<p>Gpa: 3.85 on the rise, should be 3.89by the graduation
Rank: N/A
Elite top 100 public school known for scholars
State: MN
Gender: Male
Race: white
Act: 35C, 34E, 36M, 36R, 34S
AP: Euro 4, stats 4, us history not taken, am lit not taken
Senior load:
AP: Econ, Bio, calc bc
Art of film, concert band, Spanish 5
Recs: none yet, but I'm in tight with my counselor and several teachers so fingers crossed
Ecs: 4 years football (2 letters, 2 year starter)
3 years basketball
Community service letter (3 letters by grad)
4 years of being a church leader for middle schoolers
Several mission trips
240 hours of comm service by graduation
3 years of student leadership team
3 summers umping little leaguers</p>
<p>I think I'm a strong candidate but does anyone have any suggestions for my future? What am I missing?</p>
<p>I think that you would get in ED. Obviously that is speculation on my part, but your ACT is great and you have other extracurriculars and all. Visit and if you love it consider applying ED. I remember visiting and really falling in love with the school and I applied ED and ended up getting accepted.</p>
<p>Thanks! ED has an advantage because they take into consideration that you like Duke and that it’s your first choice. The ED acceptance rate is in the mid to high 20%s (24.5% this year, ~28% last year I think) while RD is around 10%. Based on those stats your chances would be diminished a bit if you applied RD, but you would still be a competitive applicant if you did.</p>
<p>Ahh ok good to know!! Duke is like 4th on my list and I’m applying there in case I don’t get into BC, Notre Dame, Gtown, and somehow get into duke instead…</p>
<p>Frankly, I think there’s <1% chance of you getting rejected from BC, Notre Dame, AND Georgetown, and getting accepted to Duke all at the same time. If you’d rather choose those three schools over Duke, I don’t see much incentive to apply to Duke…but I guess doesn’t hurt or require any more effort except for the application fee/interview. And your opinion of what school you actually want to go to could end up changing between now and your acceptances next year. (I’m not saying those schools are easy to get into or safeties for you, by the way. Simply that they are less selective and thus the chances of you getting rejected from all three and getting into a school like Duke that is much more selective than say, BC, is very small.) I think your chances are solid. Good luck.</p>
<p>You’d definitely have high chances for Duke ED and would have a fair chance at RD although not nearly as secure. Like others have said, Duke is more competitive on a whole and probs. academically better ranked for what you want to study (depending on which area you plan to study) than your top choices. Absorb everything you can on your campus visit, it could easily change your mind on the whole college situation. Good luck, keep up the ECs (get some leadership if you don’t have any) and bump that GPA up as much as you can.</p>
<p>Don’t apply ED, it’s very stupid to have to commit to a school so early unless you absolutely know you want to attend (it doesn’t sound like you do). Applying ED just to make it easier to get in is not a good reason. I think you are an extremely strong applicant for RD anyways, you will probably get in. Being a multi-disciplined varsity athlete (even if you won’t be playing for the school) is actually a huge plus at top caliber schools like Duke, IF you have the grades and test scores of everyone else (you do). They prefer a 35 ACT 3.9 really involved athlete to a 35 ACT 3.9 really involved in clubs simply because they are rarer at that level of academic caliber.</p>