This is the official discussion thread for Duke Class of 2028 RD applicants. Ask your questions and connect with fellow applicants.
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I submitted the application after 12/20. Does it mean I will not get an interview? Thanks
When do RD decisions come out?
Late March/Early April
There is not a priority deadline for RD interviews this year. They did that in years past due to way more applicants than they had alums to do interviews, even with many alums doing several each. This season, RD interviews are being assigned by admissions if they need more information. The applicant pool has gotten huge for RD and the last couple of cycles all students could not be covered, even with the priority deadline and with admissions sending out-of region students to higher capacity regions. They have not let interviewers know the details on how they decide who gets sent out for interview assignments , but they have shared (weeks ago, so before the RD deadline), that they anticipate interviewing around 12,000 though they were clear that number could change. For context, 44k applied in the RD round last year. Regional interview chairs were given that info and not much else. I will note it is highly unlikely they would spend time sending out names for us to interview and have us submit detailed writeups on students that were not being seriously considered. Conversely, they accept about 2100 for RD each year, so it is still a long shot even with an interview. Interviews are virtual and they may assign students outside their region to get all of them done. So far our region has way less than 1/4 of the usual number assigned, and we have plenty of capacity to do more so potentially more will come to us from stretched regions.
The timeline is later this year: regions began getting names only 1-2 weeks ago, and we have until the end of February which is later than it used to be. In the many yrs prior, assignments for RD started coming in December with the peak in mid-January (ie when they tried to interview everyone).
Hope this helps! Best of luck.
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This is super helpful, thank you! S24 was contacted yesterday and is now set-up for an interview which he is very excited about.
Thanks for this information! It is so helpful. My son just received an invitation for an interview. Duke’s website says they “prioritize interview for students for whom we need additional information” so I wasn’t sure whether we should take it as a positive sign or a bad one, or if it’s really just neutral.
Definitely not a bad sign!
Thanks, that helps.
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Does anyone know how much the interview is weighted at Duke? I’ll be honest, my child who is very at ease and a good interviewee got a tough personality interviewer. That along with a more hammering questions versus conversational style has me worried a little as Duke is a favorite.
My son will interview this week. By his interviewer’s email, that is informative interview. So i think that isn’t important. But he asked my son’s resume beforehand.
Wow my son interviewed last week and I was surprised he got an interview as he did not apply by what I thought was the interview deadline. I am a legacy so I thought maybe it was due to that but this provides new perspective! He enjoyed the interview but did say it was the toughest he’s had so far!
That should not have happened. Interviewers are specifically instructed, every year, not to ask for resumes, and ideally we are supposed to know nothing about the candidate before we meet them. Back when they were in person, if a student showed up with one we were told to not be rude by refusing it, but just lay it to the side and not use it. The interview is informative and an exchange of information and is meant to be low stress. The interviewer is required to submit what can only be described as an evaluative write up to admissions. Based on a couple of peer schools, what Duke asks of interviewers is similar. Admissions does not inform interviewers exactly how it is counted, but it is a small part of the overall holistic admissions decision, for candidates who are offered an interview. It is highly unlikely to “make” or “break” a candidacy, but admissions says it has value.
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So, Do you mean is it bad?
We sent resume already and i searched him through LinkedIn. He surely graduated Duke and now works in high position at very good company ( very famous company) i don’t think he is bad . And i found some students are asked resume in reddit. We got a paper to fill out some questions from Harvard interview before meeting too. I think they want to reduce time to questions.
It is not bad, and will not affect anything, it just is not supposed to be requested by the interviewer. Famous or not, the interviewer did not follow protocol established by Duke Admissions. I am of the belief that the protocols exist for a reason, and alums should follow them, and the vast majority of us do.
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Yes. The interviewer said that don’t be stressful because it is just informative interview. That means nothing is important. Right?
See my post above. It is informative, an exchange of information, but there is an evaluative writeup the interviewer does, so in that sense, yes, it is important.
Thank you for information.
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I have question for financial aid portal. Usually are there 2 items appearing in portal , fafsa and css? Or duke didn’t get us only. Usually Idoc is appearing in other college portal. Just curious .