Has anyone gotten into Duke? It is my top school rn and I really want to get in (in junior year right now).
-My GPA: 5.1 (around there)
Does anybody have any good extracirculars that I should do or any other advice? Even if it is something small it will help, thank you:)
be a McDonald’s All-American in basketball?
sorry, bored for now…
I don’t think anyone can give you tips unique to Duke. Duke is a high reach for everyone. You just have to do your best on the application. Make sure you answer every question, have someone proofread your essays, get the application in on time, apply ED if you can. Same advice for all colleges.
That said, you SAT is is the lowest quartile of enrolled students for Class of 2022. The middle 50% is 1490-1560. Are you taking it again to try to improve your score?
Make sure you apply widely to a variety of colleges.
GPA 5.1 out of what?
@brantly okay thank you, and I will be taking it again.
@TomSrOfBoston
5.5
However, school is still not done for me so my updated junior year GPA is not released yet but as of right now I have a 5.1
Community Service never hurts. Maybe the SAT can be low. I’m not sure. There are general tips for being prepared for these good colleges, but nobody really has the magic sauce - which is why I turned less to “impressment” and more to “being me”.
@StudyBright I once heard a talk by Duke dean of admissions Christoph Guttentag. He says the biggest mistake applicants can make is to do ECs because they think it will help them get accepted. That’s NOT what they want. Do the things that interest you apart from school and write them up as ECs. If you think you have what it takes to takes to attend a top school, then give them that “you”, not some over-worked facsimile.
I agree with @damon30. I got into Duke this year (2023), and judging from what my AO wrote to me and what I’ve heard from other AOs is that they like people who make a positive impact on their community and really pursue their interests wholeheartedly, whatever they are. Definitely apply ED if Duke is your first choice. If finances don’t work out in the end, there are possible ways for you to back out of an ED agreement. They’re usually sufficient with financial aid though. Your SAT score is a bit on the lower end. Is your research something you’re passionate about? If so, stress that in your application. You can look for more ways to expand your interest into other areas. I suggest you look into those Duke results threads to see the specific stats of past applicants and their outcomes. You’ll find that it’s very hard to predict who gets in and who doesn’t.
I was surprised when my S16 was accepted RD. He had strong stats, but was waitlisted (also RD) to all of the other top schools. Duke was the one I thought he’d get rejected from since they talked so much about diversity at their info session. And my S didn’t even answer the optional essay that focused on minorities/diversity. I don’t remember the question exactly. He tried to write one about being a minority at his school, but it didn’t come across well, so he left that one blank. I guess optional does mean optional.
However, it wound not being affordable for us. Run the NPC and check your EFC. Their package did match our EFC, however what the government thinks we can pay and what I think we can pay are not the same.