Robertson Scholarship at Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill

In our experience (and those my kid met at finals weekend) that means you are highly likely to be accepted. Don’t know that to be a rule but certainly seemed to be the pattern.

Congratulations !!

I only saw rejections yesterday here and on Reddit. Didn’t see anyone posting being a finalist!

Ahh ok thank you!

Does anyone know when they typically announce scholarship winners?

My daughter received two emails with video interview links for Tuesday and Wednesday and participated in them. Did you also receive these? And, did you receive any sort of official finalist email or any additional writing/miscellaneous tasks to complete in addition to the interview emails for this round? She is worried that she missed an email from Robertson since she only got the interview invitations and no other correspondences.

Yep I received email links, but I also got an email formally offering me a finalist place. The email asked me to respond to them confirming my acceptance as a finalist. I don’t think it’s that important tho…there were no other tasks to complete.

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Thank you and best of luck!

Thank you - good luck to your daughter as well!

It’s been 5 years, may be different now, but back then they announced who got the scholarship and who didn’t about 1-2 days after the finalist weekend

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My kid got an email today inviting her to RSVP to an interview: "You have been selected for an interview with the High School Robertson Scholars. The next stage in our process is the group semi-finalist interview. Please schedule your interview now. "

Does this mean she’s actually a semi-finalist already? Or just being interviewed to see if she can become a semi-finalist? :grin:

Also, does anyone know what a “group semi-finalist interview” is like?

thanks so much!

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I received this too. Pretty sure we are semifinalists :slight_smile:

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Search last year’s threads, my child was a Robertson semi-finalist from applying, but I vaguely recall others entering process like this just don’t recall the specifics.

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Was your child a finalist too? Do you remember when they were notified? Thanks!

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@Catcherinthetoast do you have any input?

My D21 was a semifinalist but did not progress. However, our experience was in Covid years so probably not representative of the current one.

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My kid wound up being a finalist who was nominated as a semi finalist directly by Duke’s admissions office. It has been 6 years so I don’t remember the exact time line.

I do remember that he had a very short window to fill in the Robertson application once nominated (total surprise) and the interview was within the following week or two. It was described as intense by a kid that was somewhat unflappable. Two interviewers peppering him with questions.

He got results within a week along with the invite to attend the finalist round in person with a decision shortly after. He was extremely impressed by the candidates and in person experience.

He also was lucky enough to receive a “welcome to Duke” letter about two weeks prior to the formal regular decision date. We felt based on several conversations that his Robertson experience was directly correlated to his eventual early acceptance to Duke (FYI he chose an alternative school).

For what it is worth he was ultimately rejected by Robertson but received several Ivy and other highly competitive acceptances which would suggest Robertson is even more competitive than the very lowest acceptance rate schools.

Not sure if this helps but wishing you luck.

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Super helpful and interesting. Thanks so much for that.

Did anyone have their group interview yet? Curious about what exactly happens during that after the initial activity they’ve mentioned.

Last year it was along the lines of you are in a summer home with your cohort, what are your rules?

Rather odd but it went well for most id say

I did a few days ago and I think it went pretty well. Each person presents their item and then does a three-minute long QnA about it with questions from the other applicants. After that all the applicants work together on a fifteen-minute brainstorming/creativity activity. I’m assuming its different for every group but idk if I’m allowed to say what mine was anyways. After that, there’s a short reflection and that’s it! Good luck!

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Sounds good, thanks!