventually, but it's tough with a <em>much</em> smaller endowment.</p>

6

<p>Duke isn't all about numbers and stats. There are very few scholarships, and most are not even strictly for academic merit. My roommate is a full scholarship recipient, and hers is specifically for leadership (and North Carolina residents). Only a couple even go to students from outside of North Carolina.</p>

<p>And just a slight point of contention-- I promise you, Duke is not lacking talented students. If not getting money is preventing you from coming here, I'm sorry, but there are plenty of smart, talented, and amazing students matriculating without being given any money. Hate to break it to you.</p>

7

<p>Actually, Penn is now offering free tuition for those with under $50,000 income. </p>

<p><a href="http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/article.php?id=925%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/article.php?id=925&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Duke will have to follow eventually, otherwise they will miss out on too many strong low-income applicants.</p>

8

<p>Erm - Duke's endowment, while having grown significantly in recent years, isn't where we need it to be for the kinds of scholarship programs we would certainly like to have. It is getting there.. Plus, we don't have 5000 students per class :-D</p>

9

<p>Here's my concern with that. I don't know if this doesn't make any sense, and if I'm wrong feel free to correct me. But even though Duke has a big endowment, as DukeEgr said, it's NOT where it should be for programs like that. And my concern is-- if we implement a program like that (guaranteeing full tuition to all families with incomes under $50,000) and that causes a HUGE spike in applications from those families (because hey, amazing school and free tuition, why not), I'm worried that Duke will have to limit the number of those students they accept for financial reasons...therefore ending need-blind admissions. I don't really have a good concept of exactly how large our endowment is, where it's allocated, etc. and I could be totally off, but the disintegration of need-blind admissions seems like a valid concern in my mind.</p>

10

<p>I actually found out about an hour ago that I was named an A.B. Duke (full tuition, Oxford trip, research $$). There were 15 named out of the 36 people who attended the 4-day interview/visit thing.</p>

<p>I was really surprised that I was even a finalist, but I guess they saw something I didn't. I honestly was worried about even getting into Duke as I didn't interview (sent in my pre-app an hour before the deadline and commonapp.org didn't send it in time)</p>

<p>For reference, here are my stats:</p>

<p>Stats:
[ *] SAT: 800R/800M/790W
[ *] SAT IIs: 750 Math IC, 750 US History
[ *] GPA: 4.66W; I've only had 1 B (in chemistry) so it's probably around 3.97 to 3.96 UW. I've taken every AP/honors at my high school except AP Bio and AP Studio Art.
[ *] Rank: 1/130
[ *] Other stats: 5 5's on APs (Euro History, U.S. History, Comp. Sci A, Comp Sci. AB, Latin Lit)</p>

<p>Subjective:
[ ] Essays: excellent, at least judging by my interviewers' commentary. I talked about the novel *Ishmael and why & how I've gotten politically involved (political blogging). My "why Duke" wasn't great, but it touched on some other things (like my hobby of video production) that weren't really noted in my app.
[ *] Teacher Recs: I've had one of my recommenders for 4 years and the other for 2 years, so I'd say they were strong.
[ *] Counselor Rec: I have a great relationship with my counselor; I'd say this was very good.</p>

<p>Location/Person:
[ *] State or Country: Cincinnati, OH
[ *] School Type: very competitive, affluent, public suburban H.S.
[ *] Ethnicity: white
[ *] Gender: male</p>

<p>Extracurriculars/Activities: Latin Club 9-12, Latin Club President 11&12, Varsity Track 10-12, Track Captain 12, Academic Team 9-12, JV Academic Team Captain 10, Masque & Mime (and various theatrical productions) 9-12, Nat'l Honor Society 11&12, Show Choir 9-11, Latin Quiz Team 9-12, Latin Quiz Team Captain 11&12, Cappies (theatre reviewing group) 9-11, Varsity Basketball 12, JETS/TEAMS 11&12, attended Ohio State Essex School last summer, editor of paper at Essex school, self-owned lawn mowing business 9-12, Warriors with Wings community service group (altogether, ~200h of service through H.S.), tutoring, political blogging, writing poetry</p>

<p>Awards: 1st place JETS team (1st in region, 1st in state, 3rd in nation) 11, AP Scholar with Distinction 12, semi-finalist in national Anthem essay contest, 4th place in nat'l Peterson's SAT essay contest, National Merit Finalist, member of 6th place team (10) & 5th place team (11) in Miami University High School Programming Contest, various class awards, Academic Team tournament champions (10)</p>

<p>Those are some decently long lists but, as I said, I wasn't even sure I would get into Duke. The real difference, I think, was that in my essay I talked about how I wanted to change the world (cliched, but it's what they wanted). Here's an excerpt:</p>

<p>Even though I disagreed with a few of Quinn's conclusions, I began to carve out a window through the white noise of society. Other great literature, such as Voltaire's Candide and Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions, became some of my favorite texts. I quickly found myself playing the role of the Ishmael, the critical observer of civilization. As I paid more attention to the overwhelming stream of information from the Internet, newspapers and television, I saw so much that I wanted to change. So many people were totally blinded by our culture's norms and expectations, and just drifted along, never bothering to challenge their preordained beliefs.</p>

<p>It's probably good to note that there are only ~80 slots for out-of-state merit scholarships at Duke (40 in the A.B. program, and 40 in the University Scholars), and of those even less actually get money. My selection was a combination of luck and good essay-writing, because my stats aren't that great. I also think that my unique combo of interests (journalism/composition, classics, computer science) helped. It's not an especially tangible process.</p>

<p>Then again, I don't even know if I'm going to attend Duke. I still have to decide between Duke and WashU.</p>

11

<p>If you are an AB Scholar at Duke, I think there should be no decision. What a terrific honor! Wash U is a fine school, but not nearly the caliber of Duke-- in every respect. I am familiar with both, but as a Duke alum, of course I am biased towards Duke. However, unless there is something you don't really like about Duke, I think it's a "no-brainer." Good luck and congratulations.</p>

12

<p>That's why President Brodhead is starting the financial aid initiative - he's making it a priority, and Nan did not.</p>

13

<p>Yeah - Nan was way too busy getting the $2 Billion.</p>

14

<p>PS Dont' feel bad about not getting a merit scholarship. No offense to Achil because those are very impressive credentials and there are some merit scholars here who have had a great four years, but in my experience, one of several things happens to merit scholars.</p>

<p>Sometimes they burn out - I know at least 2 AB's that have left school (not just Duke but college completely) in the past four years, and there could be more. When you consider that there are only a handful of merit scholars here, two is a lot for just one person to know. I've heard of at least two or three being hospitalized here, as in, mental hospital. Sometimes when someone is that "perfect," the pressure is too much and they crack. Or they get here and realize that this school is filled with students who probably could have also gotten a merit scholarship if their GPA was one tenth of a point higher or their SAT was 20 points higher or they were in one or two more activities. I think "big fish in a small pond->small fish in a big pond" syndrome applies much more severly to merit scholars because so much is expected from them.</p>

<p>A lot of merit scholars aren't very well-liked. This isn't because people are jealous, but because when you have a class with a merit scholar, they think that they have soooo much to add and nothing to learn from anyone else. Most students go into a seminar eager to share ideas with each other and learn from each other. I had a seminar with two merit scholars and both of them were huge egomaniacs who wanted to talk and talk and talk without listening to anyone else. Humility is a virtue, and some scholars just don't have it. </p>

<p>Also, sometimes students who have outstanding academic credentials and were even presidents of clubs in high school - they are sooooo socially awkward. People skills count for a lot more in college than they did in high school. You start to realize that academic merit alone will not get you very far in the real world. I can't think of a single scholar who leads any major organization on campus. The one exception is Elliott Wolf, who just won the DSG presidential election. Elliott is, I think, an AB scholar. He defies every stereotype I listed above. He basically became God on campus through his sharp commentary on the administration in the Chronicle, and more importantly through starting "Elliott's movies," the campus movie server which until it got shut down was the best thing to happen to Duke students. (Well, worst thing to happen to our GPA's). </p>

<p>Anyway, it's possible to be a merit scholar and actually do something great on campus or live up to the expectations, though Elliott is the only example I've ever heard of. So bottom line: don't be offended if you didn't get a merit scholarship. From what I've seen, merit scholar status means absolutely nothing in terms of predicting whether or not you will be an "outstanding" Duke student, do well academically, attain leadership positions, etc.</p>

<p>Of course this is just my opinion - maybe someone else knows a lot of "normal," down-to-earth merit scholars.</p>

15

<p>She got the $2 billion which was outstanding but it all went into new buildings (which are necessary, albeit getting a little excessive when students in Craven take a shower and sewage comes out). Correct me if I'm wrong but none of the $2 billion was earmarked for financial aid.</p>

16

<p>Some may burn out, but I find it notable that the vast majority of the Rhodes (and other major scholarships) scholars have been AB Dukes, with this past year being an exception. That alone says a lot about their achievements.</p>

17

<p>I'm not familiar with rhodes scholar stats at Duke.</p>

18

<p>From my experience at the scholarship weekend...</p>

<p>I'd have to agree with alex.</p>

<p>Quite a few of the merit scholars seemed totally disconnected, which is really complicating my decision.</p>

<p>When I called home, I actually told my parents that I wished I could have been a B.N. or a Trinity (though I live in Ohio), as they seemed a lot more "normal." I didn't really notice that the majority of the ABs contributed to the campus so much as they did a lot of research or took crazy amounts of classes or achieved disgusting GPAs.</p>

<p>Alex: do people generally know who the ABs are, or do many of them simply make it known? While I like the community (and the money) the program provides, the last thing I want is to be anointed as a campus "academic star." It's cool that I did stuff in high school...but none of it really matters.</p>

19

<p>I hope they all don't have your attitude Bandcamp girl.</p>

20

<p>Just remember that you can be as "normal' as you want and hang out with those you feel most comfortable with. You don't have to hang out only with other scholars for sure. When I was there (eons ago), I had no idea who the scholars were, though one girl in our dorm was a Rhodes Scholar and she was more laid back than the rest of us. Of course this may have changed, but keep in mind there are 6,000 undergraduates, give or take. You can find your niche and blend right in if you want to (and don't purposely tout your achievements, which it doesn't sound like you will.)</p>