please....im freaking out!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Duke University
1

<p>hey! so im applying regular decision to engineering.</p>

<p>what do you think my chances are?</p>

<p>PSAT-225 (National Merit Finalist)</p>

<p>SAT Math-800</p>

<p>SAT Reading-730 </p>

<p>SAT Writing-770 (10 essay) </p>

<p>Total: 2300</p>

<p>SAT II Biology-740 freshmen year </p>

<p>SAT II Chemistry-670 sophomore year </p>

<p>SAT II American History-740 junior year </p>

<p>SAT II Math IIC-800 senior year</p>

<p>AP World History-4 (10th grade--AP World History was not offered at my school but I took the exam anyway)</p>

<p>AP American History-5 </p>

<p>AP Government-5 </p>

<p>AP English-4 (I did not take AP English but took the exam anyway) </p>

<p>GPA 7.8/8 or a 4.3/4 (weighted) my school has a wierd gpa scale. a 96 is not an A+ but a 85 is a B+....so i think its really unfair cuz ive gotten alot of 96's but they only show up as As on my transcript grr</p>

<p>No grade below an A on entire transcript (almost all honors/ap, except when not offered)</p>

<p>Only 2 other students have made straight As at my school (one got in early to yale)</p>

<p>Top 5% of class </p>

<p>My school does not rank, but i think for the top 10 they will tell the school (and im 4th i think)</p>

<p>Private school in a major Texan city</p>

<p>Taken the highest level classes offered except in English </p>

<p>My EC's are definitely my weakest part of my app. I have pretty basic things, a couple leadership positions in clubs, honors societies, a lot of volunteering for the political campaigns.</p>

<p>My family is relatively low income and both of my parents work (this has been restricting in the extra-curricular activity area because I have had to watch my brother after school most days). </p>

<p>Some national spanish exam awards, Bausch and Lomb science award.</p>

<p>My letters of recommendation will be very good, especially from my physics teacher (ive done extremely well in his class--considered the hardest class in my school). I also had my APUSH teacher write one, and my spanish teacher.</p>

<p>one essay about the 60s and how i admire it and it reflects alot about me..kinda interesting.
one essay about why i wanna do biomedical engineering.</p>

<p>sooooo what do ya think? think i have a shot? thanks!</p>

2

<p>I think you have a chance. Does your application reflect the fact that you were having to take care of your brother? Your EC's are weak, but for a good reason.
Wed. is the day! Good luck to you!</p>

3

<p>i have a few more ECs than i listed there..i didnt feel like typing all of them, and i knew everyone would say they were weak anyway. but yeah i talked about it in the extra info section. thanks!</p>

<p>basically, do i have a chance with only decent/weak ECs?</p>

4

<p>I believe you have an great chance in Engineering. I believe they are expanding the engineering class and applications are down (due to the LAX publicity). Not sure of sex, but Female would have a further advantage. Post in a few days to let us know how you did!</p>

5

<p>forgot to add that - Duke is one of the few schools where engineering makes its own admission decisions.</p>

6

<p>oh..im a girl. thanks!</p>

7

<p>It wont let me edit it, but this might also help.</p>

<p>i was admitted with a likely letter to vanderbilt engineering ($20,000 scholarship)
and i got a likely letter from cornell engineering.
waitlisted at Wash U engineering...suprised by this.</p>

8

<p>No worries, WashU waitlisted tons of "overqualified" applicants this year. If you can get likelies from Vandy/Cornell, you have a really good shot at Duke, too.</p>

9

<p>Actually, I think the # of applications to Duke is around the same (if not more) than last year..</p>

<p>However, I think your chances at Pratt are pretty good! </p>

<p>Good luck this Wednesday!</p>

10

<p>I don't have any sort of expertise or qualification to back up my statement, but based on your likely letter for acceptance to Cornell's engineering department and the strength of that program, I'd say you have a good shot. Also, I met a bunch of the Pratt kids during a recent visit to Duke, and they had equitable stats, as far as I could gather.</p>

11

<p>according to the Duke Chronicle - early decision applications were down 20%, Regular decsion applications down a little over 3%, while most other top schools are seeing the number of their applications rise a lot. MIT up 9% for example. My point was only to encourage emilyequalsfun about her chances. Personally I love Duke and think people not applying due to the media explosure over the LAX matter is nuts.</p>

12

<p>^Yale's applications dropped by 10% and I don't think they had a LAX scandal lol</p>

13

<p>I did not know that about Yale - thanks for pointing that out. Do you have a sese for why that is?</p>

<p>I suspect you still would agree with my statement that most other top schools are seeing their applications rise this year. All driven by 1) The boomlet of more graduating Seniors, 2) More HS seniors are going to college, and 3) the continued expansion of the common app making it easier for each student to send more apps. My speculation is the extra apps per student in general, go to stretch schools - just to see if they can get in.</p>

14

<p>Yale's drop was due to the number, "8.9"...</p>

15

<p>I know....that was SO INSANE!!!! I'm so nervous about tomorrow and Thursday now...gah</p>