Why Was My Son Deferred from Duke ED?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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!

Who knows for sure? But is there anything authentic about him? All of that stuff seems pre-packaged for a college app.

That was my thought. And, how much work did he actually do as time-wise it would be impossible to have all those A's, three sports, volunteer at least weekly for the non-profit and library, etc. I wonder if some of that looks fake at some point.

Me too! Can you give details on how he managed all of these leadership positions? Two sports AND editor in chief of newspaper? AND student body president? What time did he go to bed, and wake up, and how did he manage to keep his grades in all his classes?

Not OP, but I have a kid with very similar activities and my kid gets about seven hours of sleep a night (not eight because of AP class workload, not the other commitments) and of course, most kids who play two sports (such as baseball and football or baseball and basketball) play them in different seasons and not at the same time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your son sounds amazing so congrats on the great options so far! But you have to remember Duke has like a 4% acceptance rate and that includes the hundreds of athletes, legacies, and big donors who have a backdoor into Duke each year. People like Jamie Dimon, Jerry Seinfeld, etc. are notorious for having paid large sums in the past to get their kids into Duke, so you can expect similar situations happened this year too. Also Duke is known to take deferrals seriously unlike some other schools so your son still has a decent chance!

DP. Any links for the bolded? I had never heard that before.

NP but some quick googling got me: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/business/2012/11/jamie-dimon-tom-brady-hang-in-there
https://www.businessinsider.com/2008/7/jamie-dimon-gave-away-1-8-million-more-than-you-made-last-year?amp

Also Seinfeld was all over the news for like 5 months because media kept spotting him at Duke games, and it’s no coincidence his kids go there. Dimon and Seinfeld probably spent hundreds of thousands if not millions to buy the acceptances, most of it not publicized or made common knowledge

But no proof of that. Neither of those links provided any proof either. I think it's irresponsible to spread misinformation like that, don't you?

Celebrities have kids at all the top schools. It is a hook. Rob Lowe’s kids went to Stanford, so did Garth Brook’s daughter. Katie Couric’s kids went to Yale. Sarah Jessica Parker’s kid and Michael Douglas’ kids are at Brown. Gwynth’s daughter is at Vanderbilt. I could go on and on.

One of Rob Lowe's kids went to Duke and the other one went to Stanford.

[Anonymous]

To the OP, is this your first time with a child going through the slippery slope of college admissions? With top colleges having so many applications, it's impossible for them to accept all students. Your son is competing with other kids from his school/region, and maybe there were several applicants with legacy or celebrity or other hooks who nudged him out. His scores weren't perfect, but maybe Duke is looking for other things this year (first generation, hard luck cases, geographical diversity, famous parents, URMs etc).

Maybe the application reader was in a bad mood or tired when they read his application. Maybe your son seemed too similar to other files they'd been reading all day.

Our kid had better scores than most kids accepted to top schools but academic merit isn't the sole factor. We had to accept that.

Your son has some great acceptances so focus on those. He will be fine.

[Anonymous]

There are too many good applicants for each spot. Please don’t look for things your child did or did not do - it’s not a fault thing. He has a lot of good potions, and I’m sure there are more results to come later.

[Anonymous]

My child had the same stats and equivalent activities (plus several national awards and valedictorian at a top non-local high school) and had similar results. Got into a great school, just not Duke and not the Ivy League schools they had thought they had a good shot at. Fwiw, they were really disappointed at the time but love the school they attended (a top state school with money offered) and now will be able to afford a private grad school, if they’d like. But in truth, they may decide it’s not necessary and they can save that money for their first home or something else that helps them get launched. Some of life’s weirdest or hardest lessons (hard in a young person’s world) have a way of showing kids a new and even better way forward. Stay positive and they will too. Your child should be psyched, they just may not know how psyched quite yet. They’re in the weeds.

[Anonymous]

I'm wondering if you focused too much on the 36 ACT score. Perfect SATs and ACTs don't make a candidate a shoo in for top schools.

[Anonymous]

OP - At T20s and Ivys, it is so competitive that it is a lottery. It’s not that your son lacked anything, it’s just that there are many very highly and similarly qualified and they can only take so many. You did all the right things. We felt that my kid had a great shot at Cornell since his overall package showed great fit and purpose for the program they applied but was deferred. Kid got into couple reaches. So it is about having realistic expectations. Good Luck to your son! He sounds amazing and will do well.

[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!

The simple truth is because while his accomplishments are impressive, everyone applying has equally or even more impressive credentials.

[Anonymous]

UNC gives scholarships to certain high schools.

The guidance counselor and others decide who at their school will receive it. The student then needs to apply, and there’s no guarantee of admittance.

Congrats to your son, OP! I hope he can enjoy his big scholarship and have a fruitful time in college. He will end up liking any of the other choices even if he doesn’t feel so now.

UNC was a top choice for my kid with high stats and ECs and they did not get in. They moved on and will be happy elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

He isn’t a legacy or sports recruit. The year my DD applied the two students accepted from her high school to Duke were both legacy. Both.

[Anonymous]

What is your son's passion? What does he truly live for? Was it easy for the admissions committee to figure this out?

[Anonymous]

He will have a much better experience at UNC than he would have at Duke.

[Anonymous]

Duke ED was incredibly competitive this year, and ED is where the majority of athletes, influential legacies, and big-time donors/celebrities get their kids in as well. Your son is clearly qualified but just didn’t make the cut for ED, but Duke defers very few applicants to RD so your son has a real chance of getting accepted in March/April

[Anonymous]

I bet that Duke does a more thorough read of applications then the other schools and questioned the validity (or at least depth) of your son's extracurriculars.
It just doesn't add up that any kid can do that many things at once with any degree of depth.

Listen, the editor of the newspaper at Jackson Reed just got into Harvard and to my knowledge that was his only outlying extracurricular. Why? Because it takes him 20 hours a week.
It's a serious paper and serious time commitment. Your son's resume indicates that he can head the school paper in about 10 minutes a day after he does 7 other things.
It doesn't add up that he's doing anything at more than a superficial level (that or he's never sleeping, eating or socializing).

Applications are read by real people who see through the BS or at least can think logically through resumes. I've seen this before on DCUM--a kid who claimed to have volunteered
for so many hours a year that it worked out to like 30 hours a week. This kid also didn't get into a top school despite having a crazy good resume and wondered why.
Hmm. Maybe someone at the school also did that calculation.

I'm not saying your kid made anything up but rather that Duke saw his impressive extracurriculars as being pretty shallow level stuff since he was able to do them all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I bet that Duke does a more thorough read of applications then the other schools and questioned the validity (or at least depth) of your son's extracurriculars.
It just doesn't add up that any kid can do that many things at once with any degree of depth.

Listen, the editor of the newspaper at Jackson Reed just got into Harvard and to my knowledge that was his only outlying extracurricular. Why? Because it takes him 20 hours a week.
It's a serious paper and serious time commitment. Your son's resume indicates that he can head the school paper in about 10 minutes a day after he does 7 other things.
It doesn't add up that he's doing anything at more than a superficial level (that or he's never sleeping, eating or socializing).

Applications are read by real people who see through the BS or at least can think logically through resumes. I've seen this before on DCUM--a kid who claimed to have volunteered
for so many hours a year that it worked out to like 30 hours a week. This kid also didn't get into a top school despite having a crazy good resume and wondered why.
Hmm. Maybe someone at the school also did that calculation.

I'm not saying your kid made anything up but rather that Duke saw his impressive extracurriculars as being pretty shallow level stuff since he was able to do them all.

My thoughts exactly. There aren't enough hours in the day to be the editor and a serious athlete. That's how I would look at it...with the risk that my being wrong results in some injustice.