Duke University Class of 2025 — Regular Decision

srparent15
Mon, 12 Apr 2021 20:54:58 +0000

Congrats to your son.

Unfortunately, it’s sort of like a pyramid when you think about it. Each year and each generation there are more and more legacies. It then becomes harder and harder as there will be more and more legacies rejected than accepted. It’s no different than what is starting to happen in greek life. I have a friend who is the national rep for his fraternity and he told me that a few years ago (I have sophomores in colleges so this was before then even) that they had to change the legacy rules and what counts as a legacy for kids to get into the frat because there were just way too many. Now both my daughters are in sororities and the same issue is cropping up. One of the schools is now no longer considering legacy, “technically” although they still will give preference if they like those girls, but they no longer absolutely have to give preference or take them, and my other daughter’s sorority which is one of the largest chapters for that house in the country, has finally limited what is considered a legacy, and who they have to take, etc. It was getting out of control and to the point they weren’t able to take outsiders they liked. It also was required they take certain types of legacies which is still the case but now since it’s more defined they don’t have to take all of them, but sometimes a girl is not a fit at all and they had to take them. So, while colleges are not fraternities or sororities it’s the same idea. Eventually they have to draw the line.

My son is a legacy and has a sibling and Cornell. Was deferred ED then rejected. Our school doesn’t rank but we are highly confident he is somewhere ranked 2-5 based on what the rank of the valedictorian is since we know that our of 430 ish kids. The valedictorian didn’t get into Penn and is a legacy, or Cornell, or Princeton. We are not east coasters but our school had a horrible year with Ivies this year. Whatever the reason. Few URMs, First gen, not the type they wanted something else missing, sent their scores, who knows? But, my son got into Michigan for Engineering which is actually higher ranked than Cornell and their CS program which is what he is doing is essentially comparable to Cornell and the other schools for the most part (Cornell is tied with 6 schools for 5th which takes up slots 5-10 and UM is 11th) so he is pretty happy regardless. He will get a great education, get a great job, and I guess we will become a Go Blue family in addition to the Big Red family that we are and the Hook’em family that we also are. I firmly believe everything happens for a reason and know this was meant to be.

If he gets off the two waitlists he is on, he better not switch. One isn’t worth it IMO and the other is Northwestern which is lower ranked in both CS and Engineering than Michigan but the only reason I would tell him to consider is because it’s 20 mins from here and we wouldn’t have to worry about hotel reservations or plane flights or any of that crazy fun stuff, lol, but if we lived elsewhere I would say forget it. I know your son is waiting on UC but same deal. Not sure it’s worth it when he has Duke in his hand already.