I’m trying to decide between ED to Duke or RD to Duke and HYPSM. If I don’t have a reasonable chance at HYPSM or PLME or HPME, I want to ED Duke.
Major: Biomedical Engineering
Gender: Male
Race: Asian
School: Highly competitive public school among the best in nation (NCSSM)
GPA (W) cumulative: 5.4
GPA (UW): 4.0
ACT: 35
SAT II: 800 in Math Level 2, Chem, Physics
AP scores:
9 Total, All 5s
Extra Curricular Activities:
President of 3 serious academic clubs, 200 hrs hospital volunteering, 600hrs research
Other info:
Research presented at national conference, presenting at another two in 2018
First-Author on scientific manuscript, should be published mid-November
International Award in Engineering
If you like Duke, I’d ED there. You can’t do much more to boost your profile (besides getting more awards on your resume). Also, you’re purely an academic person who does research; you either want to go to Intel/Siemens or diversify your extracurriculars.
@nchsstudent You have a reasonable chance at HYPSM, but of course any of the HYPSM schools is harder to get into than Duke, even more so Duke ED. Are you thinking of applying SCEA/EA to one of the HYPSM schools? if so, which one?
I say go for Duke unless you really love a different school. The ED helps more than the SCEA/REA at HYPSM, and the successful engineering applicants who will be applying to HYPSM will be Intel finalists, Siemens finalists, or a very hooked applicant
I know so many kids that got denied to HYPSM and end up at a safety school. The real question is would you be totally happy at Duke, if so, apply ED, if not…take your chances. SCEA/REA/EA will NOT help you at HYPSM.
You’d almost certainly get into Duke through Early Decision given your stats in relation to others applying ED Duke from NCSSM. (I’m NCSSM co2018 as well.) However, you still fare a decent chance at EA HYPSM and RD Duke. Going off of what @CU123 said, it really comes down to where you’ll be happier (for example, maybe you like the fact the Duke is close to home…or maybe you don’t). Also, I’d apply to HPME and PLME ONLY if you aren’t EDing Duke. It would really suck if you got into one of those programs but were bound to Duke.
Like someone else said, you come off as purely academic and not having a better variety of ECs makes your application weaker. Think Duke or something else would be a better target.
Of course, your essays might be able to make a difference.