Why Was My Son Deferred from Duke ED?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not looking for sympathy but any insight would be appreciated. My son was told he would be a good candidate for Ivy League/Duke by his school counselor and applied ED to Duke with a 36 ACT, near-perfect GPA, all 5s and 4s on AP exams, two sport athlete and captain of one sport, student body president, editor in chief of school newspaper, head student liaison for arts nonprofit, a summer internship with a congressman, leadership volunteering position at library with book preservation and restoration experience, good awards, etc. My son had multiple people look over his essays, including the optional ones (academic experience and agreements/disagreements prompts) and he received good feedback. We figured maybe there was something else wrong with his application (maybe a recommendation letter was unexpectedly weak) or that he should’ve gone for another school he liked that would be a bit easier to be accepted like Cornell or Johns Hopkins, but over the past few days he was accepted to UNC Chapel Hill with a full scholarship, USC with scholarship pending, and UMich all out of state. He’s still disappointed about Duke but the UNC scholarship is very enticing and he’s still in the running for Duke, although we’re not sure about the chances of being accepted after a deferral. Inputs are welcome!

Take the UNC scholarship. He will probably enjoy college better there than at Duke, and I don’t think Duke is bad at all.

Hey OP, congrats to you and your son on his incredible achievements. Sounds like he will be a success wherever he goes. If he picks UNC, don't give Duke a second thought. It will be a funny story for him years from now. It's not the end of the world no matter how big a disappointment it feels like it is now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Duke is overrated. Your kid will do fine no matter where he attends.

We do not feel Duke is overrated and would still love an acceptance

I am in New York, and its reputation here is that it is fraternity-heavy, jocky and a little too southern. Personally, if shooting for the tippity top, I prefer the northern intellectual schools such as HYP, Williams, MIT, Cornell etc.

Meanwhile, my DC doesn't like the schools you mentioned, so it works out great....your kid won't apply to Duke and mine won't apply to your set.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Duke is overrated. Your kid will do fine no matter where he attends.

We do not feel Duke is overrated and would still love an acceptance

I am in New York, and its reputation here is that it is fraternity-heavy, jocky and a little too southern. Personally, if shooting for the tippity top, I prefer the northern intellectual schools such as HYP, Williams, MIT, Cornell etc.

I'm also from New York and disagree. I think your perception is outdated, I see Duke alumni in top jobs all over the city.

This is DEFINITELY true of the lacrosse players who go to Wall Street.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Duke is overrated. Your kid will do fine no matter where he attends.

We do not feel Duke is overrated and would still love an acceptance

I am in New York, and its reputation here is that it is fraternity-heavy, jocky and a little too southern. Personally, if shooting for the tippity top, I prefer the northern intellectual schools such as HYP, Williams, MIT, Cornell etc.

I'm also from New York and disagree. I think your perception is outdated, I see Duke alumni in top jobs all over the city.

This is DEFINITELY true of the lacrosse players who go to Wall Street.

[Anonymous]

Troll.

[Anonymous]

Go to UNC and don’t look back. My kid was accepted to both and could not be happier at UNC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not looking for sympathy but any insight would be appreciated. My son was told he would be a good candidate for Ivy League/Duke by his school counselor and applied ED to Duke with a 36 ACT, near-perfect GPA, all 5s and 4s on AP exams, two sport athlete and captain of one sport, student body president, editor in chief of school newspaper, head student liaison for arts nonprofit, a summer internship with a congressman, leadership volunteering position at library with book preservation and restoration experience, good awards, etc. My son had multiple people look over his essays, including the optional ones (academic experience and agreements/disagreements prompts) and he received good feedback. We figured maybe there was something else wrong with his application (maybe a recommendation letter was unexpectedly weak) or that he should’ve gone for another school he liked that would be a bit easier to be accepted like Cornell or Johns Hopkins, but over the past few days he was accepted to UNC Chapel Hill with a full scholarship, USC with scholarship pending, and UMich all out of state. He’s still disappointed about Duke but the UNC scholarship is very enticing and he’s still in the running for Duke, although we’re not sure about the chances of being accepted after a deferral. Inputs are welcome!

Its not about him not being enough, its about them having their priorities where someone less academic brought more of what Duke needed. Elite college admissions aren't fair in literal sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is he a white male from this area? If so, he's a dime a dozen. It's a bummer but it sounds like he has a lot of good choices.

That was my first thought too. "Is he a white preppy boy?" They've already got those.

Well my AA son with the same and even more states also did not get in last year. He did, however, get into Northwestern, Berkeley and a great crop of others. It is what it is. On to the next.

Really helpful if people would look at the trend of YouTube videos where current college students petition to look at their admission files. The reasons they thought they got in NEVER match why they got in. In fact, all the but the VERY best 5% of students are often stunned at how mediocre admission people thought they were. It's eye-opening and blows everything that people talk about on these posts out of the water. It's luck --period. Black, white, smart, whatever. It's luck.

It’s interesting you say that given your child was accepted into several top schools. Maybe he applied to 20-30 to get into the ones you mentioned?

My high stats kid was shut out of top public schools. Maybe we should have tried more due to luck but I also think my kid did not have the hooks / story. Yet another athletic kid that doesn’t play D1 is not interesting to a school.

Seems more than luck is at play when a kid gets into multiple Ivies or the kids who get into ivies also get the Banneker/Key scholarship. The admissions people are seeing SOMEthing in those student profiles.

[Anonymous]

OP, I think it’s because your son is Asian and, right now, schools are discriminating against Asians