<p>hey, I went back and re-read what Duke requires you to submit before December 10th to get that regional interview, and it said you could submit the Duke Supplement OR your portion of the Common App (AP 1- AP 5 including your essay response on the Common App itself…) before December 10th. I believe that your post revolved around submitting the Duke Supplement. Did you get the Common App ‘application’ in on or before December 10th? If so, you’re golden to get an interview based on that I’d think. I do think it’s important to get one if at all possible; I think that any little thing that can go your way should be added in, and clearly the interview is of some some value or Duke wouldn’t be doing them! </p>
<p>Which leads me to what I’ve been gleaning recently: I think Duke puts a tremendous amount of weight and focus on the ‘why Duke’ essay. If you think about it, maybe 1000 kids who apply to Duke can get admitted anywhere, maybe 1000 kids applied simply because Duke is cool and it has a great basketball team and all that, but essentially, the middle 27,000 applicants all look virtually the same, really, when it comes down to it. So I think Duke looks for some really specific information in that essay to help differentiate who makes it and who doesn’t. I just don’t see a lot of difference in most people within that pool, and that goes for test scores (let’s face it, there is little difference between a 2100 sat score and a 2200 test score in the grand scheme of it all) and GPA/class rank. We’re all super students and can do the work basically anywhere out there. </p>
<p>the kitesurfer.</p>