<p>3.67 UW GPA (4.24 W; 3.84 UW excluding freshman year) - hardest curriculum available at a well-regarded public HS</p>
<p>35 ACT</p>
<p>taking Math II, Physics, & Chem SAT subject tests in Oct...gonna get all 800s </p>
<p>Extra-currics:
-Editor-in-Chief of school yearbook (award-winning)
-Leader of volunteers for inner-city relief work with underprivileged kids
-Varsity Forensics team (consistent tourney finalist/semifinalist)
-Varsity ski team (skiied since age 3; also have raced Nastar since I was a kid)
-JV A tennis team
-Robotics team (FIRST & local tourneys)
-Freshman mentor</p>
<p>Work:
Lifeguard (year-round)
Kumon tutor
Babysitter</p>
<p>Community service:
-Providing free day care to underprivileged kids/ beautifying the city of Detroit
-art camp counselor
-Safety Town instructor
-tutor</p>
<p>Honors:
NHS
President's Service Award
Distinction in Forensics
AP Scholar
Principal's List</p>
<p>Fantastic essays, great recs (physics & math teachers)</p>
<p>Biomed engineering major</p>
<p>White female from MI</p>
<p>Duke has so many applicants that look alike; I read that last year they rejected about 600 high school valedictorians! Man oh man! Some schools only ADMIT 500 kids/class and they reject 600 vales right off the bat.</p>
<p>Your essay will be key to differ yourself. How bad do you want to go to Duke? What are you passionate about besides math in school? Verbalize one big thing that you’re passionate about on the essay and tie that back to ‘why Duke?’ Uniquely written essays catch the eye and make you a little taller. Remember, here, everyone looks similar: dude 90% of the people who are applying here could get in right off the bat. It only takes one point to win a game, and at Duke, it only takes one superbly written essay to win that game in this case.</p>
<p>-the kitesurfer.</p>
<p>Thank you for the insight! I can see that a great essay is key, and I’ll definitely work on that. Assuming my essay is unique and demonstrates my liking for the school very well, do the rest of my stats make me competitive at all?</p>
<p>…the strength of the high school performance record. Period.</p>
<p>Everything else is secondary to: a) did you take the hardest classes available to you? b) how did you DO in those classes? c) did you gain mastery in a particular subject? (ie, did you exhaust all possible years taken of a foreign language? </p>
<p>What can you do to improve your weighted average? That weighted score is a bit low in my opinion. </p>
<p>Certainly, I don’t think you need to really ‘improve’ anything outside of that. If you can. </p>
<p>And in the end, at Duke it’s really a numbers game; they get about 26,000 apps per year and it’s always refreshing to think of it this way: you’re an elite student and you’re going to shine wherever you land. That’s the truth looking at your profile!</p>
<p>Instead, spend some time before high school gets cranked back up thinking about a way to cure cancer! You can learn to work on this in college and you don’t have to be at Duke to do that. Good luck bro, just go for it. </p>
<p>the kitesurfer.</p>
<p>High school performance record is indeed important, but it is just one of 6 areas that Duke evaluates when reviewing your application. Here’s a good overview of the application evaluation. It’s a few years old, but the process is still the same:</p>
<p>[Duke</a> Magazine-Admissions 101-January/February 2006](<a href=“Duke Mag”>Duke Mag)</p>
<p>Of note:
“Using a five-point scale, he or she rates you in each of six areas: rigor of high-school academic program, academic performance, letters of recommendation, extracurricular activities and personal qualities, personal statement and essay, and standardized testing.”</p>
<p>…also, as stated in a previous thread, legacy status at Duke is only considered for parents or grandparents that attended Duke (also siblings). So, a great uncle won’t help.</p>
<p>[Duke</a> University Admissions: Ask a Question](<a href=“http://www.admissions.duke.edu/faq/indexb571.html?iQuestionID=518%20&iCategoryID=1]Duke”>http://www.admissions.duke.edu/faq/indexb571.html?iQuestionID=518%20&iCategoryID=1)</p>
<p>…yes, it’s one of 6 areas looked at, but clearly it is THE most important area for intense scrutiny. A very strong SAT/ACT score will not make up for even above average academic performance in high school! So, a student with a 5.1 weighted GPA but low SATs (around 2000) is going to look much better than a student with a 2250 SAT and a GPA weighted around 4.1. The former is a much stronger, disciplined student than the latter, who is a great standardized test-taker but just doesn’t show much effort, consistently over time, in the classroom.</p>
<p>–the kitesurfer.</p>