Duke University Admissions: Does having a strong interest in literary criticism help or hurt?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think if it shows intellectual curiosity it’s good but an undergrad is unlikely to take that much literary theory. He might take one course in it as an English major.

So I wouldn’t overplay it either. Does he really understand what it is? Can he convey his interest authentically?

Thanks for the excellent advice. It's not a subject that I understand at all (I'm a biotech person) but from what others tell me, he seems to have a surprisingly good understanding. Or at the very least, he seems to win a lot of awards/prizes for various essays he submits to contests. He wrote one on a piece of pop culture that a faculty member at our local state university really liked.

Even better the OP’s kid is a boy entering the humanities. This is a hook nowadays.

[Anonymous]

Academics always love to hear that a young student is willing to pay lots of money to keep their unprofitable scholarship humming along.

Sure, it might be a hook given that he's a male interested in the humanities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Academics always love to hear that a young student is willing to pay lots of money to keep their unprofitable scholarship humming along.

Sure, it might be a hook given that he's a male interested in the humanities.

There are plenty of males interested in humanities applying to top schools - it's not a hook. This describes one of our kids.

But this very specific deep dive could help given Duke's connection. Especially if the applicant has won awards from places the department would recognize as being special.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What 16/17yo has been interested "for years" in literary criticism?

Not the OP, but my 17yo has. Literary analysis was their favorite part of their middle school humanities magnet, and they started reading up on different critical frameworks in their spare time after picking up a survey textbook from a little free library. The IB diploma program does a lot of that kind of analysis, and they’ve loved it.

So yeah, it happens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it's a plus.

The STEM kids are having a hard time standing out from the crowd.

Agree it is a slight plus to have a humanities interest these days. Stem is a minus. However: that interest has to be backed up thoroughly with essays and EC. And , specifically speaking of Duke: they care a lot about a student challenging themselves in ALL areas. Their unhooked admits have almost all taken the hardest courses in all core areas throughout high school, whatever that means for the high school. Duke has always loved scores, even in TO world, and other than feederish private schools or public governor’s schools, they accept from the top 5% of most high schools. The high schools rank even if they say they do not. The humanities/writing interest will only be a slight boost if the student has all these more-important factors. It will not make up for a borderline stats or less than ideal rigor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC has been interested in going to Duke for years now, primarily due to their literature department. I don't know much about the subject but DC tells me that they are known for having an excellent literary criticism and theory program, and I can see that it is ranked #1 in us news and world report for this. College counselor thinks DC should apply early to Duke and should emphasize the talent in this area. So here's my question: do universities like Duke give a boost for someone with interest/talent in the university's strong area, or is it really the other way around. For example, Yale gives a boost in admissions to people with an interest in engineering, because that is an area of weakness for them. They wouldn't give a boost to someone with a talent in history. Any thoughts?

They have only 25 English majors; 7 master’s degrees; and 15 doctoral degrees. They need even more undergrads and they have huge grad school dept. resources; it’s a plus.

On another level, demonstrated interest in anything that is not computer science, engineering, biological sciences, or econ is a plus.

Does this really matter? I would think that if 1% (for example) of the degrees are English then 1% of applicants were interested in English. So no real advantage. But then, Duke doesn’t even admit by major - other than Engineering BS.

I’d think if a school was strong in something, then they’d be more prepared to accept more students into that major - have more professors, dedicated classrooms, resources. ??

These are genuine questions. Even though I have 2 kids in college, I can only use their experience as recent anecdotes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What 16/17yo has been interested "for years" in literary criticism?

It's called "enjoying reading." Some teens aren't terminally online.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Academics always love to hear that a young student is willing to pay lots of money to keep their unprofitable scholarship humming along.

Sure, it might be a hook given that he's a male interested in the humanities.

There are plenty of males interested in humanities applying to top schools - it's not a hook. This describes one of our kids.

But this very specific deep dive could help given Duke's connection. Especially if the applicant has won awards from places the department would recognize as being special.

Yea, being a guy interested in humanities is not going to be a hook.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC has been interested in going to Duke for years now, primarily due to their literature department. I don't know much about the subject but DC tells me that they are known for having an excellent literary criticism and theory program, and I can see that it is ranked #1 in us news and world report for this. College counselor thinks DC should apply early to Duke and should emphasize the talent in this area. So here's my question: do universities like Duke give a boost for someone with interest/talent in the university's strong area, or is it really the other way around. For example, Yale gives a boost in admissions to people with an interest in engineering, because that is an area of weakness for them. They wouldn't give a boost to someone with a talent in history. Any thoughts?

Does your student have the grades and courseload to be competitive for Duke? The rest is irrelevant if they are not well within the ballpark based on the basics.
Everyone who has Duke as their number 1 should ED, as long as it is a reasonable reach and not a complete waste of ED.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it's a plus.

The STEM kids are having a hard time standing out from the crowd.

How do STEM kids even separate themselves from crowd? Most of their research is just riding the coattails of a professor/lab somewhere so people don't always take it seriously. One kid I know was an intel finalist (now called by some other name), had perfect grades and test scores, and was rejected by Duke. Even Harvard gave the courtesy of a waitlist.

[Anonymous]

OP sure ED to Duke but make sure the rest of the application is competitive. Remember this is Duke we’re talking about so just having strong achievement in a niche area won’t cut it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC has been interested in going to Duke for years now, primarily due to their literature department. I don't know much about the subject but DC tells me that they are known for having an excellent literary criticism and theory program, and I can see that it is ranked #1 in us news and world report for this. College counselor thinks DC should apply early to Duke and should emphasize the talent in this area. So here's my question: do universities like Duke give a boost for someone with interest/talent in the university's strong area, or is it really the other way around. For example, Yale gives a boost in admissions to people with an interest in engineering, because that is an area of weakness for them. They wouldn't give a boost to someone with a talent in history. Any thoughts?

Does your student have the grades and courseload to be competitive for Duke? The rest is irrelevant if they are not well within the ballpark based on the basics.
Everyone who has Duke as their number 1 should ED, as long as it is a reasonable reach and not a complete waste of ED.

Yes, he is within the ballpark in terms of rigor, grades, and test scores but not necessarily a major standout in terms of test scores as far as Duke goes (low to mid 700s) though they seem solid to me. I made the conscious decision a while ago that I would not encourage him to do anything he isn't willing to do (which includes test prep, doing any ECs which he finds "useless" like National Honor Society, overscheduling, and so on) but honestly I think opening up a lot of free time for him actually helped him find time for writing which he actually enjoys.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What 16/17yo has been interested "for years" in literary criticism?

Yeah ... no way. I have a grad degree in English so I've spent way too much time around way too many people who are "interested ... in literary criticism," and I don't buy this. Nope.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What 16/17yo has been interested "for years" in literary criticism?

It's called "enjoying reading." Some teens aren't terminally online.

An enjoyment of reading does not equal interest in lit crit. Not even close.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What 16/17yo has been interested "for years" in literary criticism?

It's called "enjoying reading." Some teens aren't terminally online.

An enjoyment of reading does not equal interest in lit crit. Not even close.

What if you're reading about literary theory?