<p>I visited Duke this year and loved it. My counselor told me my stats should mean that I have a real chance at Duke BUT (and this is where I am hoping he’s wrong) our school doesn’t do well getting kids into Duke. It’s not our school per se as we our a highly competive public school in the midwest. Students routinely get into Ivy Schools (300 kids per grade and this year several at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, U of C, Penn (7 got in) many kids got into N Western etc…)</p>
<p>He said he doesn’t know why our school hasn’t done well. One teacher told me she thinks that the ‘right’ people just haven’t applied. </p>
<p>So my question is do you think that some schools just ‘don’t like’ some high schools? Would it be a ‘waste’ to apply ED as my counselor more or less told me. I hope to apply to Pratt Engineering ED. Here are my stats:</p>
<p>I am a white female.</p>
<p>No hooks. I need financial aid but heard Duke is need blind. </p>
<p>I am in the top 5 percent of the class</p>
<p>2360 on my SAT. 800 on Math I. Taking another in June. </p>
<p>I am President of the Robotics team and won several awards. I also do a large amount of community service and started a project to help kids at the local day care center for low income kids. I have a host of other EC’s but nothing super special.</p>
<p>No, I don’t think it would be a “waste” to apply ED. It’s likely just not the right candidates have applied from your school - and applying ED shows commitment and interest that Duke would definitely take into consideration. Duke does not have a quota on a per school or even per region basis. </p>
<p>Having said that, I had a similar situation with my high school and Brown. All the other Ivies accepted a fair number of students, but it seemed like Brown would reject everybody. I suppose it’s possible the regional admissions counselor at Brown responsible for the area didn’t like our high school and as he/she has to sign off on basically every applicant. More likely, though, they were looking for a particular type of applicant for my high school that just happened to never apply - perhaps an artsy one, for example. </p>
<p>Having heard Guttentag talk several times, I’m pretty sure Duke does not do this and they would accept 50 people from the same high school if they thought they brought a wide array of skills and talents. If they think you can contribute positively to the class and Duke community and are strong academically, you will be accepted. They don’t have some vendetta against your high school, but they DO likely have some perspective on your high school. That is, if your high school is wealthy and offers a lot of opportunities, they expect to see that you’ve taken advantage of those opportunities, pushed yourself, and succeeded. I also applied ED to Pratt from the Midwest. Being a girl also helps you a bit. Good luck.</p>
<p>If your school does not do well with Duke ED is the best opportunity for you to show that you are serious about Duke. ED admission rates are much higher and I suspect the admit rate for 2013 will drop into single digits for RD.</p>
<p>[Duke</a> admits 3,105 to the Class of 2016 | The Chronicle](<a href=“http://www.dukechronicle.com/article/duke-admits-3105-class-2016]Duke”>http://www.dukechronicle.com/article/duke-admits-3105-class-2016)</p>
<p>Thanks bluedog. That is very insightful. I have taken all the AP classes I could (and my school offers a large number) and the highest classes at every level.</p>
<p>I do know that no one with as high a class rank and as good test scores has applied to Duke but I certainly don’t think that my stats make me any sort of “likely” admit. </p>
<p>I was just so impressed with everyone and everything at Duke. We has just seen Penn before that and I didn’t understand why my friends liked it so much. In fact, I had not felt that any school was very special (and I’ve visted about a dozen). Then I saw Duke and was blown away!</p>
<p>Our small catholic school usually does not do well with HYP, in fact, until this year no one has ever been accepted. This year, we had one get into Harvard, EA. I think it works to your FAVOR that no one has gotten into Duke. I think often they try to reach out to unrepresented schools. With your stats, I cannot imagine that you would not be snatched up. I think they would be crazy to turn you down.</p>
<p>My two cents. My son is Duke Class of 2016! We’re very excited about it but he also comes from a high school that does not send very many kids to Duke (we’re in the Boston area). Some of it is because of a lack of interest. Many, many more kids apply to the Ivies and Williams/Amherst/Middlebury than apply to Duke. My son was somewhat unique in that he did not want to stay in the Northeast. Everywhere he was interested in involved a plane trip so costs meant we had to limit the number of schools he visited. At the end of the application process, he got into the schools he visited, he got waitlisted at the ones he didn’t. You’ve already visited Duke. Along with good scores/grades/outside interests/community service, Duke is looking for serious interest. If you do decide to apply ED, well, that shows serious interest. If you don’t go ED, at least get your supplemental application in early enough to request an interview. They want to know they have a chance at getting you and not that you’re applying as a back up for an Ivy. In my son’s case, I think the schools that waitlisted him may have felt like they were back-ups for Duke. Which, yeah, they were so I can’t really blame them for waitlisting him. Good luck!</p>
<p>Thanks Bluecloud! Very helpful.</p>
<p>“your counselor is wrong” </p>
<p>I hope this is helpful…</p>
<p>Some high schools are “feeding schools” to private universities. Some high schools have not had a student accepted to HPY in 20 years. There is a symbiotic relationship between certain private high school and private colleges. The HS sends well funded students to the college, in return the college accepts students every year from their high school, then the HS can market their school to parents of freshman. The HS gets more well funded smart kids to go to their private high school because they get kids accepted to top private universities every year. It’s also true other high schools do not have much luck getting it’s students into certain schools. Counselors know which schools tend to accepted students from your school and which ones don’t.<br>
However you sound like an excellent student and should have a very good chance of acceptance into Duke. Someone has to break the mold, why not you. You can use the fact that no one from your school has gone to Duke as an advantage, a hook. Let them know that in your interview. Go for it, you have a great chance.</p>
<p>She is wrong unless there is a reason unknown to her, but schools do take retribution for certain actions.</p>
<p>Just google “blacklisted high school site:collegeconfidentials.com”
See this: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/stanford-university/1047451-blacklisted.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/stanford-university/1047451-blacklisted.html</a></p>
<p>My high school was basically blacklisted by MIT a few years before I applied to college (this was 4 years ago). My counselors knew about this blacklist and no one has really gotten in since the blacklist.</p>
<p>I can offer some evidence in addition to the many threads found on CC. The class before me, 4 Yale, 2 Harvard, 3 Stanford, 3 Duke and some more. My class 6 Duke, 1 Yale, 1 Princeton, 1 Stanford, 4 Columbia, 2 NU, etc.</p>