Help DS Decide: Duke ED or Harvard/Princeton REA

Anonymous
The kid isn’t getting into Harvard or Princeton. Not gonna happen.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:The kid isn’t getting into Harvard or Princeton. Not gonna happen.


Why not? These schools are a crapshoot and as long as you hit the minimum anything is fair game. Anecdotal but the valedictorian at my son’s public school with a 1550 SAT and solid extracurriculars (nothing unheard of though) got into only Harvard and Georgetown out of his reach schools after applying to 3 other ivies, Duke, and Northwestern. Of course he was more than happy to attend Harvard but there were certainly kids we thought were “stronger” who didn’t even get waitlisted at Harvard while getting into some of the schools he was rejected from. It’s all a lottery.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The kid isn’t getting into Harvard or Princeton. Not gonna happen.


Why not? These schools are a crapshoot and as long as you hit the minimum anything is fair game. Anecdotal but the valedictorian at my son’s public school with a 1550 SAT and solid extracurriculars (nothing unheard of though) got into only Harvard and Georgetown out of his reach schools after applying to 3 other ivies, Duke, and Northwestern. Of course he was more than happy to attend Harvard but there were certainly kids we thought were “stronger” who didn’t even get waitlisted at Harvard while getting into some of the schools he was rejected from. It’s all a lottery.


Did he apply Harvard early action or regular decision?
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:So arrogant that you think your DC can get into any of these schools. Your stats are nothing special. Consider adding a few local public schools so your kid isn’t wanting to step in front of a train in the Spring.



How is OP being arrogant? He never said his son is guaranteed to get in anywhere, just that he has a chance. Plus he already said earlier his DS has 15ish schools to apply to if the early round doesn't work out. If he was being overly pessimistic like you are, I'd tell him to get some confidence. A 1580, salutatorian, leadership positions in extracurriculars and sports, national level awards, etc. deserves to apply to top schools to see what happens. Even if he doesn't get into schools like Duke and Harvard, he'll probably get scholarship $$ somewhere.


I don’t know OP’s kid, but I know mine is smarter. I hear all the time about so-called smart kids that rock fabricated ECs, 4.5 weighted GPAs by taking cupcake AP classes, and hold a smug 1580 on the SAT (yeah, after months of expensive prep classes and superscoring across five attempts). Unimpressed! Put this kid head-to-head with mine and both the kid and his parents will experience an entirely new definition of intellectual embarrassment and holistic humbling.


OP 's kid did perfect academically, great extracurriculars, and national awards. And your kid is not only way better, but Op and her child would be just embarrassed to even be compared. Got it.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The kid isn’t getting into Harvard or Princeton. Not gonna happen.


Why not? These schools are a crapshoot and as long as you hit the minimum anything is fair game. Anecdotal but the valedictorian at my son’s public school with a 1550 SAT and solid extracurriculars (nothing unheard of though) got into only Harvard and Georgetown out of his reach schools after applying to 3 other ivies, Duke, and Northwestern. Of course he was more than happy to attend Harvard but there were certainly kids we thought were “stronger” who didn’t even get waitlisted at Harvard while getting into some of the schools he was rejected from. It’s all a lottery.


Did he apply Harvard early action or regular decision?


He applied regular to Harvard. He deferred then rejected from Princeton early action.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:So arrogant that you think your DC can get into any of these schools. Your stats are nothing special. Consider adding a few local public schools so your kid isn’t wanting to step in front of a train in the Spring.



How is OP being arrogant? He never said his son is guaranteed to get in anywhere, just that he has a chance. Plus he already said earlier his DS has 15ish schools to apply to if the early round doesn't work out. If he was being overly pessimistic like you are, I'd tell him to get some confidence. A 1580, salutatorian, leadership positions in extracurriculars and sports, national level awards, etc. deserves to apply to top schools to see what happens. Even if he doesn't get into schools like Duke and Harvard, he'll probably get scholarship $$ somewhere.


I don’t know OP’s kid, but I know mine is smarter. I hear all the time about so-called smart kids that rock fabricated ECs, 4.5 weighted GPAs by taking cupcake AP classes, and hold a smug 1580 on the SAT (yeah, after months of expensive prep classes and superscoring across five attempts). Unimpressed! Put this kid head-to-head with mine and both the kid and his parents will experience an entirely new definition of intellectual embarrassment and holistic humbling.


OP 's kid did perfect academically, great extracurriculars, and national awards. And your kid is not only way better, but Op and her child would be just embarrassed to even be compared. Got it.


+1 I cant tell if that was satire or someone so far up their own rear… OP’s kid is a top student plain and simple.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:OP, if your DC is a Harvard or Princeton legacy, I would recommend applying there for early action.


OP here, DS is not a legacy to Harvard, Princeton, or Duke.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:So arrogant that you think your DC can get into any of these schools. Your stats are nothing special. Consider adding a few local public schools so your kid isn’t wanting to step in front of a train in the Spring.



How is OP being arrogant? He never said his son is guaranteed to get in anywhere, just that he has a chance. Plus he already said earlier his DS has 15ish schools to apply to if the early round doesn't work out. If he was being overly pessimistic like you are, I'd tell him to get some confidence. A 1580, salutatorian, leadership positions in extracurriculars and sports, national level awards, etc. deserves to apply to top schools to see what happens. Even if he doesn't get into schools like Duke and Harvard, he'll probably get scholarship $$ somewhere.


I don’t know OP’s kid, but I know mine is smarter. I hear all the time about so-called smart kids that rock fabricated ECs, 4.5 weighted GPAs by taking cupcake AP classes, and hold a smug 1580 on the SAT (yeah, after months of expensive prep classes and superscoring across five attempts). Unimpressed! Put this kid head-to-head with mine and both the kid and his parents will experience an entirely new definition of intellectual embarrassment and holistic humbling.


DS is very earnest in everything he does, nothing has been fabricated. He has state level leadership as well as multiple leadership position in his own school that he spends a great deal of time on, none of which are easy organizations. He has taken one of the hardest course loads the school offers, not cupcake classes (although he tries to balance his schedule to make sure he has time for everything else). And we didn’t send him to prep classes for the SAT, he studied on his own and only took it twice. I’m sure your kid is great too but there’s no need to put other kids down.
Anonymous
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Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I don't know what you guys are smoking but Duke is statistically nearly as as much of a lottery as Harvard and Princeton- in fact more of one from certain schools. They don't like Sidwell for some reason. Duke does favor legacies in ED. Our kids are at a Big 3 school and we saw kids with the exact same stats as the OP's son getting rejected from HYPSM AND Duke and Northwestern. This kid seems like average supersmart kid- a dime a dozen in the DMV. And unless I missed something and the EC's are SUPER SUPER unique or the kid is URM/first gen which was not mentioned, all 3 are a crap shoot and it's ridiculous to try to game this.


Have to agree with the part about Duke having feeder schools. My child is at a T3 equivalent in another city and the have only gotten 3 kids into Duke in the past five years or so and all are recruited athletes. Acceptance rates to H/Y/P are definitely notably. higher from our school.


+1 the only school I've seen consistently get kids into Duke from DMV is TJHSST and maybe Gilman/Chevy Chase.


It may feel like that, but Duke gets applications from more than 13,000 schools, and they admit about 3,000 students. That means there are at least 10,000 schools where they admit no one.


That’s true, but I was specifically referring to the DMV area. Of course other schools around the country and even the world will send more, especially NCSSM.

This year, 3 TJ graduates went to Duke (1 AB Duke, 1 Robertson). In the summer, they had parties for the DMV students headed to Duke, and we saw at least 40 students there (from various DMV schools).


Wow so few, must be one of the lowest in years. Out of curiosity how do you know this level of detail, are you the parent of a Duke student who was at these parties?

Yes, I’m the parent of the TJ graduate who is now at Duke, and we were at the parties. They said that last year, about 6 TJ graduates went to Duke. My child greatly enjoys Duke so far, joined several clubs, published an article in their Chronicle newspaper, and got a part-time job on campus building some websites.


That is great, I am glad to hear your DC is enjoying Duke and taking advantage of its offerings! Out of curiosity, was your DC one of the scholarship winners or were those just the classmates who won the scholarships? And even if your DC wasn't one of the winners, do you know what helped the other two with winning a scholarship to Duke? Even just getting into Duke is so competitive, I can't imagine how hard winning a scholarship is.

Yes, she is an AB Duke scholar. For Robertson, students need to apply, while we had no idea that Duke even offers any merit-based scholarships. For AB Duke and several others, every applicant is considered automatically. DD applied RD and received an email from Duke in March saying she is a finalist for the scholarship. Her first thought was it's a scam. They gave her a week to write several more essays and scheduled an interview which turned out to be very difficult with a bunch of technical questions. Then they called her on April 1 to tell her she is the winner, and she thought they are joking. The professor had to repeat about 3 times that she is not joking. AB Duke scholarship is for self-motivated students, and DD has always been extremely driven (participated in and won various tournaments; if she didn't participate, then volunteered as a judge; co-authored a CS textbook; was a co-captain of 2 school clubs, had a part-time teaching job since the age of 14, even during the school year, and much more). High stats, most rigorous workload, NMS, all her own accomplishments, we've never checked her homework or reminded her about it.


Congratulations! DS told us Duke offers scholarships but we’re certainly not expecting to get one even if he is accepted. Your daughter sounds like a wonderful addition to Duke.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Good luck to your son , op, come back ina few months and let us know how he fared.


Thank you, I’ll come back to update the thread after the early round!
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:So arrogant that you think your DC can get into any of these schools. Your stats are nothing special. Consider adding a few local public schools so your kid isn’t wanting to step in front of a train in the Spring.



We certainly are not expecting to get into such high caliber schools, we just wanted to decide where he should apply early. He has plenty of less selective schools on his list that he’ll be happy to attend if he doesn’t get into Harvard, Duke, or Princeton.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:My DS was very similar - but this was pre COVID. 2018. He EDed at Stanford and was shut out, then did not get into Harvard, yale, brown, Pomona or CMC. He did get into Cornell, duke, rice, JHU, Georgetown. Also got into his safeties which were BU, tufts, wake forest. This scenario could play out the same, but I would no longer count BU, tufts and wake as safeties based on what I have heard.


Thanks for sharing! This seems like a great outcome to me, your DS got into some fantastic schools!
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:I went for Duke ED back in the day. I wish I had held out. While a good school, Duke turned out not to be the best fit for me. I think I made the decision hastily and likely (based on classmates with similar stats) would have gotten into an ivy that would have been a better fit. Obviously just one data point and from a different era. If he truly loves Duke and thinks it's a good cultural fit, it may be a good choice but I personally regret rushing the decision because of ED.


Can you elaborate? This might be useful to share with DS if there’s something we weren’t aware of about Duke.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:So arrogant that you think your DC can get into any of these schools. Your stats are nothing special. Consider adding a few local public schools so your kid isn’t wanting to step in front of a train in the Spring.



How is OP being arrogant? He never said his son is guaranteed to get in anywhere, just that he has a chance. Plus he already said earlier his DS has 15ish schools to apply to if the early round doesn't work out. If he was being overly pessimistic like you are, I'd tell him to get some confidence. A 1580, salutatorian, leadership positions in extracurriculars and sports, national level awards, etc. deserves to apply to top schools to see what happens. Even if he doesn't get into schools like Duke and Harvard, he'll probably get scholarship $$ somewhere.


I don’t know OP’s kid, but I know mine is smarter. I hear all the time about so-called smart kids that rock fabricated ECs, 4.5 weighted GPAs by taking cupcake AP classes, and hold a smug 1580 on the SAT (yeah, after months of expensive prep classes and superscoring across five attempts). Unimpressed! Put this kid head-to-head with mine and both the kid and his parents will experience an entirely new definition of intellectual embarrassment and holistic humbling.


DS is very earnest in everything he does, nothing has been fabricated. He has state level leadership as well as multiple leadership position in his own school that he spends a great deal of time on, none of which are easy organizations. He has taken one of the hardest course loads the school offers, not cupcake classes (although he tries to balance his schedule to make sure he has time for everything else). And we didn’t send him to prep classes for the SAT, he studied on his own and only took it twice. I’m sure your kid is great too but there’s no need to put other kids down.


OP ignore the negativity. That parent behaves that way because they know their kid has serious competition.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:So arrogant that you think your DC can get into any of these schools. Your stats are nothing special. Consider adding a few local public schools so your kid isn’t wanting to step in front of a train in the Spring.



How is OP being arrogant? He never said his son is guaranteed to get in anywhere, just that he has a chance. Plus he already said earlier his DS has 15ish schools to apply to if the early round doesn't work out. If he was being overly pessimistic like you are, I'd tell him to get some confidence. A 1580, salutatorian, leadership positions in extracurriculars and sports, national level awards, etc. deserves to apply to top schools to see what happens. Even if he doesn't get into schools like Duke and Harvard, he'll probably get scholarship $$ somewhere.


I don’t know OP’s kid, but I know mine is smarter. I hear all the time about so-called smart kids that rock fabricated ECs, 4.5 weighted GPAs by taking cupcake AP classes, and hold a smug 1580 on the SAT (yeah, after months of expensive prep classes and superscoring across five attempts). Unimpressed! Put this kid head-to-head with mine and both the kid and his parents will experience an entirely new definition of intellectual embarrassment and holistic humbling.


DS is very earnest in everything he does, nothing has been fabricated. He has state level leadership as well as multiple leadership position in his own school that he spends a great deal of time on, none of which are easy organizations. He has taken one of the hardest course loads the school offers, not cupcake classes (although he tries to balance his schedule to make sure he has time for everything else). And we didn’t send him to prep classes for the SAT, he studied on his own and only took it twice. I’m sure your kid is great too but there’s no need to put other kids down.


OP ignore the negativity. That parent behaves that way because they know their kid has serious competition.


+1 that poster is an @$$hole, OP your son looks like a great addition to any school
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