<p>I am a freshmen in high school now and am graduating in 2014. I want to become a lawyer later in my life and I want to go to a good undergraduate school and law school. So I searched up some colleges and became very fond of Duke University. So what this is my question; What did others do to get into Duke and achieve what they dreamed of? Also what is the required SAT score to have a good chance of getting in. Like I said I am only a freshmen and want to get a heads up on bettering my chances of achieving what I have dreamed of… getting accepted into Duke University!</p>
<p>As people will tell you, there’s no set formula. There’s an element of luck involved unless you’re truly outstanding. I think I was lucky getting because my extracurriculars were severely lacking. My high school stats:
GPA: 4.0/4.0 unweighted (5.20/4.0 weighted)
Took 14 AP exams, got 5’s on thirteen of them and one 4
SAT: 800 math, 760 verbal, 700 writing (writing was new when I took it and wasn’t required)
SAT II: 800 Math II, 800 US History, 790 Chemistry, 720 Bio (I took this before taking AP Bio)
40 volunteer hours (the bare minimum for graduation)
Secretary and Vice-President of the Book Club
Founded the anime club (President) which met only twice due to lack of members and interest
and various resume padding clubs: Mu Alpha Theta, Honor club, etc.
Also, teachers tended to like me since I was quiet, smart, respectful, and always there.</p>
<p>Thank you for replying! I just wanted to see what other people have done to get in to Duke so I have an idea of what they look for. I think what I have to do is work at my GPA which is a 4.0 at this time now and do well on the SAT as well as the ACT. However, I took the PSAT recently last November and did not do so great. I mainly took the test as a joke and did not care because it didn’t count for me because I am a freshmen. How did you prepare for your SAT?</p>
<p>To be honest, I didn’t really study all that much for the SAT. I bought a prep book and took one or two of the practice exams. That was about it. The first time I took it I got a 1440 (700 math, 740 verbal) because I was nervous. There’s no better training that to actually do the exam so when I took it again I managed to bump it up by 120 points.</p>
<p>As for the SAT II, I took all of them in March or April after taking the corresponding AP class. The exception to this was bio–since you can take up to 3 exams at the same testing for no additional cost, I decided to try it. Towards the 2nd half of it I was mostly guessing and I thank my knowledge of latin for getting some of it right (conifer means cone bearer, for example).</p>
<p>Anyway, this isn’t a really helpful answer I’m sure, but that’s what I did. The topics on the SAT are rather basic; the hard part is staying sharp and focused for the entire exam. I’d suggest taking it early (my first was December of my junior year) so you can be comforted in knowing you’ve got lots more chances to retake it if needed. If you take it really late, you might get nervous since you only have that one chance. Get a good night of sleep beforehand, make sure to go to the bathroom before the exam, and don’t try to cram the morning of, you’ll just stress yourself out more. I like to go for a walk to clear the mind and calm down. Of course, this is my testing ritual and your mileage may vary.</p>
<p>No your answer is very helpful to me because shows me not to stress out about the test. See my dilemma is that I took the PSAT and got a 120 on it out of 240, which is horrendous as you can see. I was not focus at all and did not care about the test. However, my main dilemma is that I won’t do well on my later SAT and PSAT junior year as well. My GPA is great, I have a lot of extracurriculars, community service, going to be president of some clubs for leadership, work, and I take honors classes and will be taking a handful of AP classes before I graduate.It’s just the SAT and tests that I am worried about. After you took the SAT did u feel pretty confident that you scored high?</p>
<p>P.S. Thanks so much again to reply to my topic (:</p>
<p>To be honest, I don’t really remember. I make it a habit to not guess these sort of things since they’ll lead to nothing but worries without doing any good. You might as well as forget about it until the scores show up in the mail.</p>
<p>To be honest. Its all about PASSION…and good grades.</p>
<p>1.) Grades are self explanatory. Gotta have a good GPA. I got in with around a 1300 on the math/cr sections on SAT. So as long as you’re in that range and got the GPA you give yourself a good chance. Admissions won’t be like, “oh, if this person had gotten 50 points higher on this section then we could have accepted them.” You’re a freshman. I think I got around that my first time taking the PSAT. Work hard over your 4 years and you’ll be fine.</p>
<p>2.) Find something you’re passionate about and do it. My EC’s consisted of baseball and a part time job. And one club. I wrote my essay about baseball cause I love to play baseball. Sure, having 300 different EC’s is nice, but if you half-a** them then there’s no point. To be honest, I think having one thing you pour your heart into is better than any of the other stuff. And let them know that in your essays! The biggest thing is you gotta be different! Everyone has good grades. Everyone is captain of this, blah blah blah. But why is Duke you! </p>
<p>And I don’t think it hurt to tell them I wanted to be Tent 1 four straight years…</p>
<p>3.) Apply ED. Significantly raises chances of admission.</p>
<p>4.) You’re a freshman. DON’T FREAKOUT (you’ll have plenty of time to do that 1st semester senior year). Have fun! Enjoy high school! Work hard inside and outside of the classroom if Duke is your dream too.</p>
<p>Thanks man I feel better talking about college stuff for college it really helps. Thanks for the confidence booster (:</p>