Official Duke University RD Admissions Results for 2016

Colleges and Universities A-Z Duke University
61

<p>Decision: Accepted</p>

<p>Trinity College of Arts and Sciences</p>

<p>Objective:[ul]</p>

<p>[<em>] SAT I (breakdown): 2340 (800 M, 760 CR, 780 W)
[</em>] ACT:<br>
[<em>] SAT II: 800 Math II, 770 US History
[</em>] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.3): 3.9 (between an A and an A-, leaning more towards the A)
[<em>] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): school doesn’t rank, but probably 20ish/520
[</em>] AP (place score in parenthesis): US History (5), English Language/Composition (5)
[<em>] IB (place score in parenthesis):
[</em>] Senior Year Course Load: AP English Literature/Composition, AP Calculus AB, Physics Honors, AP US Government/Politics, Accounting 101, AP Statistics
[li] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National Merit Finalist</p>[/li]
<p>[/ul]Subjective:<a href=“not%20going%20to%20go%20into%20specifics!”>list</a>
[<em>] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Community service club #1 (founder, president, secretary; won a regional award), community service club #2 (vice president), newspaper (columnist), international relations club (head of art), sports team (JV 1st year, Varsity 3 years, team captain; team places 2nd/3rd each year in the county), quiz bowl team (team is ranked internationally), FBLA (won a regional award), tutor in my school’s tutoring program, won a writing contest, a bunch of other clubs and national ______________ honor societies (no positions, just a member)
[</em>] Job/Work Experience: intern for a presidential campaign, summer camp intern, fashion show intern
[<em>] Volunteer/Community service: ~30 hrs @ YMCA’s child care program (I’m not sure if I even put this down… I did many volunteer clubs, but I never volunteered by myself at an outside organization)
[</em>] Summer Activities: not much… basically everything in “Job/Work Experience,” and I also started the club mentioned in “Extracurriculars”
[<em>] Essays: mediocre IMO
[</em>] Teacher Recommendation: probably good, but not spectacular
[<em>] Counselor Rec: probably positive, but I come from a very large school (class size 520… and that’s small for my school), so my counselor/teachers probably could not really go in-depth
[</em>] Additional Rec: a club adviser
[li] Interview: decent, but I fumbled when he asked me what I would talk to the President about if I had 1 question to ask him, lol </p>[/li]
<p>[/list]Other[ul]</p>

<p>[<em>] Intended Major(s): public policy
[</em>] State (if domestic applicant): New Jersey
[<em>] Country (if international applicant):
[</em>] School Type: public (veryyyy large!)
[<em>] Ethnicity: Chinese
[</em>] Gender: Female
[<em>] Income bracket (if applicable): 150-200k
[</em>] Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): not really a hook, but a cousin and a distant relative went to GRAD school there </p>

<p>[/ul]Reflection[ul]</p>

<p>[<em>] Strengths: scores, did the optional interview, extracurricular activities
[</em>] Weaknesses: essays
[<em>] Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: good combination of extracurriculars and GPA, demonstrated interest
[</em>] Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected:</p>

<p>Rejected: Yale, Harvard, Stanford
Waitlisted: Princeton, Penn
Accepted: Cornell, JHU, Tufts, Vanderbilt, WashuSTL, Barnard, NYU, UC Berkeley </p>

<p>[/ul]General Comments:
Most likely Duke Class of 2016! =)</p>

62

<p>Decision: Accepted</p>

<p>Pick one:</p>

<p>Pratt School of Engineering</p>

<p>Objective:[ul]</p>

<p>[<em>] SAT I (breakdown): (didn’t submit) 640,660,640 (R,M,W)
[</em>] ACT: 34 composite, 36 math, 34 english, 31 reading, 31 science, 10 writing
[<em>] SAT II: 720 physics, 760 math ii
[</em>] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.956
[<em>] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1/476
[</em>] AP (place score in parenthesis): APHG (4), APWH (4), APCalcBC (5), APUSH (5), APPsy (5), APLang (5), APPhyCMech (4), APPhyCE&M (3)
[<em>] IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
[</em>] Senior Year Course Load: AP macro (semester class), ap us gov (semester class), ap bio, ap chem, ap lit, ap comp sci, leadership (sga), institute of engineering class (for magnet program), calc iii (at local comm coll, over summer), speech and oral communications (at local comm coll, over summer), differential equations (at local comm coll)
[li] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): AP Scholar with Honor, Valedictorian</p>[/li]
<p>[/ul]Subjective:[ul]</p>

<p>[<em>] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Mu Alpha Theta (Founding VP, coach for alg2 (for 2 years) & calculus (for 1 year), Student gov assoc (leadership student), national honor society, academic team (co-captain)
[</em>] Job/Work Experience: 2 internships (one in engineering, one in business), retail work exp
[<em>] Volunteer/Community service: tutoring, school event coordination and planning
[</em>] Summer Activities: internships, classes
[<em>] Essays: strong engineering essay (created a basic strong essay and then just changed the college name and one paragraph for every school), i dont remember the other essays haha
[</em>] Teacher Recommendation: strong probably/hopefully haha
[<em>] Counselor Rec: ^look above
[</em>] Additional Rec:
[li] Interview: yes, went well, interesting</p>[/li]
<p>[/ul]Other[ul]</p>

<p>[<em>] Intended Major(s): electrical and computer engineering
[</em>] State (if domestic applicant): FL
[<em>] Country (if international applicant):
[</em>] School Type: large public
[<em>] Ethnicity: indian
[</em>] Gender: male
[<em>] Income bracket (if applicable): <40,000
[</em>] Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): </p>

<p>[/ul]Reflection[ul]</p>

<p>[<em>] Strengths: outside participation, course load, doing as much as i possibly could
[</em>] Weaknesses: test scores a bit haha
[<em>] Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: i have no clue really. college admissions are weird. you could get rejected at a school but accepted at a comparable school
[</em>] Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: accepted: brown, duke, uva, rose hulman, miami (fl), nyu, usc; waitlisted: u chicago; rejected: harvard, mit, caltech, cornell, stanford, dartmouth, yale, princeton, u penn, columbia, northwestern, carnegie mellon</p>

<p>[/ul]General Comments: College admissions are kind of unpredictable. I thought I was a shoo-in for CMU but I was rejected. On the other hand, I thought that I was too application-based for theoretical U-Chicago but I got waitlisted there, not rejected. Don’t feel bad if you didn’t get into your dream school, because everything happens for a reason, just like Pangloss from Candide says haha. The only thing you can really do is advertise yourself as best as you can and hope for the best. Write strong, emotional essays that reveal who you are. Go to interviews if you can. Just do as much as possible but have fun too. Once you hear back from all your schools, visit them to decide where you want to go. I had to visit both Brown and Duke or else I wouldn’t be able to choose. Ultimately, I chose Duke and I’m happy and excited for my four (maybe five for BSE/MSE 4+1 program) years there.</p>

63

<p>Waitlisted
[ b]Stats:[ /b][ list]
[ *]SAT: 2290 (CR 770, Math 800, Writing 720)
[ *]SAT II: US Hist 790, Math II 800, Chem 800, Bio M 800
[ *]GPA: 3.9ish
[ *]Rank: 5/450ish
[ *]Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): AP Chem, US Hist, Calc AB, Stat, Compsci A, Bio: All 5’s</p>

<p>[ /list][ b]Subjective[ /b][ list]
[ *]Essays: Common app: 8/10, Supplements: 6 or 7 out of 10. They were mostly cut and paste, but maybe I’m being modest
[ *]Teacher Recs: Should be great, didn’t really get to see them.
[ *]Counselor Rec: Should be excellent, I’m probably one of her favorite students.
[ *]Supplementary Material: Didn’t send any
[ *]Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize): None. Antihook: Asian male with no exceptional EC’s going into engineering :’(</p>

<p>[ /list][ b]Personal[ /b][ list]
[ *]Location: PA
[ *]High School Type: Public
[ *]Ethnicity: Asian
[ *]Gender: Male</p>

<p>[ /list][ b]Other[ /b][ list]
[ *]Extracurriculars: Nothing special. Orchestra, Mock Trials, Electric Car Club, Intern at a chem lab for 4 years (my strongest one probably. Sent in a pretty good recommendation from that)
[ *]Awards: Distinguished AP scholar, National merit finalist
[ *]Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?:[/list]Congrats to all those who got in!! </p>

<p>Where else: Accepted to cornell, upenn, rice, and psu schreyers.
waitlisted at dartmouth and duke, rejected from stanford and MIT.
going to cornell!</p>

64

<p>Decision: Waitlisted/Accepted
Trinity College of Arts and Sciences</p>

<p>Objective:[ul]</p>

<p>[<em>] SAT I (breakdown): 800 M; 740 R; 800 W
[</em>] SAT II: 800 Math II; 790 US History; 770 Chem; 740 Bio M
[<em>] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.8
[</em>] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): school doesnt rank
[<em>] AP (place score in parenthesis): BC Calc (5); Chem (5); Bio (5); Physics C (5,5); Stat (5); Chinese (5); US History (5)
[</em>] IB (place score in parenthesis): none
[<em>] Senior Year Course Load: AP Lang, AP Gov, AP Macro/Micro, AP Psych, Differential Equations, Earth Science, Bio Research Lab, History electives
[</em>] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National Merit Finalist, AIME</p>

<p>[/ul]Subjective:[ul]</p>

<p>[<em>] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Math Team, Model UN (Treasurer)
[</em>] Job/Work Experience:
[<em>] Volunteer/Community service: elementary school tutoring
[</em>] Summer Activities: Research assistant at JHU (summer '10), Portfolio analyst at local hedgefund (summer '11)
[<em>] Essays: Lots of revisions, so hopefully good?
[</em>] Teacher Recommendation: I chose teachers that liked me, so good i think
[<em>] Counselor Rec: He showed me what he wrote, it was really good
[</em>] Additional Rec: Portfolio manager from my last summer internship, it was good
[li] Interview: yes, it was very meh</p>[/li]
<p>[/ul]Other[ul]</p>

<p>[<em>] Intended Major(s): Economics + Statistics
[</em>] State (if domestic applicant): VA
[<em>] Country (if international applicant):
[</em>] School Type: Public
[<em>] Ethnicity: Asian
[</em>] Gender: Male
[<em>] Income bracket (if applicable): >250000
[</em>] Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): </p>

<p>[/ul]Reflection[ul]</p>

<p>[<em>] Strengths: Course Load
[</em>] Weaknesses: My grades/GPA could’ve been much higher
[<em>] Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: i was very clear in letting them know that if they took me off the waitlist, i will go for sure.
[</em>] Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected:
Accepted: UVA, UMich, NYU, Dartmouth, Duke (waitlisted first)
Rejected: Harvard, Yale, Columbia, UPenn</p>

<p>[/ul]General Comments:</p>

65

<p>Decision: Waitlisted</p>

<p>Objective:

  • [<em>] SAT I: Reading (780), Math (780), Writing (680) = 2240.
    [</em>] ACT: <not submitted="">
    [<em>] SAT II: Math II (800), Chemistry (790), U.S. History (750).
    [</em>] Unweighted GPA: 4.28/4.0.
    [<em>] Rank: <na>
    [</na></em>] AP: U.S. History (5), Chemistry (5), Calculus AB (5), Statistics (5), English Language and Composition (5).
    [<em>] IB: <na>
    [</na></em>] Senior Year Course Load: AP Physics C Mechanics, AP Government and Politics, AP Biology, AP English Literature and Composition, AP Calculus BC, Spanish IV, Teacher Assistant.
    [<em>] Major Awards: Third Place WV State Math Field Day.

Subjective:

  • [</em>] Extracurriculars: Student Government (Senior Class Secretary), Mu Alpha Theta Math Honor Society (President), National Honor Society (Vice President), Math Honorary Club, Science Bowl, Cross Country (3 Varsity letters), Track and Field (1 Varsity letter), MHS Frisbee Club (Founder and President), Community League Basketball (Captain), Community League Frisbee (Captain).
    [<em>] Job/Work Experience: <na>
    [</na></em>] Volunteer/Community service: Middle school tutoring, helping in a nursing home.
    [<em>] Summer Activities: Governor’s Honors Academy for 3 weeks in 2011, a smattering of one-week camps.
    [</em>] Essays: I took the essays very seriously.
    [<em>] Teacher Recommendations: ???
    [</em>] Counselor Rec: ???
    [<em>] Additional Rec: <na>
    [</na></em>] Interview: Yes.

Other

  • [<em>] State (if domestic applicant): West Virginia.
    [</em>] School Type: Public.
    [<em>] Ethnicity: White.
    [</em>] Gender: Male.
    [<em>] Income Bracket: $120 - 140k.
    [</em>] Hooks: Class Secretary, underrepresented region.

Reflection

  • [<em>] Strengths: Application essays.
    [</em>] Weaknesses: Music, foreign languages.
    [<em>] Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Low probability.
    [</em>] Where were you accepted: Brown, Olin, Tufts, Johns Hopkins, Vanderbilt, UVA (Honors), Virginia Tech (Honors), WVU.
    [<em>] Where were you waitlisted: Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, Duke, Lehigh.
    [</em>] Where were you rejected: Yale, Cornell, Penn.

General Comments:

[ul]
[<em>] I am pleased to be going to Brown University in the Fall of 2012.
[</em>] There seems to be quite a bit of randomness in the evaluation process at schools where the acceptance rates are very low.<br>
[li] I took all of the application essays very seriously because my lowest SAT score was in writing. Brown’s app was the one with the most essays which might be why Brown was the only Ivy (out of the seven that I applied to) that accepted me.[/li][/ul]</not></p>

66

<p>Accepted. On my phone and can’t really type it all out.</p>

67

<p>Decision: Accepted</p>

<p>Trinity College of Arts and Sciences</p>

<p>[li]SAT I (breakdown): 2300 (800 CR, 790 W, 710 M)</p>[/li]
<p>[li] SAT II: 760 English Lit, 780 Math II</p>[/li]
<p>[li] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): N/A</p>[/li]
<p>[li] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1/approx 200</p>[/li]
<p>[li] AP (place score in parenthesis): N/A</p>[/li]
<p>[li] IB (place score in parenthesis):N/A</p>[/li]
<p>[li] Senior Year Course Load:Tough (Indian CBSE Board)</p>[/li]
<p>[/list]Subjective:[ul]</p>

<p>[<em>] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Been Head of School Council all four years of HS, state/national level swimmer, won lots of state/national level debates, elocutions, Science talks, etc.
[</em>] Job/Work Experience: Intern with Times of India
[<em>] Volunteer/Community service: Organized and headed community service events in school, teacher-volunteer with an NGO that teaches slum-kids.
[</em>] Summer Activities:Nothing special, the internship, volunteering and swimming.
[<em>] Essays: Can’t really say for sure, but my Duke essay and commonapp essays were really good in my opinion. I’m a pretty strong writer.
[</em>] Teacher Recommendation: Excellent
[<em>] Counselor Rec: Excellent
[</em>] Additional Rec: Excellent. From a close friend and senior; it was very well-written and portrayed me very positively.
[li] Interview:Nope.</p>[/li]
<p>[/ul]Other[ul]</p>

<p>[<em>] Intended Major(s): English/Sociology/Political Science (not sure)
[</em>] State (if domestic applicant):
[<em>] Country (if international applicant):India
[</em>] School Type:Private
[<em>] Ethnicity:Indian
[</em>] Gender:Female
[<em>] Income bracket (if applicable): I didn’t apply for aid.
[</em>] Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.):No very special hooks, really. </p>

<p>[/ul]Reflection[ul]</p>

<p>[<em>] Strengths:Consistently high academic performance and rank. Pretty well-rounded applicant, I guess. Essays *might</em> have set me apart.
[<em>] Weaknesses: ECs aren’t out-of-the-world, unlike most Duke applicants.
[</em>] Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected:Strengths.
[li] Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected:Received only 3 decisions as of now, UCLA, UNC Chapel Hill and Duke and accepted to all 3. Ivies and others come out tonight, so expecting a bunch of rejections.</p>[/li]
<p>[/ul]General Comments:
I was VERY surprised that I got in. Hadn’t expected it at all. But I’m very happy, Duke is one of my dream schools! :slight_smile: Might attend.
For future applicants : Work hard on essays, and make them original and honest. I think that’s what worked in my favour.</p>

68

<p>Okay, this is SO embarrassing, but I am a 2017 admit and I accidentally posted here :confused: VEry sorry.</p>

69

Decision: Accepted

School/major:
Trinity
Neuroscience

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): didn’t take
ACT (breakdown): 34 (33 E, 34 M, 34 S, 34 R)
SAT II (place score in parentheses): 730 US Hist and 770 Bio M
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1/542
AP (place score in parentheses): APES (5) , Chem (3) , Bio (3), Physics 1 (4), Human Geo (3), Euro (3), World (4), APUSH(3), Psych (5), Lang and Comp (4)
IB (place score in parentheses): NA
Senior Year Course Load: AP Calc AB and BC, AP stats, AP Lit, AP Comp Sci, AP Macro, Anatomy and Phys with Lab DE, Physics 2 algebra based DE, honors gov
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): AP Scholar with distinction, TSA top 10 in nation and 2nd place at states
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parentheses): a bunch of school clubs with no leadership, started an anti-discrimination club at school, 3 years Varsity soccer and track, teen educator on sex and drug abuse
Job/Work Experience:
Volunteer/Community Service: counselor at camp for special needs camp; camp is residential so we assist with everything (feeding, diapers, showering, etc.) changed my life, wrote an essay on it, 10/10 would recommend; 1000+ community service hours
Summer Activities: camp mentioned above as well as college soccer clinics
Essays: common app essays were pretty good; very unique Why Duke and Community Essay (wrote community one on how I wear birkenstocks and socks to school and flowery shirts on Tropical Tuesdays as a part of my social senioritis stunt)
Teacher Recommendations: one was amazing, I didn’t read it but it was more than 3 pages long; other was alright I’m sure it was pretty generic though
Counselor Rec: AMAZING my counselor is such a babe
Interview: Didn’t have one
Other:
State (if domestic applicant): FL
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: large public
Ethnicity: white
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: $200k+
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): none
Reflection:
Strengths: community service, course load, essays, unique experiences
Weaknesses: subject test and AP scores
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected:
Accepted: U Miami, Tulane, UF
Waitlisted: Johns Hopkins
Rejected: Stanford
Waiting on: Brown, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale
General Comments/Advice/Hindsight: Was not expecting to get in at all especially after that heartbreaking waitlist from JHU. College admissions is a crap shoot, good luck fam and GO BLUE DEVILS!!!
***advice to those looking to apply to college next year: don’t EVER do an activity or join a club just for a college application; do something you’re passionate about and you will succeed! try something new and different that you’ve never considered doing in the past! high school is your time to explore yourself and your interests in the safety of your parents’ nest

70

Decision: Accepted!!!

Objective:

SAT I: 
ACT: 29 - yep you read that right
SAT II: 
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.8
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): top 10%
AP (place score in parenthesis): Took all the AP classes my school offered, which were limited
IB (place score in parenthesis): n/a
Senior Year Course Load: All advanced classes available
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):

Subjective:

Extracurriculars: National Honor society, tutor middle schoolers, travel around the world (connected to hook), speak several languages, several Varsity sports, competitive boxer
Job/Work Experience: lifeguard
Volunteer/Community service: Volunteer for inner-city charity and hospital
Essays: All were pretty solid. They were pretty personal and reflective.
Teacher Recommendations: Two were 9/10, one I didn't read
Counselor Rec: I didn't read it but would guess it's around 7/10.
Additional Rec:
Interview: n/a

Other

State (if domestic applicant): NYC
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: public
Ethnicity: multiracial
Gender: f
Income Bracket: average
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.):

URM, very interesting background/hook , legacy
Reflection

Strengths: hooks
Weaknesses: test scores
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Thankfully Duke has a very holistic approach to admissions and I think my hooks were able to outweigh my embarrassingly low test scores
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected:

Accepted: Fordham, Middlebury, UCLA, Northwestern, JHU
Deferred: Harvard EA
General Comments: TEST SCORES DO NOT DEFINE YOU!!! I remember being so depressed after getting my ACT results back and thinking I would have to go to a state school (although they are still a great option) even though I had set my heart on attending a school like Duke or Brown. I never in a million years thought I would get into Duke but if you can demonstrate your love for a college and your passion for life through your essays, the admissions officers will be sure to feel it. Schools just want to see that you’ve been trying your hardest and making the most of what you’ve got. No matter where you go, you’ll be sure to find the best in it! Congrats and good luck to everyone!!