Sorry to disappoint you, but Bluebayou is absolutely correct to state that this an award given to a … graduating high school student. There are no ways around it and no semantics will help. It is a college scholarship “earned” in high school is just that : A HIGH SCHOOL award.
Nope. The award is given to the best incoming freshmen who happen to apply to Duke.
I think calling a member such as Bluebayou “ignorant” is skating on thin ice in terms of the rules of this forum. Not to mention that it would belie a lifetime of helpful and extremely accurate posting.
As far as accepting the AB award and attending Duke, there are few people who will advocate a different path. The AB is both generous and prestigious. Yet, it does become an automatic proxy for a number of conclusions presented here, and especially regarding the judgment of the 2/3 of the students who did not accepted it and followed a better path for their objectives, or any other silly “calibration” of schools.
I’m sorry but I have no respect for @bluebayou giving unfounded opinions as fact about what professional and graduate schools value when he actually has no basis for these opinions. His dismissal of the A.B. Duke scholarship as worthless, even though he demonstrates his total ignorance (of the scholarship), is indicative of the the reliability of his opinion. BB stated that grad schools would not give one “iota” about whether a student had an A.B.Duke scholarship, and then goes on to spout off his/her usual refrain that law schools only care about LSATs and GPA, a minority view that he constantly palms off on unsuspecting CC readers as accepted truth. His schtick, of which I am well-read on, led me to conclude long ago that he is the antithesis of “helpful and extremely accurate posting.”
And what is this that YOU do? Again, your attitude speaks volumes about graduates or fans of Duke. Why should we think that your opinions are more valid than others?
I love it when the Senior Members of CC circle the wagons and protect their own! I went to Duke for professional school, but I’m no Duke fanboy. (If you read back, I was NOT one of the people that denigrated WUSTL or Rice. And absent the AB Duke scholarship I wouldn’t recommend Duke over Stanford to the OP.) I did pick a fight with bluebayou because he stated with no support whatsoever-- except that is “illogical”–that graduate and professional schools “don’t care one iota” about the AB Duke Scholarship because it is a “high school level” award.
This thread has gotten off track in its discussion of the AB Duke and how it impacts employment or whatever. Read back to the OP and keep it on point. @jzuss8, if you feel your question has been answered and/or you have made your decision, let me know and I will close this thread. If you want to get more opinions, that is fine as well.
My kid turned down a few Ivies for a full ride at Duke. Another school that offered a full ride was U Chicago. So while Duke is a highly ranked school offering full rides to few, it is not by any means the only one, as we have learned (and been shocked by it). I do not think that Vandy has any full ride scholarships - only full tuition. Correct me please if I am wrong. And like I have said before to the OP - Duke is a clear choice in your situation.
@Kelowna, I’m not sure if the U of C still gives out huge merit awards. I know that they have been cutting back on merit money in favor of fin aid in recent years. In the past (including the recent past), they did give gigantic merit scholarships to kids who they considered tippy-top.
There aren’t that many Ivy-equivalents or near-Ivies who give huge non-athletic merit awards. Duke definitely does. UChicago definitely use to but they are harder to get there now. Northwestern used to decades ago, but most merit awards these days from NU are a couple thousand.
Rice, JHU, and ND still have big merit scholarships. Also UVa, UNC, WashU, Vandy, Emory.
Duke is not likely to curtail the AB Duke or BN Duke programs lightly or soon. My understanding is that those programs are separately established through the family’s endowment, and we’re not so many generations on from James B. Duke as to render the rest of the family indifferent to his donative intent.
@SomeOldGuy, I fully agree. The day may come soon, however, when Duke is the only private Ivy-equivalent that offers more than a handful of these types of giant merit scholarships (I fully expect the Jefferson and Morehouse to continue as well; in fact, as the elite privates cut back on merit awards, more state schools may establish programs like the Wells@IU or partner with the Stamps Foundation to offer prestigious full-ride scholarships).
Thanks for inquiring, GnocchiB! I am a proud AB Scholar at Duke and am loving every second of it. The AB is a special, special program – and Duke is a special, special school. I certainly made the right choice!
