<p>I know the supplement says the essays are optional and won’t affect chances of admission, but is this really true? </p>
<p>Here are some of my stats</p>
<p>3.8 GPA u/w, 4.7 GPA w
SAT I 2380
SAT II 800 math2, 800 physics, 790 chem
main essay and recs are very good
ECs show good dedication</p>
<p>If I want a legit shot at duke, do I need to do these essays?</p>
<p>I should add that I love duke and that I have legacy, I’m not blindly applying</p>
<p>Legacy helps but obviously Duke is not your first choice. Duke and Stanford both share a lot of the same characteristics and are rated highly for a mix quality of life and academics. My S goes attend Duke and loves it. I won’t ever knock Stanford as its a great school with one of the nicest campuses I have visited. I do beleive that legacy and location coupled with your HS being known by Stanford and getting kids into Stanford is critical. For example our HS Val was deferred and later rejected as was my S- the Val had a 2390 SAT and honestly on paper stronger stats and EC activities. that just means they look beyond pure stats as my S had stats comparable to yours. With legacy and great stats you should get in RD. While I have no inside knowledge I do think that all competitive schools have a fuzzy logic thought that prefers kids who really want them as a first choice. If they take all the top students knowing that most are not their first choice then they would have problems with the class size and then have to go deep into their waiting lists which I doubt any competitive school wants to do. I think that is why not all highly ranked students get accepted. With legacy status I don’t think you would have a problem and if you attend ou might be surprised that the school is actually a lot like Stanford, albeit with a Southern charm and not the San Fran feel.</p>
<p>In our experience Duke does not track interest and does heavily recruit those students it thinks will be accepted at other top schools. Duke has a program called “Duke Up Close”. THis program provides likely letters to top students in February and flies them to Duke for special weekend of activities in early April (Duke pays for everything). When my S attended Duke Up Close, nearly everyone he met there had been accepted at at least one of HYPMS. Duke was great to the students and the weekend was a blast. It was a very difficult decision for my S to select Stanford instead. Stanford also does not track interest.
OP- I think you have a great shot at Duke, provided your subjectives are as you describe. Your objectives clearly put you in the game. I do not know how Duke treats legacy. The consensus from this board is that Stanford considers it only in SCEA round and then very minimally.</p>
<p>thank you very much for your posts</p>
<p>Optional means mandatory. I have heard this at a few other group information session (not Duke).
Even if they do mean optional , not having filled out any optional portion of your application means that you are assured of going to the bottom of the pile and will lose any ties.
Why chance it?</p>
<p>Optional DOES NOT necessarily mean mandatory. Everybody told me that last year, yet I got into Tufts without submitting any “required” optional essays. It depends on the school, and I am really not sure about Duke’s policies specifically.</p>