jville

I'm an Asian female and a junior (class of 2013) at an average public high school in the midwest. I'm applying here RD, which I know is kind of a long shot...

Academics:
4.65 (w), 3.75 (uw) GPA; (all A's except for 3 B's in Hon. Physics, AP Chem, and AP Calc BC)
All honors or AP classes with the most rigorous course load possible at my school, I've actually taken some classes a year early
About top 2-3% of my class
ACT composite score of 34; E: 35, M: 34, R: 33, S: 33, writing: 8 (I'm taking it again so hopefully my composite and writing scores will increase)
I'm taking the SAT II in October in Math 2 and English Lit and hopefully my scores will be 700+
I'm definitely going to be at least a National Merit Commended Scholar and possibly a Semi-Finalist

Extracurriculars:
Yearbook junior and senior years; copy editor senior year
National Honor Society vice-president senior year
Spanish Honors Society committee member senior year
Local volunteer organization sophomore, junior, and senior years; on the council junior and senior years
Science Olympiad team sophomore, junior, and senior years; vice-president junior and senior years
Math team for 4 years
Student Council sophomore and junior years
Local law-oriented club for freshman and sophomore years

I've volunteered for 250+ hours total throughout high school, mostly in my community. I also volunteered at a local university's science lab for about 50 hours last summer and volunteered about 50 hours teaching English overseas 2 summers ago.

Awards:
Regional Science Olympiad competition: (sophomore year) 1st place in forensics and astronomy; (junior year) 1st place in forensics, 2nd in water quality, 3rd in microbe mission)
School award for leadership
Made it to State for Math Team every year
Cornell Book Club (I don't know if this really helps or not...)

Thanks for the help!! I'll chance you back if you want, too!

MW2isawesome

Overall profile is very solid, being Asian probably hurts a little bit and the UW GPA is a tad bit on the low side though. There's really no reason to retake a 34 ACT in my opinion.

Extracurriculars and awards are good/impressive. I'd say you'd have excellent chances if you were going to apply ED but, since RD is a crapshoot, I could see it going either way. A low reach or high match on the whole.

jville

I actually mistyped my UW GPA; it;s a 3.85, not 3.65, so hopefully that'll help. And yeah, Duke's RD is really unpredictable, which is why I'm worried about it. Thanks so much for your help!

LDdebate

Very solid, all around good candidate. Where in the Midwest are you? I can tell you your odds based on some trends in certain states.

jville

I live in rural Illinois. Do you think it makes a difference, that I don't live in Chicago but somewhere else in the state?

LDdebate

I'm not sure because Illinois is a tough state to be honest. Something like North Dakota or Iowa would have helped you a bit more. You are competing with the powerhouse schools of Glenbrook North and South, which chug out Duke, Ivy's, etc on almost every student. (My roommate at Duke is actually from Glenbrook lol)

jville

Yeah, it's definitely really hard to compete with those schools. Thanks for you help!