2013-2014 Duke University Application Thread
Started by JJMrK
Get help with your application
Use all the free resources available to you from SDN: articles, guides, expert advising, forums discussions, and school research.
"What is the most difficult obstacle you have faced? What resources did you marshal to confront it? How did the experience affect you and/or transform your life?"
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
I'm between 370 and 450 words on all of mine. That seems like a reasonable length without getting too long.
yeah, you just have to write a 10,000 character research essay and 3,000 character why MD/PhD essay. It's easy. 😀
Mine ranged from about 175 to 330 words
Yo. I might be crazy but I enjoyed the Duke secondaries. I did PCLT so I wrote a ton. I love how user-friendly the application is - I almost passed how when I saw my course Pre-populated. I think I repeated myself here but that's how serious it is.
i've written two so far and they are both a full page. i may have to try to shorten it a bit
Contacted the admissions department. The reason no one can submit is do to an IT issue in getting a proper payment vendor. Submit button was supposed to start as of last wednesday. I'm not sure who told me Monday on this forum. They're hoping to get it sorted out in the next few days. I thought y'all would like to know.
Yea I was told Monday when I called last week, but now it seems it may take longer than that. Thanks for the update!
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
Strange. Well I was able to submit late last night, though I'm on fee waiver 🙂.
could anyone give some advice on how to approach the 'humbling experience' prompt?
how did you interpret that?
i interpret it as some event that really makes you stop and think and develop appreciation for something?
how did you interpret that?
i interpret it as some event that really makes you stop and think and develop appreciation for something?
I'm very disappointed in Duke.
^^ right after posting this, Duke submission opened up
Someone help fee waiver. I have one cannot submit
I called no answer. Has anyone else been able to submit with fee waiver?
Have you forwarded your FAP e-mail to Mr. Wallace? Did he give you a response back?
The e-mail says:
"Duke Secondary Application Fee Waivers are considered for applicants who have received an AMCAS Fee Waiver. In order to be considered for a Duke Secondary Application Fee Waiver, please forward a copy of your AMCAS Fee Waiver confirmation to:
[email protected]
Requests for a fee waiver (with documentation from AMCAS) must be submitted no later than 12:00 PM, Eastern Time, Friday, Friday, November 1, 2013. Requests for fee waivers received by Mr. Wallace after this date will not be considered. Requests for a fee waiver must be sent to [email protected]. Do not send fee waiver requests to any other email address."
EDIT: Never mind. He's out of office until 29th this month. I got this e-mail:
"I will be out of the office until July 29th. I will have very limited access to my email so I may not respond to your message until on or after July 29th. If you need assistance, please contact the Office of Admissions, 919-684-2985.
Thank you!
Richard S. Wallace
Associate Director of Admissions"
So basically, if you want to turn in your secondary asap but the Office of Admissions is not helping much, I am not sure what else to do except for just paying the secondary fee...
EDIT: Just called, but no one answering. Left a message. If they aren't giving me a call back today, I'll probably have to pay unfortunately if I want to submit by tonight/this weekend.
Update: Fee waiver approved. Mr. Wallace can still e-mail, so I would contact him if you are trying to get the fee waiver:
"A secondary application fee waiver has been applied to your application. When you are ready to submit your secondary application, you will see the applied fee waiver on the payment page.
Hope this helps.
Sincerely,
RW"
Last edited:
Mine were all 700-900 words but I still have one more to go. I wouldn't worry about it too much so long as you're making the points you need to make. I found their questions to be quite challenging and sometimes complex so I tried to answer them thoroughly. We'll see.
_
Last edited:
Congrats!!!
_
Last edited:
Not something to joke about... #neverforget
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
Not something to joke about... #neverforget
Wait I'm so confused, what happened? What I meant was that I'm scared that it is a glitch, not that I'm joking about my status change to II
He's saying dont joke that it may be a glitch, we're all sure its an II. Congrats! The duke secondary is too much for me 😛
I know. PM'ed.
Can someone post the secondary essay questions, please? I couldn't find them. Thank you!
IIRC, it was posted and quoted many times on page 2.
😱 Had I known this, I would have gotten on Duke's secondary so much sooner! I was taking my sweet time with it given that my committee didn't start writing letters until just this week! Yikes, I've been sitting on their secondary for almost 3 weeks -- not the best start with Duke, haha
Thanks for the info! I didn't know that before.
did all of you answer one of hte optional essays? i feel like i could answer them but i don't really think the answer helps them to get to know me better as an applicant
Wait...I don't know what that means.. I think I already assigned them the LOR through AMCAS... But I already received their secondary and completed it.
Having assigned LORs doesn't affect your ability to complete the secondary, it's just that they won't read them until they've decided to interview you. Hope that helps!
This. Even though they explicitly state not to send LORs before an II, I doubt they'll toss your app if you do. You could always email/call them if this is a concern. Link to where this info is found:
http://dukemed.duke.edu/modules/ooa_applicant/index.php?id=6
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
the website probably hasn't been updated. they used to not accept LORs via AMCAS letters service, and you would have to send them in directly. that's why they didn't want LORs before interview invites. now, they can download LORs via AMCAS at their leisure, so i don't think it's a problem at all.
This is entirely possible.
For the 'place where you grew up' essay, did you guys just talk about racial demographics, or did you highlight other aspects of your communities? I am having a hard time writing anything insightful about my racially homogeneous upper middle class community lol.
I was an anthropology nerd before this whole pre-med debacle, so here goes:
Ask yourself...What state/city did you grow up in? Anything unique about the culture there? Any major community events you think were unique? What was the dominant ethnic background (Irish/Italian/Polish/Ukrainian/whatever). How did that influence your experiences? Does your community border another that is urban/rural/of a different ethnic makeup, and has that caused tensions or given you more insight into disparities? Do people generally have more radical (liberal or conservative) political views than the rest of the US?
Although I didn't do this for my essay, I like the idea of describing the main street, or describing a particular place/event (like a town parade) that you think might stand out in your town, and then going from there to talk about culture/values, etc. Many very interesting ethnographies have been written about "racially homogenous upper middle class" communities, so I'm sure you have something to work with 🙂
Hope that helps!
This is what I did. I think it worked really well.
