Pratt vs. Trinity

Colleges and Universities A-Z Duke University
1

Hello all,

After heavy research, I discovered my dream school is Duke University. My question to you all is if I should apply to Pratt or to Trinity? In other words, which picked school would my application fit in with more? Biomedical Engineering is the goal, but I feel I’m not qualified enough and I’m also interested in medicine, so it’s not the end of the world if Trinity. I plan on applying Early Decision. Thanks for the help!

Major: Biomedical Engineering / Neuroscience / Biology
State: Ohio
School: Very Competitive Public
Ethnicity: African American
Gender: XY
Class: Junior currently
GPA: 3.97 W and 3.6 UW (Yikes)
PSAT: 1420/1520, track to be commended
ACT: N/A hopefully 30+
Subject test: Math 2 - 700 (retaking, took in 10th grade), US History - 720
AP: AP US History (4)
Awards: Honor roll, Scholar athlete, academic medallion, Salute to Excellence

Freshie

Honors Algebra 2 - A
Honors English 9 - B
Physical Science - A
World History - A
Spanish 2 - A
Electives - A

Sophomore

Honors Pre Calc - A
Honors Bio - A
Honors Chemistry - A
Honors English 11 - B
Spanish 3 - B
AP US History - B
Electives - A

Junior

AP Calc BC - B
AP Physics 1 - B
AP Economics - A
AP English 11 - B
Spanish IV - A
Electives- A

Senior

AP Statistics
AP Biology
AP Chemistry
AP Spanish
AP English 12

As one can tell, my GPA is on the lower end.

EC:

In school

Basketball - lettered sophomore year, won division 1 districts, really big part of my life, takes up LOTS of time
Track - lettered sophomore year, won division 1 districts, takes up LOTS of time
African American Culture Club - Co founder and Vice President,
Diversity Acceptance Program - Vice president,
Youth For Christ - Vice President,
LabLink - research club
Selected freshmen mentor
S.P.L.A.S.H - Selective program for leaders within my school

Out of School

Partner at Be The Change Venture - diversity and inclusion movement within Cleveland
Junior Ambassadors - Volunteered 109 hours at Cleveland Clinic main campus in the summer
Research Assistant - Assisted post doc at Case Western Reserve’s biomedical engineering lab
Student Board for DifferentLikeYou.com - summer internship at non profit - website for kids with disabilities
Interned at Artificial Intelligence Laboratories - Interned at firm based in San Francisco
Council Member at the City Club of Cleveland - year round
Food bank - Volunteering
Ron Brown GPS Program
Started my own lawn care company 2 summers ago

(PLAN ON PARTICIPATING IN STEM RELATED CAMPS OVER SUMMER)
Thanks guys & gals :smiley:

2

@JLBball5, you have a lot going for you. As you know, your GPA is a bit low. This will probably hurt school ranking as well. Shoot for a good ACT score to compensate. CractACT.com has a lot of practice questions. Your PSAT score shows you can do well.

Hard to say if Pratt vs Trinity is best for you but I assume most pre-meds are in Trinity though.

Any chance you could be a recruited athlete for track?

Apply to a variety of schools to boost your chances. ED will increase odds at Duke.

3

Hard to tell without test scores. 700 on Math2 is (to be blunt) pretty bad for an applicant to Pratt. That is 56th percentile of those that took the exam. You should really aim for 760+ (that puts you at 76th percentile, which still isn’t’ THAT impressive). URM status helps though, particularly as an applicant to Pratt, but won’t make up for lackluster scores completely. I think your GPA is fine except the Bs in AP Calc and AP Physics don’t look great, but aren’t deal-breakers. Most of your B’s are in English/History, which shouldn’t be as big of a deal as an engineering/science major. From that perspective, your application is a better fit for Pratt, BUT Pratt also relies more on objectives stats supposedly than Trinity and if your test scores fall short there, then Trinity may be “easier” to get into. You definitely have a decent chance. Good luck!

4

@HYPSPlease @bluedog Thank you both for replying! So the moral of the story is to try to increase my test scores as much as possible?

5

bump

6

Once again I agree with @bluedog. Pratt places more emphasis on grades/scores than Trinity. So your chances are probably a bit better. Also keep in mind that BME is one of the most popular majors at Duke, so you’ll be competing with many top notch kids who are also applying.

Note that if medical school is your ultimate goal, then consider that your GPA will be somewhat deflated compared to non-engineering majors. Med schools place a high emphasis on GPA and MCAT scores.

Good luck

7

You are super qualified for both! Very impressive student in every aspect. Each of the schools are lucky to have an applicant like you. I would say to apply to Pratt because you are more qualified. Good luck and Go Blue Devils!!!