Before the inevitable conflict surrounding a letter of admission appeal, let me explain. I understand that a letter of appeals rarely works, but I want to write this letter. I feel that if I do not take this chance, I will end up regretting it. ( I have nothing to lose as well) That being said, here is my story.
I applied to Duke, had a great interview and felt passionate about the program. I was sad that I didn’t get it, not heartbroken, but I felt that I should try my hardest. I know that appeals processes NEVER work (or work for less than 1% of the time) but I want to try to express my interest to the admissions committee. I have a couple of questions,
Would the school tell my guidance counselor and college that I wrote a letter (I wouldn’t write a letter like that story)
Would anyone be willing to read it?
Again, I realize that this is problem not ideal, but I feel that I would regret.
Thanks
It doesn’t much matter whether you write it or not. If you weren’t even waitlisted, it isn’t going to get you in. I doubt your GC will hear, nor your current college. Send it if it makes you feel better, though.
^ This
Process is
Step 1) Write an appeal letter pouring your heart out explaining why you need to be admitted.
Step 2) Wait
Step 3) After 70 or so years of waiting you are dead and the appeal is moot.
Duke has an acceptance rate of under 10%. No matter how great your interview was, no matter how much you liked the program you didn’t get in. You have similar posts about writing an appeal of a rejection to Cornell. Both will be a waste of your time, but if you want to do it nobody here will stop you.
The far better course of action would be to start looking forward and getting excited about the college which accepted you and where you will be attending college and to stop looking in the rear-view window at two colleges where you were rejected.
The fact that you want to appeal your Cornell decision as well tells me that you’re just looking to get into a “prestigious” college. You don’t have a specific reason for why you think you’d be a great fit at Duke.
What you do at university matters more than where you go. Just excel at the college that accepted you. Good luck.
If you’re thinking about bothering to do this, putting work into it, posting here for advice, that tells me that deep in your heart you think there’s a tiny chance of success. What are your grounds for this belief?
So let’s think about this. What could you possibly tell them that they don’t already know AND that would be so huge, so incredible, so mindblowing that they would reverse their decision, skip over the presumably hundreds of people they chose to waitlist and offer you a spot?
In the last two months, have you won a Nobel prize? Published a best seller to great critical acclaim? Brought the Israelis and the Palestinians to the table and negotiated lasting peace in the Mideast? No? Then what are you going to say to them? That you really, really, really like their school and thought you had an excellent interview? I’m sure your UN internship is very impressive and will no doubt enhance a transfer application. But I’ve never even heard of a school like Duke or Cornell reversing a decision to reject. Do you have any first hand evidence that either of these schools has ever done such a thing?
Look at it from their point of view. They just spent months working very hard to decide which excellent applicants they were going to accept, which they were going to waitlist and which they were going to reject. They’d have to be lunatics to start treating those rejections as anything but absolutely final. And yes, if they accepted one appeal, reversed one rejection, word would get out and they’d be inundated with appeals.
Unless you have something new to tell them that will make the Dean of Admissions weep with regret that they rejected you, I strongly urge you to take happy1’s advice to start getting excited about the school you are going to.
Unfortunately, the application and supp are like a snapshot- you do the best you can at the time and hope for the best. Later, not even winning a Nobel Prize turns around a denial (that wouldn’t be a guarantee, anyway, even during the regular decision cycle.) The only time you can add someting to your picture is when you’re on the wait list. Other than that, in effect, your file is closed. Sorry.
^ I’m sure that winning a Nobel Prize would turn around a denial 
No, you don’t know. It’s holistic and complicated- and I’m sorry for OP but see he/she is trying to be realistic.
@JenniferClint Per multiple articles Stanford would not accept Malala unless she took the SATs so even a Nobel is not a guarantee of admission to a top college. I agree with @lookingforward – it is time for the OP to be realistic.
Also FWIW the OP hasn’t been back since the day this was posted.
@happy1 That’s interesting. I wonder if it would be different if she had won a science Nobel or a Fields Medal at the age of 17 (virtually impossible and completely unprecedented).
I know that Princeton made an exception for Dick Feynman even though he failed the History and English portions of the graduate entrance exam.
Duke made the mistake of expelling George Church (one of the pioneers of CRISPR) from its PhD program because he failed to pass his courses (he was spending too much time in the lab).
Michigan admitted Stephen Smale to its math PhD program even though he had a checkered undergraduate record and he went on to win a Fields Medal.
It appears as though graduate schools are more tolerant of eccentric geniuses.
@JenniferClint In any event I don’t think the OP has any of those achievements. (I don’t think the OP’s improved senior year grades or internship would change an admissions decision that has been made).
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
Graduate and undergraduate admissions are 2 different beasts. Regardless, let’s move on from anecdotes from people who were accepted on appeal or hypotheticals of people who could be admitted on appeal. Per the forum rules: