Chances for ED 2014?

Colleges & Universities Duke University
1

<p>Alright, I’ve been in love with the school for my entire life… my grandfather went there and it’s been his dream to send one of his grand children (since none of his kids went) to the school, and I’m the last grand child to go through college.</p>

<p>Anyway, here are my stats:
GPA: W 4.33 UW 4.00
Rank: 8/551
ACT: 31 (meh I know… might retake it)
SAT:laughable
AP Classes taken (11 including senior year): World History(didn’t take), Environmental Science (5), US History, Biology, Lang & Comp, Calc AB, Chemistry (waiting for scores)
Senior Year Course Load: Zoology/Botany (advanced science course), AP Physics B, AP Lit, AP Stat, AP European History, Gov/Econ (school offers AP, but don’t have room), Lab Aide (basically just a TA for a science teacher, grade papers and set up labs)</p>

<p>Awards:3-4 DECA awards, Most improved in track, AP Environmental Science Student of the year (haha), Georgia Certificate of Merit Recipient, AP Scholar with Distinction</p>

<p>Extracurriculars: Varsity Track/Field (9,10,11,12), Environmental Science Club (Vice President 9,10,11,12), Science National Honor Society (Secretary 11,12), Science Olympiad (Captain 10,11,12), Interact Rotary Club (Service Club 9,10,11,12), Flood club (Service Club 9,10,11,12), Math Honor Society (10,11,12), National Honor Society (11,12), Beta Club (10,11,12), DECA (9,10,11,12)</p>

<p>Volunteer: ~100 hours in all of the service clubs, 40 hours at a hospital, and food drives throughout the school</p>

<p>Work: Worked through my aunt/mom and was a part time nanny for some children, trying to get a part time job right now.</p>

<p>I also had an internship at UGA researching in a lab on enzymology (unpaid)</p>

<p>Summer Activities: The internship and hospital volunteering were both over the summer, currently trying to get a job as well. Some other small things (helping with a 5k, etc.) over the summer as well.</p>

<p>Recommendations: Should be extremely good… I know my counselor, and I’m going to get one of my teachers I’ve had for 3 years to write one and another from the professor at my internship.</p>

<p>Essays: Should be excellent, even though I may not seem like that great of a writer, but I’m pretty good when it comes to essays. My English teacher said she would help me as well.</p>

<p>What do you guys think? I’m contemplating taking the ACT again in September (last shot…) to see if I can pull it up a little bit. </p>

<p>Thanks for your help!</p>

2

<p>The key part of your record is not included above: how successful is your high school in sending students to highly selective universities. Your coursework (rigorous), GPA and rank all appear competitive, but we don’t have any means of placing these statistics in perspective, other than two AP Exam scores.</p>

<p>Your test scores would seem to indicate that, although you are at the top of your class in high school, you might not be a top candidate nationally (or internationally since competition is becoming more global). A 31 places you in the 97% - a commendable score, but one that is matched or exceeded by roughly 50,000 of your peers. On the other hand, the score might indicate that you are simply not a good test taker.</p>

<p>It appears that you have a great volume of EC activity but little achievement to note. Your service hours seem to be requirements for other clubs that you have listed. The awards list is short, which might indicate a low involvement level for your clubs. Avoid listing things that you hope to do and try to figure out ways to emphasize what you have actually done.</p>

<p>Finally, “Worked through my aunt/mom” makes it sound like you are taking credit for washing the dishes and cleaning your room. If you can list a business that assigned you specific tasks on a regular basis- great, include it regardless of who your boss was. However, if a relative gave you spending money for helping out with chores (even chores related to a business), leave it off. My thoughts are similar for the part time nanny position.</p>

3

<p>Thank you for your reply, I don’t think it’s allowing me to edit my post so I’ll just post it here.
My school isn’t a private school or anything, but it’s one of the best public schools in my state and is highly competitive.</p>

<p>Yes, my ACT score is not all that great (probably retaking in September, no reason not to). I have never been a good standardized test taker, starting with the PSAT. I guess we’ll see on the AP exams scores that should be coming in the upcoming weeks, I predict passing scores on all of them, and 5s on Biology, Lang & Comp, and maybe calculus. US History should a 4 or so, while Chemistry should be around a 3 (teacher wasn’t all that great).</p>

<p>Most of my hours from my ECs can’t be taken for other clubs. NHS requires 20 hours solely for them, the same goes for Beta Club, Science National Honor Society, and Math Honor Society (different hour requirements). Most of those hours came from tutoring, I forgot to mention that. The awards list is quite short, and I’m attempting to improve upon that. Interact, Flood, and most of the honor societies are all service clubs, they offer little award. The awards come from Track, Science Olympiad (unfortunately, I did not receive any… the club is in it’s developing stage) and other random awards my school offers.</p>

<p>The work experience is legitimate, my aunt works for a company called Supreme Chemicals and she called me up one summer to work in her warehouse, my mom works for a shoe company and needs data entry for a couple of projects every now and then.
Nanny position is may not have been assigned certain tasks, but It was a 8 AM - 6 PM job that just involved me watching someone’s kids and taking care of them. Should I include that at all? </p>

<p>Again, thank you for your help!</p>

4

<p>You’ve got a 4.0 with 11 AP’s at a good high school (according to your post above). This is very, very good in my opinion. Keep up the good work and continue to take the hardest courses and do well.</p>

<p>Work on your essays over the summer. Get a really good writer who will be constructively critical to really help you. If this is your conserlor, that’s fine. The essays need to show why you are a great candidate for Duke. Admittedly this is hard to do, but it’s worth it, right? (I often recall the line often used by Red Smith, the great sportswriter, who said that writing is easy, all you have to do is sit in front of the typewriter (heard of those?) and wait for the blood drops to start forming on the page.)</p>

<p>Think hard about your recommendations: ideally you want someone who has been teaching 20 years to say you are the best he / she has ever taught. And in a perfect world, the recommender(s) would write really well without using cliches while communicating a real passion for your admission.</p>

<p>Don’t you think you can kick your ACT up a point or two if you really study? By all means do that if you can.</p>

<p>Think hard about applying ED.</p>

<p>As rmldad points out, the number of clubs will not matter as much as what you achieve. Can you think of something to do this summer which will really make your EC’s stand out?</p>

<p>I like the fact that you are open to help, and apparently not defensive.</p>

<p>I sincerely wish you the best of luck.</p>

5

<p>Thanks for the reply kaukauna,</p>

<p>The essays I will definitely work on during the summer, I often have downtime of 1-3 hours at my internship and I can always work on that!</p>

<p>I’m thinking about taking the ACT again and try and aim for a 33-35, if I have one more shot there’s no point in taking it again (aside from the money of course). I’ll study for this one (the 31 was my first attempt, no studying).</p>

<p>My recommendations will probably be from the following:

  1. Department Head of Science for my school, she’s the only reason I want to go into science and I owe it all to her, I go on international trips with her and I’m always in and out of her room.
  2. A science teacher I’ve had for 3 years, and it’s practically the same as 1. but I’m in her room probably 5 times more helping her out with anything.
  3. Professor of my internship, he’s been teaching biochemistry for 40+ years and really helps me around, I think his recommendation would be the most impacting mainly because of his status and he really enjoys me helping out in his lab.
  4. Counselor (is this required?), I know his name and he knows my name, I’ve had 5-6 appointments with him but I feel that we have no real connection… if it isn’t required I don’t think I’ll get it from him.</p>

<p>Do you think I should grab a recommendation from a teacher outside of the science department? If I have to it would be no problem, I’m a very active student in all of the subject areas. I just would prefer to have it from people I know on both an educational and personal level.</p>

<p>I’m definitely applying ED, only problem is my family is middle class and our financial aid status is probably up in the air. </p>

<p>I’m volunteering as a counselor for science olympiad camp this summer, but aside from that I’m pretty booked. The internship is Sunday~Wednesday (starts Monday, but I have to get up into town Sunday) and I’m working the other days to try and save up money for college and a car. Do you think there is anything else I can do?</p>

<p>Again, thank you so much for your help. Hopefully with your help along with others I can be up in Durham next fall!</p>

6

<p>Hobbithopeful: Good luck on your re-take of the ACT. I strongly believe you can improve a point or two with preparation. And it doesn’t have to be expensive. There are free or relatively cheap study guides out there.</p>

<p>As far as the rec’s go, I think you are required to get one from your counselor (check this)? If so, help him out by giving him information on you. Essentially help him write it. As far as the others, it sounds like you’ve got some really good prospects. The question now is who (assuming you are limited to 2 rec’s other than counselor) will write the best and with the most passion. You would know this best perhaps with the help of your parents. I don’t think them all being in the sciences is a problem myself but others can weigh in on this. It’s a tough decision to make, I know. I would ask this question of you: which of the potential recommenders seem particularly anxious to write for you? Can you tell? This might be the person to ask. As far as ED goes, you have to trust to a great extent that Duke FA will be fair with you. When your parents submit financial information, make sure they are complete regarding any special circumstances. When you get your FA back, if it is not as much as you would like, you and your parents will have the option to appeal. And, I’m sure you’ll agree, that while having slightly lower than hoped for FA is a problem, not being admitted is a bigger problem.</p>

<p>I think your summer activities are good, and they show that you are not by any stretch sitting on your hands. Relating the concept of unusual or noteworthy achievement with your particular EC this summer, instead of performing at a standard level with the Science Olympiad camp, is it possible to inspire / organize a group of youths to accomplish something especially noteworthy that would be good. You could do this by volunteering for something that maybe nobody else wants to take on. Show Duke how you can change the world!</p>

<p>Again, best of luck to you. I apologize if some of this is a little rushed adn unintelligible: I have to write this between things I am doing and traveling.</p>

7

<p>If essay is great, you are all set</p>