***Official Duke 2021 ED Results ONLY Thread***

Colleges and Universities A-Z Duke University
41

Pick one:
Decision: Deferred

Pick one:
Trinity College of Arts and Sciences

Objective:

SAT I (breakdown): 1500 Reading: 560 Math: 460 Writing: 480
ACT: C:22 Sci:21 Eng:24 Math:18 Rdng: 24 Essay/Writing: 8/12 ELA:24
SAT II: 1060 Math: 510 Evidence based reading & writing: 560
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.3
Weighted GPA: 3.7
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 13 out of 140
AP (place score in parenthesis): N/A
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: IB Math Studies, IB Environmental Systems and Societies, AP Psychology, IB English, IB TOK, IB Spanish, IB 20th Century History, IB Film.
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): N/A

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): (President) 100 Wall Street Stock Market Club for 3 years, (Vice President) National Honor Society for 1 yr, (Secretary) Spanish Honor Society for 1 yr, Peer Mediator for 1 yr, FBLA member for 3 yrs, Junior and Senior advisory council member at my school for 2 yrs, (Foundation Chair) Jack and Jill of America inc. for 2 yrs., Volleyball team (JV 2 yrs and V 2 yrs)
Job/Work Experience: Cashier at Panera Bread for less than a year my junior year
Volunteer/Community service: well over 50 hours at least with various organizations and loctions
Summer Activities: Volunteering mainly and playing volleyball

Essays:

  • (Why Duke?) I really emphasized how much I love their Duke Engagae program there, and how no other school has such program that inculcates the importance of charity and service to all of their students. It was well written and I got it read over many times. On the other hand, the word limit felt limiting since I couldn't elaborate on what the program meant to me personally really.

-(Personal Essay/Common App Essay) Honestly, I believe it was perfect. I really do because I have really low standardized testing scores, but still got a second chance. As you read, there are a couple of rejected applicants with way higher test scores. When I wrote my essay, I made sure it sounded like It was spoken and not written- if that makes any sense and really focused n showing Duke the type of person I am that was not included in my application already. There was no referance to my grades, test scores, how my teachers felt about, or anything quantitative or school related really. I just talked about me.

(Optional Essay) I didn’t complete it for my application

Teacher Recommendation: I got two of my favorite teachers that knew me very well to write recs. One has known me since I was a freshman and the other has been my teacher for the past 3 years. I technically waived my FERPA(?) right for both, but one of my teachers let me see it because she didn’t care really lol.

Counselor Rec: My counselor is new to me, but I made sure to get close to her and I suspect she wrote a pretty decent rec or a generic one even since she is so busy.

Additional Rec:N/A

Interview:
-I was able to be interviewd b/c there are so many alum in Savannah, Ga. My mom knows 2, and one of them happened to be my interviewer. She didn’t say anything of course,but she just gave me a little tidbit about his personality and that helped me be a little less nervous going in. It was about an hour and a half and went very well. It got to the point when I forgot I was getting interviewed because it became a converation about poltics (since it was day after the election), and IB life since he was considering enrolling his daughter in an IB program the next year.

Other

State (if domestic applicant): GA
Country (if international applicant):
Intended major(s): Neuroscience, Global Health, or Innovation & Entrepreneurship were my interests on my common application
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: African American
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: <100,000
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): N/A

Reflection

Strengths: My personality speaks Duke tbh. I have many goals for myself and I know how I want to achieve them. I am not a robot most importantly and made sure that I seem very well rounded. Duke is really one of the only premier universities that spends the time to do a holistic review of each application and understands that not everyone is a good test taker like me. My mom even said that my essays combined with my interview, and recommendations are probably the only reason Duke is even giving me the benefit of the doubt.

Weaknesses: My test scores. When I read my defferal letter, I was elated of course since they granted me another chance, but all I could think about was that I could have gotten accpeted and be free from the anticipation if I had a 30 on the ACT for example.

Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected:

I fell in love with Duke when I was a sophomore. My love maybe rubbed off on my application, but I won’t ever know. All I know is that I am dedicated in everything I do and only know challenge when it comes to school. My very stressful IB diploma program curriculum itself feels impossible and then I added an AP psych course with it. Duke wants the next big thing and students who share similar qualities of present and past students. Although, no matter how high your grades are, Duke and all other universities want to make sure that you are ready to take on the type of high-level work that is expected for all of their students.

General Comments:

First of all, I tip my hat to those that got accepted because I undoubtedly know you all deserve it. I and a lot of others like me who got deferred should be happy as well though because Duke sees something in all of us, but just doesn’t have the space for everyone. Just remember that Duke’s process is a bit weird and be grateful that you got this far in the process for this top-ranked school that got over 3,500 applications this year ED alone and you were a part of the one third deferred.

My main advice for the next generation is to just be yourself in your application and focus on something that you are really interested in and push your academics especially throughout high school. With my low ACT and SAT scores, my IB curriculum had to be the only quantitative statistic that made Duke want to still look out for me in the spring.
GOOD LUCK to everyone in all of their future endeavors!

42

@Retracellaira I am in the same condition as you are: great ECs, essays, recs but low test scores. I felt a lot more hopeful after going through what you have written up there. Gotta push Duke for an acceptance letter in March. Best of luck to both of us.

43

Decision: Accepted

Trinity College of Arts and Sciences

SAT I (breakdown): Math - 790, Reading/Writing - 780
SAT II: World History - 760, Math II - 800, Spanish - 750
Unweighted GPA: 4.0
AP (place score in parenthesis): World (5), Psych (5), Physics I (4), Spanish Lang (4), English Lang (4)
IB (place score in parenthesis):
Senior Year Course Load: Econ & Personal Finance, AP Spanish Lit, AP US & Comp Gov, AP Calc BC, AP Physics II, AP English Lit
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): VA Governor’s School for Spanish, Scholastic Art Awards, Arlington Public Schools Fine Arts Apprentice Program

Extracurriculars: too many to name but lots of community service and school clubs, VP of Spanish Honors, dancer for 14 years (submitted arts supplement for dance), etc.
Essays were average (wrote about dance for Common App); interview went pretty well

State (if domestic applicant): VA
Country (if international applicant):
Intended major(s): Undecided but put Psychology, Math, and Cultural Anthropology on my app
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: >100K
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): Legacy

44

ACCEPTED! :slight_smile:

School: Trinity College of Arts and Sciences

ACT: 34 (E: 36, R: 36, M: 34, S: 31, W: 33)
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): top 2%
AP (place score in parenthesis): APUSH (5), Pysch (5), Macro (4), Micro (4), APES (4), Lit (4)
IB (place score in parenthesis): n/a
Senior Year Course Load: AP Calc AB, AP Gov, AP Lang, AP Stats
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): AP Scholar w/ Distinction, Deca state awards, community service organization of the year awards, nothing major

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): these are the only things i put in my CA:
-varsity volleyball (4 years & captain)
-officer of community service organization (2 years)
-club volleyball (5 years)
-work
-DECA
-paid research internship
-working on a manuscript
-NAHS
-freshman welcome mentor
things i left out:
-NHS
-Language club
-art club
-senior class cabinet member
-camp counselor for half a summer
Job/Work Experience: 2 years as a server
Volunteer/Community service: ran the community service organization at my school. we planned and carried out many drives for canned food and clothes for the underprivileged, collected enough food to make over 19,500 meals when i was a part of the organization
Summer Activities: work and a paid research internship at a top research hospital in the area for one summer. during the internship i created my own research project, presented it in a scientific convention, and am also working on a manuscript to be published with my PI and RA
Essays: (my language was not out of this world amazing)
Why Duke: talked about the atmosphere of a basketball game, the connections that can be made there, whether it be with peers or with professors. overall i think it showed that i did my research and genuinely loved everything about the school.
Common App: nothing was explicitly said about my grades or ECs or anything like that. this focused a lot on my personality: my curious nature and yearning for adventure. i literally wrote about food so if that tells you anything…
Teacher Recommendation: honestly thought both of mine were quite generic, but i suppose they weren’t actually too bad (my teachers both sent them to me look at after ) But i’m close with with one of the teachers who wrote my rec, she was my coach for 4 years and we’ve been through a lot.
Counselor Rec: I asked my counselor if she needed my resume to write one and she was convinced she didn’t need to write one so honestly don’t even know if she wrote me one, but if she did i would assume it was good. she was my teacher before she became a guidance counselor and i think she likes me.
Additional Rec: Got this from the research assistant/ mentor i worked closely with during my internship. she’s very sweet and we did a lot of studies and observations together but also talked about things not related to research. i think this rec also “tightened” up my common app personality by showing AOs that i am actually a nice, curious, bubbly person i claim to be in my writing for the CA.
Interview: none

State (if domestic applicant): OH
Intended major(s): psych/econ
School Type: public
Ethnicity: asian
Gender: female
Income Bracket: 100,000
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): none

Strengths: essays, gpa, ACT scores, and applying ED
Weaknesses: ECs and lack of hard science APs
Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: i really think i was accepted bc i showed my love for the university and my personality through my app and essays. if you talk to Duke students or browse through social media, you can see Duke looks for bright students who also have a personality and like things other than just school, or really truly love to learn. other than that i honestly have no idea. looking through everyone else’s reflections and ECs, i feel so lack luster, but that just shows that there’s another factor to Duke admissions than just outrageously cool and amazing ECs or grades. i used to look through these feeds or “chance me feeds” and get so intimidated by what everyone else was doing, but i learned i just gotta do me and it’ll work out.

General Comments:
i am so incredibly excited and happy to be a blue devil! Good luck to those applying RD, and for those who got accepted ED, i cannot wait to meet you all! To those who got rejected, heads up everyone! There’s a place waiting for you, after all, college and your education is what you make of it.

Tips to those applying or going to apply:
BE YOURSELF! especially in those essays! move away from elaborating about your summer mission trip or amazing gpa or the night you won an oscar. think about what’s important to you and write about how it impacted you. IMPACT. that’s the key word. anything and everything can impact you. also, be smart in your app! list the ECs you actually did things in or liked. chose teachers who can describe who you are, NOT what you’ve done. your CA has all that already. show that you are three dimensional person.
lastly, i hope my post can help you. i’ve been on CC for a while and many of the posts have helped me.

45

Hi everyone; if you got into Duke ED, did you get a letter in the mail?
What about people who were deferred or rejected?
I applied to Duke ED and received no letters. Obviously I know this isn’t a good sign, but I would like to have something in hard copy. I could never find my admission result because they blocked me out of my onelink account.

46

I wanted to post this in December, but I was just too disappointed and embarrassed. I want to be honest and helpful as possible to next year’s hopeful Duke applicants.

Decision: Deferred

Trinity College of Arts and Sciences

Objective:

ACT: 32. (I raised my ACT in December for RD applications to a solid 34, 35 superscore)
SAT II: 790 Math2, 760 USH, 740 Bio
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.00, 4.35W
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1
AP (place score in parenthesis): AP Calc BC (5), AP Lang (5), APUSH (5), AP Computer Science (4), AP Studio Art2D (4), AP Biology (4)
Senior Year Course Load: AP English Lit, Multivariable Calculus, AP Gov, Economics Honors, AP Physics B, Community Service Tutoring
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): I listed a national journalism award and a MUN award, but it will give away my identity.

Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): National Organization for Women President, SWE Club president, Emily’s List Internship, Co-founder of an App startup, Rape Trauma Services Ambassador, Programming Club Vice President.
Job/Work Experience: Intern for Congresswoman and local Assemblyman
Volunteer/Community service: Organized training sessions for women to run for local office.
Summer: I conducted literary research with a Stanford Profesor on intersectional analysis of gender, race, sexuality, class, and nationality.
Teacher Recommendation: English teacher (7/10), Math teacher (8/10)
Counselor Rec: didn’t read it
Interview: didn’t have one

Other

State (if domestic applicant): CA
Intended major(s): Feminist Studies and Public Policy
School Type: public
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: F
Income Bracket: N/A
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): LOL none!

Reflection:
I can’t help thinking that it was my ACT score and my ethnicity that destroyed me in the end. I’m not blaming my ethnicity, but I do think that it played a part in my deferral.

Strengths: GPA, Rank, Course Rigor, ECs, applying ED
Weaknesses: ACT + English teacher recommendation
Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: ACT score and Ethnicity

General Comments: College rejections and deferrals have made me doubt my self-worth and made me bitter. The problem with saying that admissions are “holistic” convey to deferred applicants like me that they are rejecting me as a person. It sucks because I was so honest and passionate in my essays. I wanted to show them my BEST self, but they rejected it.

I doubt that I will be accepted in April, and I have now moved on. Although I raised my ACT score in D, I don’t want to write them an update letter because I don’t want to be devastated again. I’m just going to forget that I even applied until I get rejected in April.

47

Accepted w/ likely letter! Still have some results coming in (shmeheh Ivy day anyone?) but Duke is probs where i’m going

48

@sarahd121 I’ve been stressing out since I turned in my application for fall 2018 ED and I almost have the same stats as you. I by the end of the year I will have taken around 15 AP classes since freshman year and am trying to keep my rank 1. Sharing your information because overall I have almost the same taking but I didn’t take the SAT II