Duke Announces New Record Low Acceptance Rate

[Anonymous]

Interesting that Duke chooses to release decisions on exactly the same day and time as Ivy day. Guess they want to be thought of in that same league

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:They accepted 4% this year they said… good luck everyone

What do you think is driving the increasing popularity of Duke?

It's the only top 10 school in the country that's supposedly fun. So you get great academics and some balance with enjoyment. Stanford used to be this way but they've become significantly less fun, and Duke is now what Stanford used to be.

+1

That really is what sets Duke apart. It's a ridiculously fun place. Plus the weather is far sunnier and moe mild than in the NE. Not every "super high stats" kid wants these things, but if they do, Duke is it.

That said, it's true that kids who go deep into STEM will be less likely to have a super "fun" college experience wherever they go, including Duke. Either because that's their personality no matter their environment (true also of many non-STEM majors, of course), or because the STEM path tends to be extra competitive and rigorous, which requires a kid to have superb time management skills in order to add a busy social life on top.

But for STEM (and non-STEM) kids who really do want both (work hard/play hard) AND have the time management/executive function skills to pull it off, Duke offers something unique. I really can't think of another top academic school that offers a truly social atmosphere + high level athletics (if that's your thing). Stanford and Northwestern, maybe? I'd be curious to hear if there are others.

I can think of one, and that’s Michigan. Academically it is a peer of Duke and NU. Athletically, it is as well. Socially too. Stanford is a cut all of these schools, but not decisively so. And before anyone can argue that Michigan’s academics are not at Duke or NU’s level, I suggest you look at the PA scores at USNWR and internet rankings at all of the major sites.

Michigan is a phenomenal overall institution, but for undergrad specifically Duke is in rare air. Med, Law, Business, etc. are all phenomenal at Michigan too.

So is Michigan. It’s also offers a much wider variety of undergraduate excellence. Many students are enrolled in programs where test scores are not the most important criterion such as, Music, Theater, Dance, Fine Arts, Architecture, and Kinesiology. Duke doesn’t provide that type of education.

That's all good and fine, but just the nature of being a hyper selective private school means the average undergrad at Duke will be stronger. Both schools will have plenty of smart kids who are near the top of their class, but the undergrad environment at Duke will be somewhat higher caliber than Michigan.

+100

[Anonymous]

Duke, Northeastern, why schools have below a 5% acceptance rate. The common app is making joke of the system.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]They accepted 4% this year they said… good luck everyone [/quote]

Wow, that means Duke is now projected to be more selective than Princeton this year.[/quote]

That is Duke RD. I believe the overall acceptance when including ED is 5.3%. Not sure how Princeton compares.[/quote]

According to Duke's website overall is 5.1% (including the 12.9% ED acceptance rate). So it might be more selective than Princeton by 0.1 or 0.2%, since Princeton last year was 6% acceptance rate.[/quote]

The selective schools that utilize ED can’t really be compared on a selectivity metric to HYPS (restricted/single choice EA). It’s not apples to apples. [/quote]

Duke is not quite as selective as the top half of ivies—penn is more selective especially for engineering and wharton—but duke is more selective than brown, cornell Dartmouth. It has earned its place as a T10. It does less DEI/rural/fgli than HPY and has probably the same rich legacy/famous people boost as the top ivies, or slightly LESS. They all do that. None of them are purely intelligence and merit like UK schools. But the unhooked kids who get in to any T10 have a tougher road than the hooked ones .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Duke, Northeastern, why schools have below a 5% acceptance rate. The common app is making joke of the system.

Did you just put Duke and Northeastern in the same sentence? LOL.

[Anonymous]

Duke should get rid of ED if it wants be considered a top school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interesting that Duke chooses to release decisions on exactly the same day and time as Ivy day. Guess they want to be thought of in that same league

That's what the Ivy League schools want. They don't want Duke releasing before them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting that Duke chooses to release decisions on exactly the same day and time as Ivy day. Guess they want to be thought of in that same league

That's what the Ivy League schools want. They don't want Duke releasing before them.

+1 Duke and Stanford are pretty much the ivy league's main competition, and they lose tons of students to Duke and Stanford every year. They're definitely aware of the threat Duke and Stanford pose to them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Duke should get rid of ED if it wants be considered a top school.

Duke uses ED the least of the elite schools though. Duke takes ~40% of its incoming class through ED, while Penn and Brown take ~55%. On the total other extreme, UChicago takes ~75% of its incoming class through ED, they've totally shot themselves in the foot there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Duke should get rid of ED if it wants be considered a top school.

Duke uses ED the least of the elite schools though. Duke takes ~40% of its incoming class through ED, while Penn and Brown take ~55%. On the total other extreme, UChicago takes ~75% of its incoming class through ED, they've totally shot themselves in the foot there.

+1 Dartmouth also has ED.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Duke, Northeastern, why schools have below a 5% acceptance rate. The common app is making joke of the system.

Did you just put Duke and Northeastern in the same sentence? LOL.

You did too.

[Anonymous]

Doesn't Duke announce the same thing every year? "record low admissions this year"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:They accepted 4% this year they said… good luck everyone

What do you think is driving the increasing popularity of Duke?

It's the only top 10 school in the country that's supposedly fun. So you get great academics and some balance with enjoyment. Stanford used to be this way but they've become significantly less fun, and Duke is now what Stanford used to be.

+1

That really is what sets Duke apart. It's a ridiculously fun place. Plus the weather is far sunnier and moe mild than in the NE. Not every "super high stats" kid wants these things, but if they do, Duke is it.

That said, it's true that kids who go deep into STEM will be less likely to have a super "fun" college experience wherever they go, including Duke. Either because that's their personality no matter their environment (true also of many non-STEM majors, of course), or because the STEM path tends to be extra competitive and rigorous, which requires a kid to have superb time management skills in order to add a busy social life on top.

But for STEM (and non-STEM) kids who really do want both (work hard/play hard) AND have the time management/executive function skills to pull it off, Duke offers something unique. I really can't think of another top academic school that offers a truly social atmosphere + high level athletics (if that's your thing). Stanford and Northwestern, maybe? I'd be curious to hear if there are others.

I can think of one, and that’s Michigan. Academically it is a peer of Duke and NU. Athletically, it is as well. Socially too. Stanford is a cut all of these schools, but not decisively so. And before anyone can argue that Michigan’s academics are not at Duke or NU’s level, I suggest you look at the PA scores at USNWR and internet rankings at all of the major sites.

Michigan is a phenomenal overall institution, but for undergrad specifically Duke is in rare air. Med, Law, Business, etc. are all phenomenal at Michigan too.

Rare air for national universities undergrad is HYPSM. That’s it. Admit rate=eliteness is over emphasized here. If that were the case, NEU would be elite.

Eh. I think if we're being that picky, it's just HPSM. Penn, Duke, Yale, Caltech, Columbia are basically right there and almost indistinguishable, the difference is the top 200 kids at each of HPSM being pretty much unmatched by the kids at Penn Duke Yale Caltech Columbia.

This level of hair splitting is literally insane. Just because things have numbers associated with them, it doesn’t translate to significant qualitative differences. It’s like saying one Italian sports car is better because it goes 201 mph while the other goes only 200 mph. Or this supermodel is more alluring than that supermodel because her waist is a half inch smaller. Quantity & quality are different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Duke is just becoming more and more competitive… it’s an absolute moonshot right now to get in

Don’t worry, as it’s basketball team slips into mediocrity, it will lose its shine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Duke is just becoming more and more competitive… it’s an absolute moonshot right now to get in

Don’t worry, as it’s basketball team slips into mediocrity, it will lose its shine.

They already lost Coach K and they only increased in popularity though