2015-2016 Duke University Application Thread

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

Ismet

Full Member
Moderator Emeritus
10+ Year Member
Joined
May 15, 2011
Messages
9,907
Reaction score
10,037
Prompts:

1. Describe the community in which you were nurtured or spent the majority of your early development with respect to its demographics. What core values did you receieve and how will these translate into the contributions that you hope to make to your community as a medical student and to your career in medicine? What improvements do you think might make the described community better?

2. Describe a situation where you have chosen to advocate for someone who is different from yourself. What does advocacy mean to you and how has your advocacy developed? How do you see it linked to your role as a physician/leader? What risks, if any, might be associated with your choice to be an advocate?


3. What has been your most humbling experience and how will that experience affect your interactions with your peers and patients.

4. What will challenge you the most in your career as a health care provider when you have to deal with people unlike yourself (e.g. gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, social background, and other difference)? How do you plan to address these? What resources do you plan to use to address these?


[Optional] Pick one of the following:

(5a) Giving Back To Your Community: What is the value of giving back to your community? Is it a more important attribute of a physician than of others performing other roles within a community?


(5b) Toughest Feedback: What is the toughest feedback that you ever received? How did you handle it and what did you learn from it?

No character limits

Good luck to everyone applying! :luck:

Members don't see this ad.
 
Last edited:
Okay, hope this admissions season goes better than the last. For entertainment, read through last years thread starting about March 1, 2015. Quite a fiasco.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 5 users
Does anyone know if Duke requires statistics? On their website they've changed their academic requirements from the 2014-2015 application and it doesn't seem as clear cut to me. In addition, the MSAR info page for Duke only lists stats as recommended. Could anyone clear this up? Thanks.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
The MSAR shows that Duke doesn't really like community college classes...
Is that going to be held against me if I did all my prereqs at cc before transfering to a UC?
 
The MSAR shows that Duke doesn't really like community college classes...
Is that going to be held against me if I did all my prereqs at cc before transfering to a UC?
Probably to an extent, yes.
 
Does anyone know if Duke requires statistics? On their website they've changed their academic requirements from the 2014-2015 application and it doesn't seem as clear cut to me. In addition, the MSAR info page for Duke only lists stats as recommended. Could anyone clear this up? Thanks.

http://dukemed.duke.edu/modules/ooa_applicant/index.php?id=21

From here it looks like it is a requirement. I wanted to apply, but realized I'm missing sociology.
 
Looking forward to this application cycle. Hope to meet some potential future classmates on this post! :p
 
I'm in the same boat! But by that description, I have taken other classes that would have covered the topics they want us to know (public health, psych, sociocultural anth...). So I don't know if I should bother applying then. Is it appropriate to email them and ask?
Prereqs are required for matriculation, NOT admission. Apply without worry.
 
Does Duke only allow for 4 letters of rec MAX?
 
Members don't see this ad :)
Do you know where you could direct me to this info?

The only place I could find was:

http://dukemed.duke.edu/modules/ooa_applicant/index.php?id=6

They never really mention a max though.

Taken from MSAR:
Screen Shot 2015-06-01 at 5.46.32 PM.png
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
No character or word limits on the secondary essays...any current students out there that can comment on the average length?
 
Mine were around one to two pages in length for each prompt. I actually liked not having limitations, I didn't have to cut out stuff that I thought was relevant but wouldn't fit like I had to with many other secondaries.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 users
Mine were around one to two pages in length for each prompt. I actually liked not having limitations, I didn't have to cut out stuff that I thought was relevant but wouldn't fit like I had to with many other secondaries.

Thanks for answering. I definitely don't want to go overboard (therefore the question), but I am very much looking forward to no strict limits.

I'm sure you'll enjoy your time at Duke, congrats!
 
Thanks for answering. I definitely don't want to go overboard (therefore the question), but I am very much looking forward to no strict limits.
These are also some of the more thorough questions being asked, which probably explains the lack of any length restriction.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
The MSAR shows that Duke doesn't really like community college classes...
Is that going to be held against me if I did all my prereqs at cc before transfering to a UC?

I was accepted with a few of my science pre-reqs done at a community college. n=1...
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Incoming Duke MBS student applying to DukeMed this cycle! My #1 choice!!
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Duke has a mole (young student) who is paid to stalk applicants they want to invite to interview. The student is responsible for checking the social medias and online profiles of potential students. Make sure ya'll are professional online, because I'm sure they're not the only school doing this. Was surprised they didn't have the kid sign some sort of NDA.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: 6 users
Duke has a mole (young student) who is paid to stalk applicants they want to invite to interview. The student is responsible for checking the social medias and online profiles of potential students. Make sure ya'll are professional online, because I'm sure they're not the only school doing this. Was surprised they didn't have the kid sign some sort of NDA.
Do you know for a fact that he checks SDN?
 
Duke has a mole (young student) who is paid to stalk applicants they want to invite to interview. The student is responsible for checking the social medias and online profiles of potential students. Make sure ya'll are professional online, because I'm sure they're not the only school doing this. Was surprised they didn't have the kid sign some sort of NDA.

Ya......... whoever told you this is pulling your leg.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 4 users
Oh it's totally a position, a highly sought after one in fact. Residency program directors love to see stuff like that on your ERAS application. Instead of calling it a mole though, we call the person the melanoma, because this is med school.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 3 users
Found a pretty informative article on Duke's admissions today that may be helpful in crafting secondary responses/preparing for interviews; "Patients told her [ADCOM] it wasn’t enough for doctors to be smart. They wanted doctors to understand what disease does to people. 'It takes away their self control. It humbles them. It puts their priorities somewhere else, so the other things that are important in their lives get left behind,' says Armstrong. 'People said they want the people taking care of them to be in the trenches as a partner. They wanted us to find those students capable of respect and dignity, those whose life experiences suggested significant maturity. We have to make sure these people who are coming to us to learn how to be doctors have the humanistic qualities to translate academic firepower into compassionate medicine.'"

http://medschool.duke.edu/files/documents/Capable of Brilliance.pdf
 
  • Like
Reactions: 4 users
I'm preparing answers to the questions from last year, and have a question about the community you were raised in prompt:
"Describe the community in which you were nurtured or spent the majority of your early development with respect to its demographics. What core values did you receive and how will these translate into the contributions that you hope to make to your community as a medical student and to your career in medicine?"

I'm from a middle class suburb, but I spent summers in my mom's rural hometown (<10,000 people) and many days at my dad's parents' house in a very poor, inner city neighborhood. I feel a strong connection to both communities (most of my family still lives in those areas), and seeing the healthcare disparities encountered in both sparked my interest in public health. Would this be okay to write about in the prompt, or would it violate the "majority of your early development" part?
 
From the Duke website:

"Cellular Biology: May be fulfilled by a single course in Cell and/or Molecular Biology and/or Genetics"

I have not taken cell bio, but I have taken a general (400-level) genetics course that covered molecular genetics. Do you think that this would suffice?
 
From the Duke website:

"Cellular Biology: May be fulfilled by a single course in Cell and/or Molecular Biology and/or Genetics"

I have not taken cell bio, but I have taken a general (400-level) genetics course that covered molecular genetics. Do you think that this would suffice?

I think so! You took genetics, which is one of the options that fulfills the requirement.
 
From the Duke website:

"Cellular Biology: May be fulfilled by a single course in Cell and/or Molecular Biology and/or Genetics"

I have not taken cell bio, but I have taken a general (400-level) genetics course that covered molecular genetics. Do you think that this would suffice?
You should contact the admissions office for this type of question.
 
This "describe your community" essay is tough...I feel that I developed most of my values and growth during college. :( Does this loosely count as part of my "early development"?
 
This "describe your community" essay is tough...I feel that I developed most of my values and growth during college. :( Does this loosely count as part of my "early development"?

My guess...No...

You went K-12 without knowing right from wrong? Without playing on sports teams? Without establishing any foundation of values or ethics? C'mon...... Why not pull some items from that Vandy essay you already told us about.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
My guess...No...

You went K-12 without knowing right from wrong? Without playing on sports teams? Without establishing any foundation of values or ethics? C'mon...... Why not pull some items from that Vandy essay you already told us about.

Works for me! Thank you for the ideas!
 
For those pre-writing secondaries, I wanted to ask something regarding the following prompt:

"Describe the community in which you were nurtured or spent the majority of your early development with respect to its demographics. What core values did you receive and how will these translate into the contributions that you hope to make to your community as a medical student and to your career in medicine?"

I moved quite a bit as a kid, so I'm not sure whether to write about my early childhood (ages 4-12) or maybe my early teens? I've lived in four different states and one country besides the US over the course of my childhood, so this question kind of stumped me.

In fact, I would say that because I moved so much, I was better at talking and forming relationships with new people……..but not sure how I could say that in this essay since they're asking about a single community. :shrug:
 
I think the whole point is: how will your upbringing affect the way you contribute (as a physician) to the healthcare delivery of the area you practice. The generic assumption I have, based on your experience with moving around, is that you most likely have the ability to be empathetic with a variety of social groups and that you will have less bias towards a particular social group compared to someone who grew up isolated from varying experiences...if that makes any sense.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 2 users
Soo.. regarding this question

"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?"

Do you think discuss difficult relationship with coworker would work for this essay? I'm concerned because the way this question is worded it sounds like they want like some super big life challenge lol and mine seems trivial although personally very real.
 
Soo.. regarding this question

"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?"

Do you think discuss difficult relationship with coworker would work for this essay? I'm concerned because the way this question is worded it sounds like they want like some super big life challenge lol and mine seems trivial although personally very real.

I think, at the end of the day, the adcoms just want you to be genuine so they get to know you and your experiences a bit more. Good luck!
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Anyone else pre-writing and hoping to the high heavens that Duke doesn't change their prompts?

Or maybe they can get rid of the first one, please, as that's the one I'm having the most trouble with...
 
considering this is one of the more essay-intensive secondary apps, i was wondering who do you guys go to for a review of your essays? I feel bad trying to ask my adviser to go through essays from >15 secondaries but i'd like to get some eyes other than my own reading them. unfortunately most of my school's resources aren't available over the summer.
 
considering this is one of the more essay-intensive secondary apps, i was wondering who do you guys go to for a review of your essays? I feel bad trying to ask my adviser to go through essays from >15 secondaries but i'd like to get some eyes other than my own reading them. unfortunately most of my school's resources aren't available over the summer.
I am faced with the same problem. I have just been asking premed and non-premed friends to look at my essays so far.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
I haven't ask anyone....Here's to hoping for the best. :luck::luck::luck:
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
I think the whole point is: how will your upbringing affect the way you contribute (as a physician) to the healthcare delivery of the area you practice. The generic assumption I have, based on your experience with moving around, is that you most likely have the ability to be empathetic with a variety of social groups and that you will have less bias towards a particular social group compared to someone who grew up isolated from varying experiences...if that makes any sense.


Thanks for the reply! You're right, I suppose they just want to know how my upbringing influences who I am today and how that will contribute to me being a physician in the future. Haha, when I was a kid I used to envy those who stayed in one place their whole lives because I felt like I didn't really have "roots" but in hindsight I can see how moving a lot has benefitted me.
 
Anyone else pre-writing and hoping to the high heavens that Duke doesn't change their prompts?

Or maybe they can get rid of the first one, please, as that's the one I'm having the most trouble with...
These have been the prompts for the past two years, I don't think they are going to change...but we will all find out soon.

Does anyone know the character limit?
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
As far as I know there isn't one :shifty:
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
has anyone been able to access duke med secondary application site? :(
 
+1! I don't know if this is the same email they sent out in previous years (given the hullabaloo last year), but it seems they are very forthcoming about their process. So excited to apply!
 
Top