Good enough for Duke?

Chance Me / Match Me
1

<p>New to CC - will be thankful if this message even manages to post. Hi all. I’m currently a junior in high school, and the #1 school that I want to get into is Duke University. Perhaps I’m overly anxious, but I wanted to know if my credentials seem good enough.</p>

<p>Unweighted GPA - 4.0.</p>

<p>SAT Practice Test score (yet to take the real one, took the fake one on collegeboard): 2020.</p>

<p>90-ish volunteer hours, all of which focused on working in a facility for mentally disabled children.</p>

<p>I currently am taking a 2-Year Anatomy and Physiology class (it takes up 2 out of 5 periods a day) which gives me around 100 clinical hours in a local hospital, and a CNA license upon graduation. The reason I found this worth mentioning is because I would also like to get into Duke School of Medicine after completing my undergraduate program.</p>

<p>Here is where the problem occurs: I go to probably the worst, run down public highschool in my state. I can’t afford to go anywhere else, and even if I could I don’t think I’d want to - I care deeply for my peers and wouldn’t leave them for greener pastures, not to mention with a new principal their are many strides at improvement. But the fact that my practice SAT scores were only in the 2000s and my schools graduation requirements were dropped so more people graduated, it might make my highschool look easy.</p>

<p>Any thoughts, CC?</p>

2

<p>I think you’re defenitley on the right track! Don’t worry about your highschool. If you take all the hardest classes available to you, and suceed as you have been, then DUke will take that into consideration. If a student at another school takes harder courses, but they are still relativley easy for what their school offers, then you who took the hardest possible schedule will be looked upon more favorably. I would defenitley suggest trying to get that SAT score up. Duke is very competitive, and you don’t want a weak part of your application to be SAT scores. You didn’t list any extracirriculars, so make sure you are involved and passionate about something for your essays. Try to go above and beyond in an area you are really passionate about, so you stand out more. In the end, a lot of the process comes down to the essay. That ends up being a deciding factor, because if Duke accepted all the applicants that were qualified, they would have thousands of students. Don’t worry about it too much, and do your best. Good luck!</p>