How Insane Is Getting into Duke?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wonder what percentage of students at Duke are legacy?

10-12%

[Anonymous]

I know a bunch of Duke legacies and almost all of them are 100% on par with typical non-legacy admits. Smart people have smart kids. There are definitely exceptions, but not a ton.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter's friend is a legacy and top student in a elite private school. Still haven't heard anything yet, which tells me it might be bad news.

What ended up happening?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know a bunch of Duke legacies and almost all of them are 100% on par with typical non-legacy admits. Smart people have smart kids. There are definitely exceptions, but not a ton.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's an inside look from Selingo in New York Magazine of Duke's process, where the admissions dean says you have to go beyond the high school curriculum: When Guttentag at Duke reviews applications, he orders them by high school so that he understands the curriculum available to a particular group of students. The majority of applicants have competitive transcripts, he said, but one consequence of the huge increase in applications is that far fewer of them “knock your socks off.”

A decade ago, admissions officers at Duke regularly talked about a “wall of 5s” among applicants on Advanced Placement tests — the top score. “You’d just see this long list of eight or ten or 12 5s on AP scores,” Guttentag recalled. “That’s the sort of thing that would by itself have moved the needle and now doesn’t.”

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/inside-the-craziest-college-admissions-season-ever.html

So then, what exactly does work for Duke?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's funny seeing people on here say Duke just wants legacies or TO athletes during ED, when the top post on Reddit right now is literally an unhooked middle class kid with a 1590 getting into Duke: https://www.reddit.com/r/ApplyingToCollege/comments/1pntpkj/finally_made_my_asian_parents_proud_3/

AIME qualifier is way more impressive than the irrelevant SAT score. PP is correct, a 1590 is no different to Duke than a 1300.

[Anonymous]

From what i see at our private, Duke likes wealthy legacy, top stats, leadership, smart private school urm, recruited athletes. For the most part, the kids are impressive. They also take a lot of Questbridge and local NC kids (one of their institutional priorities). The super wealthy donors have their own process but they are well represented.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's an inside look from Selingo in New York Magazine of Duke's process, where the admissions dean says you have to go beyond the high school curriculum: When Guttentag at Duke reviews applications, he orders them by high school so that he understands the curriculum available to a particular group of students. The majority of applicants have competitive transcripts, he said, but one consequence of the huge increase in applications is that far fewer of them “knock your socks off.”

A decade ago, admissions officers at Duke regularly talked about a “wall of 5s” among applicants on Advanced Placement tests — the top score. “You’d just see this long list of eight or ten or 12 5s on AP scores,” Guttentag recalled. “That’s the sort of thing that would by itself have moved the needle and now doesn’t.”

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/inside-the-craziest-college-admissions-season-ever.html

"Since the turn of this century, the number of applications to the 67 most selective colleges in the nation, which includes Duke, has tripled — to nearly 2 million a year"

What an odd number of colleges to consider...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To Duke's credit, I don't think they are fans of the kids who a lot of the parents on DCUM see as superstars - the accumulators - at some point too many APs, too many "superstar" activities, etc. almost is perceived as phony.

I disagree that this is "to Duke's credit," but the one kid who got in from DD's school has unimpressive activities and not a lot of rigor, but has filthy rich parents.

I also disagree. The Duke admits we know are phony brats with curated activities.

The ones I know are just rich. Like polo player rich.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's funny seeing people on here say Duke just wants legacies or TO athletes during ED, when the top post on Reddit right now is literally an unhooked middle class kid with a 1590 getting into Duke: https://www.reddit.com/r/ApplyingToCollege/comments/1pntpkj/finally_made_my_asian_parents_proud_3/

AIME qualifier is way more impressive than the irrelevant SAT score. PP is correct, a 1590 is no different to Duke than a 1300.

AIME is more common than a 1590.

[Anonymous]

Might need to make a $million donation to get a legacy kid into Duke now.

[Anonymous]

Or move to the Carolinas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know a bunch of Duke legacies and almost all of them are 100% on par with typical non-legacy admits. Smart people have smart kids. There are definitely exceptions, but not a ton.

+1

+1 Definitely