Anonymous
Post 12/16/2025 15:04     Subject: How Insane Is Getting into Duke?
Anonymous wrote:I honestly don’t think test scores matter very much once 1520 or so is reached.


Not true at my kid’s school.
Anonymous
Post 12/16/2025 14:24     Subject: How Insane Is Getting into Duke?
Duke is extremely popular/checks all the boxes,
Anonymous
Post 12/16/2025 12:40     Subject: How Insane Is Getting into Duke?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:They look for legacies - at our HS, that's who gets in year after year


Duke draws a crazy talented pool of kids!!!

(1570 + 3.99 UW + 12 AP legacy denied here.)


Same here. 4.0/4.6/1580 14 AP legacy deferred then rejected last year.
Anonymous
Post 12/16/2025 12:37     Subject: How Insane Is Getting into Duke?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Please UVA is not in the same zip code of Duke. Outside of metro DC, people view UVA as a safety.


Not for most families. Duke is now $99,344 a year. https://financialaid.duke.edu/how-aid-calculated/cost-attendance/


My kid went instate UVA at $34k. Even OSS, UVA is still $20k less a year.


No, UVA OOS tuition and fees are estimated at over $90K per year. (I looked at engineering, since my kid is a first semester engineering student).

https://sfs.virginia.edu/financial-aid-new-applicants/financial-aid-basics/estimated-undergraduate-cost-attendance-2025-2026
Anonymous
Post 12/16/2025 12:31     Subject: How Insane Is Getting into Duke?
I wonder what percentage of students at Duke are legacy?
Anonymous
Post 12/16/2025 12:18     Subject: How Insane Is Getting into Duke?
Anonymous wrote:Really depends on the HS, but from our private: every single legacy gets in ED. other EDs (including incredibly high stat, impressive kids) are either deferred or (usually) rejected outright. Duke often comes back to our HS to scoop up a kid or two off WL and, once, came back and accepted a kid they had rejected.


At our child's private (top school in DC), Duke legacies who are also strong students are rejected/deferred every year. Including yesterday. One is my kid's close friend.
Anonymous
Post 12/16/2025 12:12     Subject: How Insane Is Getting into Duke?
Anonymous wrote:Test optional. Everyone throwing their hat in the ring. Lowers acceptance rates.

Stop acting like Duke being really competitive is some new product of test optional. It's been like this for much longer than that.
Anonymous
Post 12/16/2025 11:18     Subject: How Insane Is Getting into Duke?
Really depends on the HS, but from our private: every single legacy gets in ED. other EDs (including incredibly high stat, impressive kids) are either deferred or (usually) rejected outright. Duke often comes back to our HS to scoop up a kid or two off WL and, once, came back and accepted a kid they had rejected.
Anonymous
Post 12/16/2025 11:17     Subject: How Insane Is Getting into Duke?
Test optional. Everyone throwing their hat in the ring. Lowers acceptance rates.
Anonymous
Post 12/16/2025 11:15     Subject: How Insane Is Getting into Duke?
People are finally understanding what a 5% acceptance rate means.

You can do everything right and not get into a school that only takes 5%.
Anonymous
Post 12/16/2025 10:57     Subject: How Insane Is Getting into Duke?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The stats get you a lotto ticket. Then it just turns to luck.


OP- this is the correct answer. Stats get you a serious look, but there needs to be a wow factor in the application to get admitted. Everyone will have good essays and lots of activities. A wow factor is different.


+1

Earn your lottery ticket and then just hope for the best ….


+2 Folks don’t understand that they are competing against the top 1% of students in every school across the country. The average kids are not applying to Duke. The question is how do you stand out when compared to the tippy top kids in EVERY school.
Anonymous
Post 12/16/2025 10:53     Subject: Re:How Insane Is Getting into Duke?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Yep, crap shoot. My kid has a friend there, and he is your typical very smart private school kid. NOT top of the class, NOT a varsity athlete. Average well-rounded. It does happen.


This doesn't really happen in DC. I've had 3 seniors at 2 different DC privates between them and the only Duke admits over the past 5 years were kids in the top 5 kids in the class and 90% of the time were also legacies. There has literally been no one admitted who don't fit this profile. It's such an impossible admission. 95% of the time Duke declines the kids who are just top 5 in the class. You need to be legacy too. You can get into Harvard, Princeton and Yale on grades/class ranking alone but not Duke.


We are in a different city -- which might help. This kid is working class, and maybe that was his differentiator!
Anonymous
Post 12/16/2025 10:51     Subject: How Insane Is Getting into Duke?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The stats get you a lotto ticket. Then it just turns to luck.


OP- this is the correct answer. Stats get you a serious look, but there needs to be a wow factor in the application to get admitted. Everyone will have good essays and lots of activities. A wow factor is different.


+1

Earn your lottery ticket and then just hope for the best ….
Anonymous
Post 12/16/2025 10:38     Subject: How Insane Is Getting into Duke?
Anonymous wrote:They look for legacies - at our HS, that's who gets in year after year


Duke draws a crazy talented pool of kids!!!

(1570 + 3.99 UW + 12 AP legacy denied here.)
Anonymous
Post 12/16/2025 10:22     Subject: How Insane Is Getting into Duke?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Please UVA is not in the same zip code of Duke. Outside of metro DC, people view UVA as a safety.


Not for most families. Duke is now $99,344 a year. https://financialaid.duke.edu/how-aid-calculated/cost-attendance/


My kid went instate UVA at $34k. Even OSS, UVA is still $20k less a year.


Yep. Which DCUM would say is a rounding error but it's almost $100K when it's all said and done. For many of us (even those of us paying $75-80k/year for college) that is huge money.