Academics
GPA Weighted: 5.14 Junior year, 4.86 Sophomore year, 4.71 freshman year
Class Rank: 5-6 of 250 at a strong academic prep school
SAT score: Taken once, 700 CR, 790 Math, 780 Writing (2270 Comp)
SAT II: Bio: 780 World History: 700 Math Level II: will take in October
AP Classes
World History: 5 English Lang : 5 APES : 5 BIO : 4
220 PSAT NJ, definitely will be commended maybe semi-finalist
High Honors List
National Honors Society
Will take AP Calc, AP Stat, AP Eng, and AP Art History next yr
Academic Awards/ Achievements
2011- Won regional essay contest about favorite teacher and earned recognition at local libraries and book store
2010 – Won award from my towns Human Relations Commission for an essay honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jrs. Birthday
Currently working on publishing a collaborative biological paper with other interns at a large genomics company
Work Experience
Month long Internship at nearby hospital in Department of pathology.
2-week internship at genomics company
Assistant coach for a competitive youth soccer team
Babysit12 year old with autism
Soccer Referee
Other Volunteer Work
Weekly volunteer for local Special Olympics swim team. Will be assistant coach this season.
National Special Olympics games volunteer. Coordinator for soccer events as a team liason.
Athletics
4 year soccer player at very good prep school, 2 years vars (ranked at top 10 in country last year)
Club soccer for very good club team for 3 years with several tournaments won
Extracurriculars and other honors
Autism big brothers club
Italian club – likely president next yr
Wounded warrior project
In 2014 inducted into the hall of fame of nearby school for kids with autism after volunteering consistently with kids with autism
American cancer society relay for life team
Made my own website for SAT Prep
Started my own club dedicated to improving the care of patients at a nearby hospital
P.S.- I have a younger brother with autism and my essay will be about him and how he has changed my perspective. Much of my extra-circulars center around this and at Duke I would like to do similar volunteer work with DukeEngage.
Duke looks at 6 elements: GPA, curricular rigor, standardized tests, ECs, essays and recommendations. About 50% are rejected based on a numeric cutoff and a single read.
Your GPA and class rank (top 5%) are fine. Your SAT I of 2270 in 1 sitting is above the 50% mark and towards the 75% range for admitted Trinity students:
I assume your curricular rigor is OK - you want to make sure that your GC checks off the most rigorous box. I see 4 AP classes, but it’s not clear if this is calculus AB or BC, or what else you are taking.
Your ECs seem fairly solid, and you have some strong foci for Duke in terms of community engagement and programs like DukeEngage.
That leaves essays and recs. It’s fine to use your autistic brother’s influence on you, but make sure your essay is about you and not about him.
Duke is never a sure thing, but you look like a solid ED applicant, based on very limited information.
@renaissancedad@tttttttttttttom thank you for your input I couldn’t fit everything into the post or get too specific with details, thank you for realizing that
@renaissancedad My other classes are Honors Organic Chemistry, Honors Italian IV, and Honors Theology (required). Do you think these classes would classify my course load as Most Rigorous?
@streetking18, as mentioned above, the key thing is to meet with your GC and explain where you are applying and get his feedback as to whether your schedule will qualify for the “most rigorous” box to be checked. It’s hard to tell without knowing what other levels of classes are offered at your particular school, and what other students applying to top schools are taking.
@ClarinetDad16 Because OP’s credentials are more impressive than the average applicant to Duke. They are, in fact, more impressive than the average accepted applicant to Duke. Therefore, the chance is better for him than an average student. That particular calculated chance is based on the percentage of students who got accepted who had OP’s scores and grades.
@tttttttttttttom Unless OP is a URM, legacy, or recruited athlete, he/she needs to aim for the 75% SAT and GPA tier rather than the average. The only kids whose chances at schools like this are anywhere near 50%, even with near-flawless grades and test scores, are national/international athletes, double URMs, and applicants named Clinton or Bush.
@ClarinetDad16 my SAT score obviously isn’t that great but I only took it once because I didn’t think 100 points made that much of a difference… is it worth taking the SAT again with my last chance in October? I was gonna take the Math II subject test and try to get 800. my GPA however shows a consistent upward trend with me getting all A+s junior year with 4 AP classes
@HRSMom@NerdyChica would raising my SAT score 100 points significantly increase my chances? I feel like that is kind of ridiculous. I only took it once I was gonna take the Math Level II subject test in October, would it make more sense to retake the SAT with the hope of beating my score?
You aren’t in the flat out reject pile. You are in the game and have a shot. But as a non legacy and non athlete is somewhere between 1/4 to 1/7 ED or RD.
@ClarinetDad16 am an athlete got second team all state for soccer last year but probably just below Duke DI soccer recruitment level. Probably won’t help much if I’m not a recruited athlete but just sayin I am still an athlete technically lol =] don’t want to play in college tho
