<p>Could anyone PM me an accepted duke essay? I’m applying to trinity and i’m stuck… thanks!</p>
<p>@stripedpanda When my daughter was applying to colleges last year, she found tremendous benefit in reading over essays submitted by some of the students accepted to Johns Hopkins. It is possible you could also receive some direction or inspiration from them: <a href=“https://apply.jhu.edu/apply/essays/”>https://apply.jhu.edu/apply/essays/</a></p>
<p>I am a current sophomore at Duke in BME. Here’s my common app essay. Enjoy!</p>
<p>Idiosyncrasies. They make us human and define us. Without our idiosyncrasies, we would be living in a homogeneous world lacking variety or pizzazz. My mother’s idiosyncrasy was that she was Asian. My father’s idiosyncrasy was that he was racist. Growing up under these conditions, the idiosyncrasies added up to my idiosyncrasy of being a racist Asian. In order to deal with this idiosyncrasy, I taught myself to recognize the idiosyncrasies of others. My gym teacher’s idiosyncrasy was that he had hairy legs. My chemistry teacher’s idiosyncrasy was his love for Shakespeare. I really looked up to my chemistry teacher’s idiosyncrasy in that he liked Shakespeare so much. If he liked Shakespeare so much, then why was he teaching chemistry? It made me wonder why he did not define himself by this idiosyncrasy. It made me wonder whether or not I should define myself by my idiosyncrasies. Maybe an idiosyncrasy does not define you. Rather, you define your idiosyncrasies. Am I destined to follow in the footsteps of my mother and father and be an idiosyncratic racist Asian? No! I am not because I can change my idiosyncrasies. As a result, I began to find new idiosyncrasies such as whittling or interpretive dance. I now define myself by the idiosyncrasies i defined for myself. It makes me wonder: can we really be idiosyncratic? Or is idiosyncratic me!</p>
<p>@awef2009 omg thank you so much! it’s a really creative essay no wonder u got accepted :)</p>
<p>@awef2009 Nice essay! I enjoyed it</p>
<p>I really liked it too!</p>
<p>awef2009 Was this your main essay?</p>
<p>@awef2009 Was that really your common app essay? Or are you just kidding? I have a hard time believing that you actually sent that to Duke and got accepted, no offense. </p>
<p>@Ambitious19: Please explain the expertise and experiences you employed to form your conclusion in #7, re @awef2009 's essay (incidentally, just because you say “no offense” does not mean others may not be reasonably affronted).</p>
<p>@TopTier Wow I really appreciate the condescending tone! </p>
<p>Thankfully, I did my research and can confirm that Awef2009 is probably just pranking this thread. </p>
<p>For starters, @awef2009 has stated that the essay posted above was his COMMON APP ESSAY for Duke. It is 226 WORDS. I checked. Also, he states that he is a CURRENT SOPHOMORE at Duke, which means he applied to college during the 2012-2013 school year. </p>
<p>According to <a href=“2021-22 Common Application Essay Prompts: Tips, Samples”>http://collegeapps.about.com/b/2012/05/15/the-common-application-essay-requirements-for-2011-2012.htm</a>
“For the 2012 - 2013 application cycle, however, the changes are minor. Like last year, the essay needs to be in the 250 TO 500 WORD RANGE.”</p>
<p>His essay was 226 words!! It does not even fulfill the MINIMUM WORD COUNT FOR COMMONAPP, which means if he tried to submit this essay, it wouldn’t have been technologically possible to do so! How could this possibly be his common app essay for Duke? </p>
<p>Also, if you look at his posting history, awef2009 has only posted once. I would be careful trusting users who do not have a credible posting history. I’m not saying that new users cannot be trusted, but awef2009 seems a bit sketchy to me. </p>
<p>Third, the essay is ridiculous. Haven’t you read it?</p>
<p>“My mother’s idiosyncrasy was that she was Asian. My father’s idiosyncrasy was that he was racist. Growing up under these conditions, the idiosyncrasies added up to my idiosyncrasy of being a racist Asian.”</p>
<p>"Am I destined to follow in the footsteps of my mother and father and be an idiosyncratic racist Asian? No! "</p>
<p>What the f***??? This essay makes literally ZERO SENSE. </p>
<p>Fourth, you might argue that awef2009 misspoke and this is actually his Duke supplement, not his commonapp essay. Again, I did my research and found this thread from the year that awef2009 supposedly applied to duke.
<a href=“Duke 2013 Supplemental Essays? - Duke University - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/duke-university/1357824-duke-2013-supplemental-essays.html</a>
The only 3 supplemental essays Duke had that year were:
1- Why Duke? (Trinity)</p>
<p>2- Have you ever done research? explain. (like scientific studies or what have you, most people don’t and don’t answer this question)</p>
<p>3- Why Duke? why engineering (Pratt).</p>
<p>Awef2009 “Idiosyncrasies” essay does not fit into ANY of these categories for supplemental essays. </p>
<p>This CANNOT possibly be his real essay. Awef2009 may not even be a student a Duke!!!</p>
<p>I just wasted 10 minutes looking up everything but SERIOUSLY!! the moral of the story is don’t trust everything you read on CollegeConfidential.</p>
<p>While I appreciate your research, I won’t squander my time with a point-by-point rebuttal. I still remain unconvinced that you, or I, or anyone else on CC can accurately assess what application readers and admissions officers will favor.</p>
<p>@TopTier, give me a freaking break. You know that post was a prank. Stop pretending to be naive. Pretending that the essay in question could have gotten a student accepted makes Duke look bad.</p>