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Romanian · 04-29-2008, 12:57 AM

Hey all,

Recently, I've been getting into crunch-time for colleges. ED will be due in 5 months or so for me. I'm pleased to say that Duke still stands as my #1 choice of school. But I've been thinking a lot about things lately, and been observing my competition. Today my friend found out that he got into SSP or some other program, in which 9/10 kids who do that program and apply to Harvard/Stanford/Yale/MIT are accepted. You can imagine how this feels, to know that a friend of yours is hauling ass while all you have is some research position at OHSU and some classes at a community college for the summer.

This isn't quite a "chance me", but more of a "do I stand any chance at all" type thread. It seems to me that competition is getting a hell of a lot harder, and being above-average just isn't good enough. What do most people who get into Duke have for ECs? So far I've got a one year engineering position at Intel, coming up I have a one year biomedical position at OHSU, and I've got athletics/speech-debate/science-club-thing/piano/communitycollege. This doesn't seem like it'd give me a chance against people who have done ISEF three years in a row and participate in prestigious programs over the summer.

I'm wondering if it would be worth applying ED to Duke? The only out-standing thing I can see going for my is legacy through my sister. The acceptance is ~33% for ED (I plan to apply to Pratt; biomedical engineering all the way

), but realistically speaking, what would you need to get in?

Thanks in advance from a worrisome kid.

04-29-2008, 12:57 AM	#1
Romanian Junior Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Threads: 9 Posts: 36	Is it worth applying? Hey all, Recently, I've been getting into crunch-time for colleges. ED will be due in 5 months or so for me. I'm pleased to say that Duke still stands as my #1 choice of school. But I've been thinking a lot about things lately, and been observing my competition. Today my friend found out that he got into SSP or some other program, in which 9/10 kids who do that program and apply to Harvard/Stanford/Yale/MIT are accepted. You can imagine how this feels, to know that a friend of yours is hauling ass while all you have is some research position at OHSU and some classes at a community college for the summer. This isn't quite a "chance me", but more of a "do I stand any chance at all" type thread. It seems to me that competition is getting a hell of a lot harder, and being above-average just isn't good enough. What do most people who get into Duke have for ECs? So far I've got a one year engineering position at Intel, coming up I have a one year biomedical position at OHSU, and I've got athletics/speech-debate/science-club-thing/piano/communitycollege. This doesn't seem like it'd give me a chance against people who have done ISEF three years in a row and participate in prestigious programs over the summer. I'm wondering if it would be worth applying ED to Duke? The only out-standing thing I can see going for my is legacy through my sister. The acceptance is ~33% for ED (I plan to apply to Pratt; biomedical engineering all the way ), but realistically speaking, what would you need to get in? Thanks in advance from a worrisome kid.