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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC is about to go to Duke in fall. DC applied ED which we believe made a difference. DC also had activities that showed interest in the area they interred to study (stem). I do think this helped. Know your dc is interested in different field but hopes this helps. I think demonstrated interest can really help
a student and distinguish from others. Good
Luck to your DC!

Say hi to the Seinfelds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC is about to go to Duke in fall. DC applied ED which we believe made a difference. DC also had activities that showed interest in the area they interred to study (stem). I do think this helped. Know your dc is interested in different field but hopes this helps. I think demonstrated interest can really help
a student and distinguish from others. Good
Luck to your DC!

Say hi to the Seinfelds.

Did they both graduate already or is one still there?

[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.

I'm the PP who asked. I have one teenager who reads obsessively (no fiction, only a certain period of American history.) I've never heard of a teenager who has been passionate about literary criticism for years. Or an adult for that matter. And I'm an academic. So it sounded like a parental fantasy. Either way I doubt it makes a meaningful difference in an application to a school as competitive as Duke.

I am an alum - a double major in history and Econ. I agree with the statement above. It is simply a difficult school to get into and a strategy of pursuing a niche interesting likely won’t be compelling. I might add that I obtained admission to the history honors program and it was incredibly rigorous. That experience changed my life and future endeavors very manageable. My suggestion is to be open to majors and interests.

[Anonymous]

Duke doesn't admit to major.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Duke doesn't admit to major.

yes we all know; that's not the question in the OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I'm the PP who asked. I have one teenager who reads obsessively (no fiction, only a certain period of American history.) I've never heard of a teenager who has been passionate about literary criticism for years. Or an adult for that matter. And I'm an academic. So it sounded like a parental fantasy. Either way I doubt it makes a meaningful difference in an application to a school as competitive as Duke.

I am an alum - a double major in history and Econ. I agree with the statement above. It is simply a difficult school to get into and a strategy of pursuing a niche interesting likely won’t be compelling. I might add that I obtained admission to the history honors program and it was incredibly rigorous. That experience changed my life and future endeavors very manageable. My suggestion is to be open to majors and interests.

Is the history honors program just writing a senior thesis? I can't imagine a school like Duke would have a whole separate department/classes for "honors" students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

Mine, obviously. They used to spend a lot of time finding and reading theorists' writing about the books they were reading, which is when their interest started, and when they noticed that everyone had been or was currently a professor at Duke.

That's pretty cool. Good for them.

Totally use this in that application.

I agree. Maybe I'm naive, but simply saying this,and providing some specific examples of theorists' writings they read and what they thought and also explaining why it is meaningful to them if they can be articulate about that woudl be perfect fora "why duke?" type of essay.

Most schools are trying to keep up their humanities departments these days. Someone with an authetnic interest in the subject for a good reason is a great pick for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I'm the PP who asked. I have one teenager who reads obsessively (no fiction, only a certain period of American history.) I've never heard of a teenager who has been passionate about literary criticism for years. Or an adult for that matter. And I'm an academic. So it sounded like a parental fantasy. Either way I doubt it makes a meaningful difference in an application to a school as competitive as Duke.

I am an alum - a double major in history and Econ. I agree with the statement above. It is simply a difficult school to get into and a strategy of pursuing a niche interesting likely won’t be compelling. I might add that I obtained admission to the history honors program and it was incredibly rigorous. That experience changed my life and future endeavors very manageable. My suggestion is to be open to majors and interests.

Is the history honors program just writing a senior thesis? I can't imagine a school like Duke would have a whole separate department/classes for "honors" students.

Duke is a relatively small school. It didn’t have a separate department, but it had an honors director and its own requirements and one had to compete to get in the program. There were 10 of us. To be clear, I was not particularly deserving but was a very competitive scholarship athlete and they did not have a serious candidate of this type before. I worked like crazy to catch up and did unexpectedly well. My thesis choice was limited because there were professors on leaves who would have supported other choices. My eventual choice was a European economic history piece. I might add the program exists today and the quality of the published work is outstanding and better than my work for certain. I found it similar to the thesis requirements at Princeton, where my daughter graduated, but she was not stuck like her father being a relatively mediocre dumb jock. I certainly was happy seeing the next generation be better!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

Mine, obviously. They used to spend a lot of time finding and reading theorists' writing about the books they were reading, which is when their interest started, and when they noticed that everyone had been or was currently a professor at Duke.

That's pretty cool. Good for them.

Totally use this in that application.

I agree. Maybe I'm naive, but simply saying this,and providing some specific examples of theorists' writings they read and what they thought and also explaining why it is meaningful to them if they can be articulate about that woudl be perfect fora "why duke?" type of essay.

Most schools are trying to keep up their humanities departments these days. Someone with an authetnic interest in the subject for a good reason is a great pick for them.

It really is amazing that the elite universities have to fight so much to preserve their humanities programs. I was surprised to discover that it seems that Yale students primarily major in STEM type subjects now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

Mine, obviously. They used to spend a lot of time finding and reading theorists' writing about the books they were reading, which is when their interest started, and when they noticed that everyone had been or was currently a professor at Duke.

That's pretty cool. Good for them.

Totally use this in that application.

I agree. Maybe I'm naive, but simply saying this,and providing some specific examples of theorists' writings they read and what they thought and also explaining why it is meaningful to them if they can be articulate about that woudl be perfect fora "why duke?" type of essay.

Most schools are trying to keep up their humanities departments these days. Someone with an authetnic interest in the subject for a good reason is a great pick for them.

It really is amazing that the elite universities have to fight so much to preserve their humanities programs. I was surprised to discover that it seems that Yale students primarily major in STEM type subjects now.

Even Liberal arts colleges have become majority or top 3 majors in STEM subjects. It partially has to do with humanities departments refusing to update curriculums- do you really expect modern humanities students are more interested in analyzing Shakespeare or Yeats over Alice Walker, Sandra Cisneros, or Jhumpa Lahiri or that history students want to agonize over the Peloponnesian war versus Cold War ethics or bioweapons across periods. Humanities have also failed to defend why they matter-"it's about being a whole person," is a shit justification for a $360k degree and doesn't really mean much when the curriculum suggests being a whole person is being a snob about "old dead white men." Humanities departments have really isolated themselves off and not made it clear why the average student would have any reason to choose them over social science departments like Anthropology or Econ, who will teach you statistics and sometimes code along with the research/soft skills.

[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.

It’s not about enjoying reading. I like to read but at the end of the book that’s it. I don’t want to delve into analysis or criticism or anything similar. Most people don’t.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

Mine, obviously. They used to spend a lot of time finding and reading theorists' writing about the books they were reading, which is when their interest started, and when they noticed that everyone had been or was currently a professor at Duke.

That's pretty cool. Good for them.

Totally use this in that application.

I agree. Maybe I'm naive, but simply saying this,and providing some specific examples of theorists' writings they read and what they thought and also explaining why it is meaningful to them if they can be articulate about that woudl be perfect fora "why duke?" type of essay.

Most schools are trying to keep up their humanities departments these days. Someone with an authetnic interest in the subject for a good reason is a great pick for them.

It really is amazing that the elite universities have to fight so much to preserve their humanities programs. I was surprised to discover that it seems that Yale students primarily major in STEM type subjects now.

Even Liberal arts colleges have become majority or top 3 majors in STEM subjects. It partially has to do with humanities departments refusing to update curriculums- do you really expect modern humanities students are more interested in analyzing Shakespeare or Yeats over Alice Walker, Sandra Cisneros, or Jhumpa Lahiri or that history students want to agonize over the Peloponnesian war versus Cold War ethics or bioweapons across periods. Humanities have also failed to defend why they matter-"it's about being a whole person," is a shit justification for a $360k degree and doesn't really mean much when the curriculum suggests being a whole person is being a snob about "old dead white men." Humanities departments have really isolated themselves off and not made it clear why the average student would have any reason to choose them over social science departments like Anthropology or Econ, who will teach you statistics and sometimes code along with the research/soft skills.

You are seriously underestimating how much humanities departments have repositioned themselves. I just took a look at the English major requirements at an Ivy - and the course offerings and requirements are full of diverse perspectives and readings. Our oldest is only in high school, but most of the readings so far are no longer from the "canon" - and that was the case at all the schools he applied to. Same with the high school history curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC is about to go to Duke in fall. DC applied ED which we believe made a difference. DC also had activities that showed interest in the area they interred to study (stem). I do think this helped. Know your dc is interested in different field but hopes this helps. I think demonstrated interest can really help
a student and distinguish from others. Good
Luck to your DC!

Say hi to the Seinfelds.

Did they both graduate already or is one still there?

One graduated, one is still there and a third will be starting this year.

[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.

It’s not about enjoying reading. I like to read but at the end of the book that’s it. I don’t want to delve into analysis or criticism or anything similar. Most people don’t.

Most people aren't interested in doing chemistry experiments in a lab, either. But no one questions it when a high school student spends their time doing "research."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I'm the PP who asked. I have one teenager who reads obsessively (no fiction, only a certain period of American history.) I've never heard of a teenager who has been passionate about literary criticism for years. Or an adult for that matter. And I'm an academic. So it sounded like a parental fantasy. Either way I doubt it makes a meaningful difference in an application to a school as competitive as Duke.

I am an alum - a double major in history and Econ. I agree with the statement above. It is simply a difficult school to get into and a strategy of pursuing a niche interesting likely won’t be compelling. I might add that I obtained admission to the history honors program and it was incredibly rigorous. That experience changed my life and future endeavors very manageable. My suggestion is to be open to majors and interests.

Is the history honors program just writing a senior thesis? I can't imagine a school like Duke would have a whole separate department/classes for "honors" students.

They do not. Departmental honors and graduation with distinction is usually by a senior thesis. You do have to be approved by the dept. it is not separate classes. There are some honors classes scattered about, but not many and it is typically the student’s choice to take them or not.