2015-2016 Duke University Application Thread

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Really struggling with the first essay about the values I received from where I was nurtured. I'm a 27 year old non-traditional, and most of the values I got in my early life (up to age 18), I've rejected. I was also raised in North Carolina, but I have no desire to practice in North Carolina. I was raised staunch Christian, and after having several different mentors in academia that opened my mind to questioning, encouraged me to read the Quran, Dao de jing, etc, I've made an educated decision towards atheism.

Should I detail all of this? I feel like the assumptions made in the essay prompt itself are all false when it comes to my life.
 
fitness_as_medicine said:
Really struggling with the first essay about the values I received from where I was nurtured. I'm a 27 year old non-traditional, and most of the values I got in my early life (up to age 18), I've rejected. I was also raised in North Carolina, but I have no desire to practice in North Carolina. I was raised staunch Christian, and after having several different mentors in academia that opened my mind to questioning, encouraged me to read the Quran, Dao de jing, etc, I've made an educated decision towards atheism.

Should I detail all of this? I feel like the assumptions made in the essay prompt itself are all false when it comes to my life.
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I had a similar situation. I picked one value I liked about my early community and kind of described how it influenced me. Then I described my community in more detail, including all of its shortcomings and described how its negative aspects also influenced me, but in a positive way to be more open-minded. N=1 and I haven't received an interview (yet 😉), so take that as you will.
 
starlite911 said:
I had a similar situation. I picked one value I liked about my early community and kind of described how it influenced me. Then I described my community in more detail, including all of its shortcomings and described how its negative aspects also influenced me, but in a positive way to be more open-minded. N=1 and I haven't received an interview (yet 😉), so take that as you will.
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Thanks for the response. Definitely food for thought.
 
fitness_as_medicine said:
Really struggling with the first essay about the values I received from where I was nurtured. I'm a 27 year old non-traditional, and most of the values I got in my early life (up to age 18), I've rejected. I was also raised in North Carolina, but I have no desire to practice in North Carolina. I was raised staunch Christian, and after having several different mentors in academia that opened my mind to questioning, encouraged me to read the Quran, Dao de jing, etc, I've made an educated decision towards atheism.

Should I detail all of this? I feel like the assumptions made in the essay prompt itself are all false when it comes to my life.
Click to expand...
I think that's a good place to start... What about your upbringing influenced your values. Maybe a school mentor, youth leader, coach? If you have explored different faiths, you can make that a positive. I wouldn't denigrate others' beliefs, even if you reject them personally. What did you learn from this study that positively influenced your life? Surely, there are positives you can draw from in any culture, faith, upbringing, or philosophy.
 
78 LizzyM, My primaries were verified 07/21/2015, secondary received from Duke 07/21/2015, secondary submitted yesterday 08/23/2015 (took me a while to write these prompts), and II today 08/24/2015 (chose the November 16th interview date). I am stunned at how fast I received my II, and this is my first II so I am really excited!!!!!!

Good luck everyone! I hope I meet some SDNers at the interview. 😍:highfive:
 
Are there any community service or engagement opportunities at Duke?
 
happyhippo1958 said:
78 LizzyM, My primaries were verified 07/21/2015, secondary received from Duke 07/21/2015, secondary submitted yesterday 08/23/2015 (took me a while to write these prompts), and II today 08/24/2015 (chose the November 16th interview date). I am stunned at how fast I received my II, and this is my first II so I am really excited!!!!!!

Good luck everyone! I hope I meet some SDNers at the interview. 😍:highfive:
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I'm interviewing 11/16 as well! CONGRATULATIONS! I'm excited to meet ya!🙂
 
Xenith said:
Are there any community service or engagement opportunities at Duke?
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I'm not sure about the med school specifically, but just gonna put in my two cents and say that Durham is the perfect place for community engagement. The community is rich in culture and there are many, MANY organizations through which you can serve the many different types of people in need and work in various social justice capacities.
 
I heard that duke gives all (or most) its undergrads that apply, interviews. Is there any merit to that?
 
noflag said:
I heard that duke gives all (or most) its undergrads that apply, interviews. Is there any merit to that?
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Isn't Duke a really pre-med heavy school? Can't imagine they'd give out interviews to all or even most of their undergrads , especially because they only interview 440 people if I'm not mistaken...
 
noflag said:
I heard that duke gives all (or most) its undergrads that apply, interviews. Is there any merit to that?
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Duke undergrad here. Duke got back to me with an II in mid-July, about a week after I submitted my secondary, which was wayyy faster than any other school. Duke is a very pre-med heavy school, but we also don't have as many undergrads as people seem to think (~6000 total), and it's a standing joke that every freshman here comes in pre-med and then drops it once they take orgo (which seems to have some truth to it - from what I've heard, over 50% of incoming freshman state some interest in being pre-med, but only 10% of the class ends up applying to med school). I believe the number of Duke pre-meds applying to med school in a given cycle is ~100-150 (don't quote me on that exactly). Of those, some don't even apply to Duke Med.

So, it is true that most Duke pre-meds get Duke Med interviews, from what I can tell. In fact, I've never heard of a Duke undergrad not getting a Duke Med interview. Duke makes a preference for its undergrads in acceptances, as well. On our pre-health online system, it tells you the number of Duke pre-meds that applied to a given school over the past 5 years and how many were accepted. The acceptance rate for Duke pre-meds at Duke Med over the last 5 years has been 14% based on this. Duke's overall acceptance rate is 3.3% according to US News, and 7% according to Princeton Review. By those numbers, Duke undergrads are 2-4 times more likely to be admitted to Duke Med than a general applicant.

I assume it works this way at most medical schools, where they give preference to their undergrads. It makes sense for them to do so, because not only can they trust the pre-med education the student has gotten, but it also gives the university a chance to bolster its percentage of pre-meds accepted to medical school of those that apply, which at Duke is around 85%. Because the student came to the school for undergrad, there is also good reason to think they like the area and the university and would be likely to come back, so it's like you gained some points for showing interest in the med school by going to its undergrad school. Like I said, I think most adcoms favor pre-meds who went to their undergrad school.
 
Got my first II the other day! So excited! Completed secondary on 7/30, invited 8/25. Stats in MDapps
 
So, is it even worth it for me to submit this secondary this late in the game? It's my last one and I've dragged my feet because of the stupid essays. Props to you guys for banging them out 😛
 
carpediem22 said:
So, is it even worth it for me to submit this secondary this late in the game? It's my last one and I've dragged my feet because of the stupid essays. Props to you guys for banging them out 😛
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If you can get it in within the next few days, I say go ahead. It's a little late but, from looking at previous app threads, people who interviewed on the very last day have gotten in before. It's worth a shot!
 
starlitejuly said:
Yay! Got a II this morning! Complete 7/27. Earliest dates were 10/29, 11/23 and dates in December and January. Good luck to everyone waiting to hear back!
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That's so weird. I only saw December dates a few days ago.
 
starlitejuly said:
Yay! Got a II this morning! Complete 7/27. Earliest dates were 10/29, 11/23 and dates in December and January. Good luck to everyone waiting to hear back!
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finestein said:
That's so weird. I only saw December dates a few days ago.
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Yeah, weird, earliest dates when I received my II a few days ago was in November. Maybe someone changed their interview time and someone got lucky?
 
^That sounds reasonable, it did seem weird b/c there was only one random October and November date, so perhaps someone did change their interview time!
 
bpislife said:
Isn't Duke a really pre-med heavy school? Can't imagine they'd give out interviews to all or even most of their undergrads , especially because they only interview 440 people if I'm not mistaken...
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They actually interview 750 and accept 180 for 100 spots.
 
chocoholicsoxfan said:
They actually interview 750 and accept 180 for 100 spots.
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Sorry, but where did you get this information? I am assuming USNWR? Because the MSAR shows that they interviewed 440. Wonder why the discrepancy.
 
(Read the admissions pamphlet thing on their website)
 
rocklobstr said:
That needs a source. The MSAR says the interview approximately 450. That's a large discrepancy.
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i guess it could be due to a difference between II offered and actually interviews attended, but this is just speculation on my part.
 
I'm almost ready to submit this secondary, a month after I received it, but I'm having trouble with the last part of question four about dealing with people unlike yourself: How do you plan to address these? What resources do you plan to use to address these?

I'm not really sure what they are looking for here, and the only thing I can really think of is just to become more aware of these different groups and the challenges that face them. Any ideas would be appreciated.
 
kbird said:
That admissions pamphlet to which you're referring hasn't been updated since 2010, so I am guessing it might be better to assume the 440 cited on the MSAR is more accurate.
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I agree. Also, what @jagster92 said makes sense as well. Although, I'm not sure why so many people would decide to not attend the interview.
 
I mean, it's just bizarre because generally MMI allows schools to interview more applicants, not fewer, so you'd think since switching, they'd be able to interview more people.

I would like the 440 number to be true though!

It's just that I know the MSAR can be notoriously inaccurate. Last year for RFUMS, they said they interviewed 600, but a student on the adcom said in our thread it was closer to 900. Additionally, some programs exclude BS/MD students in their numbers; despite the fact that I was accepted to programs in high school, the MSAR lists 0 matriculants for their data (see: UIC GPPA).

Edit: So I guess what I'd do is take any numbers with a grain of salt and just try to do the best I can on my interview!
 
chocoholicsoxfan said:
They actually interview 750 and accept 180 for 100 spots.
Click to expand...

rocklobstr said:
That needs a source. The MSAR says the interview approximately 450. That's a large discrepancy.
Click to expand...

chocoholicsoxfan said:
I mean, it's just bizarre because generally MMI allows schools to interview more applicants, not fewer, so you'd think since switching, they'd be able to interview more people.

I would like the 440 number to be true though!

It's just that I know the MSAR can be notoriously inaccurate. Last year for RFUMS, they said they interviewed 600, but a student on the adcom said in our thread it was closer to 900. Additionally, some programs exclude BS/MD students in their numbers; despite the fact that I was accepted to programs in high school, the MSAR lists 0 matriculants for their data (see: UIC GPPA).

Edit: So I guess what I'd do is take any numbers with a grain of salt and just try to do the best I can on my interview!
Click to expand...

750 interviews last year. 200-250 acceptances including those from the waitlist (I don't remember the exact number). Class size of 115.
 
Any silent rejections visible on portal for anyone? Last year they went out around this time apparently
 
People were saying that their statuses changed in the portal to something along the lines of the committee not interested
 
No one got a "your application is completed" email right? So if the online portal just has an "application screening" message, we can assume all our required materials are in?
 
Sorry if this has been posted, but has anyone had their interview with Duke yet and will to provide feedback regarding the MMI format :nailbiting:
 
So I know I'm jumping the gun a lot and indulging in wishful thinking, but if a sociology class is required before matriculation, when would be a good time to take one online? Do online classes have a fixed start time like January or June?
 
finestein said:
So I know I'm jumping the gun a lot and indulging in wishful thinking, but if a sociology class is required before matriculation, when would be a good time to take one online? Do online classes have a fixed start time like January or June?
Click to expand...
Take one next semester, online or on campus (bet preferably on a 4-year college campus).
 
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