<p>Hi everyone,
I'm a senior in a high school located in the burbs of chicago. I was hoping some of you could let me know what my chances at duke RD were.
GPA (the main drawback) 3.0 UW
Very rigorous courses (all APs and Honors)
Upward trend in grades (from 2.5 fresh and soph to 4.2 Junior year and 4.6 senior)
32 ACT
Good extracirrics (250+ hours volunteering at a VA hospital, South Asian Student Association, Scholastic bowl captain, Varsity tennis)
Good Work experiences (T-mobile Cell Phone salesman, Junior Technician at a cosmetics company, and CNA at a doctors office)
I've done some research on how different ethnicities have stronger hair
I had all my teachers and friends tell me my essays were amazing</p>
<p>BUT the main drawback is my grades. 3.0 in a subpar high school. My class rank is 300 out of 612.
Please be open and honest. I honestly don't expect anyone saying "oh you'll get in"
Thank You!</p>
<p>my ECs: 250 hours of volunteering at a veterans hospital, member of SASA, captain of scholastic bowl team, and varsity tennis
I have some good work experiences too that i listed above
and as far as essays go i thought they were good but my friends and teachers thought they were amazing</p>
<p>That’s good about the essays, but you may be missing some leadership. Your work experience is good. I’m assuming your Asian right? If so, orm status will hurt you some, so will being out of state. I don’t know if you’ll get in, but you are competitive. Make sure your essays blow them away, and I think you have a very good shot. Best of luck, class of '15!</p>
<p>With a 3.0 UW there is little to no chance you will get in. Sorry, but its the truth. Everything else you have is good, but not outstanding, and that GPA/Class Rank will kill you.</p>
<p>^ admissions are wholistic. It may seem like he has no shot, but if he can explain why his gpa is the way it is, as I did with mine, he will have a really good shot.</p>
<p>@doberhound
Did you get in? if so what was your gpa?</p>
<p>Any tips on how I can explain why my gpa is low?
I’m thinking of getting 2 additional letters of recs from the doctor who I worked with over the summer and my supervisor from when I helped him in research. Do any of you think that will help?</p>
<p>I strongly agree with NCBoy1 that the OP has little to no chance of acceptance with that GPA (sorry but it’s true). 97% of Duke’s class are in the top quarter of their high school classes and since the OP is barely in the top half, making chances all the more slim. It’s likely that the 3% not in the top quarter are recruited athletes or those with “connections”.</p>
<p>Duke is only going to accept something like 12% of RD applicants and the fact of the matter is that there are thousands of applicants with better EC’s AND near perfect grades. Sorry if I sound harsh but I’m just being realistic.</p>
<p>hey i appreciate the honesty. i know my chances are slim, but i’m hoping some of you can enlighten me on how to make those chances a little better?</p>
<p>@ brownboy, I didn’t apply Ed because “binding” scared me. I have like a 3.5-3.6 uw gpa and a 4.07 w gpa (ap = 6 and honors = 5). Apparently my class is very stupid because I am on the cusp of the top 5% of my class (weighted is used). I added in my why duke essay a little bit about this. I used humor, and talked about how my freshman year is what really drags me down because I didn’t care about school. I wanted to be a rockstar. My other common app school (harvard) had a section for additional information in there. My advice is to be completely honest. If there is an upward trend, it will look a lot better. Everyone gets so wrapped up in numbers, but the fact is that they don’t matter as much as everyone thinks. Many top schools (I think duke does this) check to see if your academically qualified, then comb your essays, recs, and ecs for specific reasons to admit you. If you can explain the bad freshman year, it won’t hurt you as much as you think. Best of luck.</p>
<p>^ wait, uw you gpa (avaraged all 3 years) should be ~3.77. Which is a lot better. With that improvement you class rank would also probably be minimally top 25%, but probobly top 10%. Talk to your guidance dept. That could save your application.</p>
<p>Haha, only one more. Only get the recs if they will show a different side of you. Admissions officers will read them either way, but may be ****ed if the letters say the same thing.</p>
<p>This is an exceptionally hard year to be a RD applicant to any college, especially Duke. They filled 38% of their class with ED, leaving a bit over 1,000 slots left for 27,000+ RD applicants. Its going to be tough, and they won’t accept as much because they will have a higher yield this year, but you still have a shot. Good luck, hope to see you on campus this fall.</p>