<p>I really want to go to Duke. I’ve always planned on applying ED. I have double legacy and outstanding extracurriculars and a solid ACT score. The main thing that will hurt me, and unfortunately the most important part of an application, is my GPA. I take an extremely difficult course load. I transferred to a much more challenging private school in 10th grade. So my GPA freshman year was 4.15 weighted, then sophomore year, was 3.35, then junior year was 3.8. So my cumulative GPA is a 3.77. I know this is probably not good enough for Duke, but every other piece of my application is very strong. </p>
<p>I am not sure to apply ED v RD because I know applying ED with double legacy for Duke has a decently high acceptance rate compared to RD, but I know my weighted GPA will be very high for Senior year because I am taking 5 weighted courses. So my GPA will have a major boost and Duke will see that in a RD application. My school runs in a trimester system however, so if I apply ED Duke will only be able to see my interim grades halfway through the first trimester and interim grades won’t actually boost my GPA. So do I apply ED with the higher acceptance rate but same GPA as junior year, or apply RD and allow my high senior year GPA to raise my cumulative GPA. It’s a really tough decision that I have to make soon. Please help!</p>