Duke Class of 2028 Official RD Thread

When are semifinalists for the Robertson Scholarship Program notified?

We’ve been wondering same. Website says semi-finalist interviews mid-February so you’d think it would need to be soon.

My S24 has already declared he has zero chance as the only essay being about a song was so not his ideal topic. :laughing:

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D has not received interview invitation, although I think her stats are OK. Does that mean her Duke journey is over?

My daughter was less than thrilled with the on the spot video. She thinks she’s doomed.

Not everybody who’s interviewed gets an admit. Not everybody who was admitted got an interview.

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I have a son who is at Duke right now. He never had an interview.

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I am a Duke interviewer. It absolutely does not mean her journey is over.

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Not technically Duke but had anyone gotten an interview for Robertson scholars yet? I think they go out on a rolling basis this week and there isn’t a CC thread for it.

Often it just means there are not enough alumni in the area to provide an interview. Won’t be held against them. I interview for Cornell and only a fraction of applicants are able to get an interview.

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What “additional information” are they seeking in the interview? My student didn’t get one, but her LORs and Essays painted an accurate picture of her.

As an alumni interviewer one question we asked was if there was anything they wanted to share that wasn’t in their application. If you don’t have anything that is fine. One student shared with me that her parent had cancer her sophomore year and that is why her grades suffered. Just as an example. My daughter chose to elaborate on her custom embroidery business. No right answer.

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Duke doesn’t give the interviewers any specifics. The interview is just meant to be a conversation where the interviewer gets to know the candidate by asking open ended questions. As another person posted, it’s also an opportunity to share something that may not come through on the application.

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someone on a2c got a likely

Thanks. I am feeling better after reading your reply.

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What is a2c?

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r/applyingtocollege on reddit

I’m a former interviewer for Duke. Their interviews mean virtually nothing. I’d say they mean nothing, but someone would argue with me that an interview slightly influenced an admissions decision once 20 years ago.

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Same for Cornell. When I started they let me submit a paragraph about the applicant but since Covid the only thing I can submit is “The student attended the interview” with a YES or NO check box.

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Very interesting about Cornell. For Duke, the interviewers still complete a written evaluation/summary about the applicant and there are details in our yearly required training about what in particular admissions finds helpful to have in our evaluation. I agree they are a small portion of the holistic decisions, but they do still matter for Duke. When my D23 interviewed for various top schools last year, almost all commented on specific things they were going to highlight in their writeup, so it seems many peer schools do ask interviewers to submit some sort of evaluation. She did not apply to Cornell.

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Duke will only take IDOC if they need additional information on your finances. And FAFSA is misbehaving this year so