美國大學巡禮(五)杜克大學-Duke University

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版權申明：本文是根據三位Duke媽媽2015年5月17日應邀在北美」奔藤「微信群的分享由多位義工收集整理校對而成。本文版權歸北美©奔藤微信群所有，任何公眾號，媒體，未經許可不得轉載, 違者必究！

嘉賓：

第一位：D 自我介紹:

我，我先生，我女兒和兒子已在 NJ 住了17年了。我女兒今年剛從Duke畢業。她的專業是經濟學。我兒子2014年上的Duke，9月開學上大二，他是雙學位：數學和計算機。我原來是軟體工程師，現在是房地產經紀人。

I have two kids, a daughter; she just graduated from Duke last week. She majored in Economics, concentration in Finance and minored in East Asian Studies. She will start working as a Sales & Trading analyst in Wall Street in July. My son just finished his

freshman year in Duke. I had conversations with both of them this week regarding our

session tonight.

Answers from my daughter:

General Application strategy:

She applied Duke RD. Didn’t apply for ED. Duke was always her favorite school right from the beginning after we did college visits during her junior year in HS. Being she was our 1st child. We really didn’t have much strategy in applying colleges.

Child’s specialty/strong points:

She had leadership positions throughout HS – drum major of 150 members of marching band in both 11th and 12th grades; vice president debating club; All State and All Eastern Bands. 1st in piccolo all state audition. Also, the only flute player in the Moonglowers Jazz Band which is the top HS jazz band in NJ.

Summer work:

She worked at the local YMCA in summers of 9th, 10th and 11th grades.

Most important thing in high school：

The development of her leadership skills.

In high school, what could I have done better, when did I become mature:

She was always very mature. She wishes that she did some sports in HS so she can participate in club sport(s) in college to enrich her college life.

Essay:

She does not want to share her essay. There is no feedback from the AO (other than being accepted into the school

Outside counselor:

Yes we hired outside help for applying college; the counselor was not very helpful.

College Experiences:She loves Duke overall.

What’s good about Duke:

The weather in North Carolina is very nice and good. Students are very involved in extracurricular activities and social groups outside of class. Duke has a beautiful campus located in a city with very good restaurants and nearby other good cities. All professors have to hold office hours of students. Duke has a FLUNCH (Faculty Lunch) program and encourages students and faculty to develop relationships. Like-minded students form lifelong relationships. Basketball culture! Amazing school spirit among current students and alumni. Alumni mostly always willing to help and they come back to visit. Work hard play hard culture (it's true)

Bad About Duke:

Prevalent Greek life (can cause campus culture to be vicious but also can give people a tight group to belong to). Administration is trying to eliminate all campus parties and emulate more academically rigorous institutions at the expense of students' happiness (trying to get rid of work hard play hard image). Parking sucks. Besides introductory classes, most classes are under 30 students

Answers from my son

General Application strategy:

I applied Early Decision to Duke and was accepted. I spent a lot of time editing my common application essay to make sure that it clearly expressed my growth as a person throughout high school. In my extracurricular activities and honors/awards sections, I tried to show myself as a leader and as someone who commits a lot of time to the activities I participate in.

Child’s specialty/strong points:

Qualified for AIME 3 times. Honorable mention for Moody’s Mega Math Challenge, and other nationally recognizable math awards. Captain of magnet school’s math league. Strong music program, won state championship for jazz band and marching band. Was a section leader in both jazz band and marching band and participated in both for all four years of high school.

How to do summer camps 9th grade on:

Freshman year summer I did a jazz camp, which I did not include on my application.Sophomore and Junior year I did math camps that were competitive to get into (Rutgers Young Scholar’s Program sophomore year and MathILy junior year

Most important thing in high school:

For academics, take the hardest class you can do well in. This is not enough; you have to participate and excel in a few areas for extracurricular (like I did 30+ hours of music a week and did Math League)

In high school, what could I have done better, when did I become mature:

I wish I had better grades freshman year. I became mature around the second half of sophomore year. There was no specific event that made me mature

Extracurricular activities I could recommend:

Do what you like doing, put as much effort into it as you can.

Essay:

Not sharing my essay, there is no feedback from the AO (other than being accepted into the school)

Outside counselorYes we hired help, the counselor was extremely helpful in writing and editing the essay.

College Experiences:

I’m a math/computer science double major. I intended to get an internship at a technology company this summer but a lot of companies said that they do not hire freshman. I believe Duke provides good opportunities to get internships, such as job fairs; it’s not Duke’s fault that companies don’t hire freshman. Also, it is pretty easy to get a research opportunity at Duke, which is what I am doing over the summer. I think my future opportunities are pretty good because some technology companies like Microsoft hire out of Duke

Academics:

I have an academic advisor. My class size is 20-30 for my math classes, 12 for my writing class, and 150-200 for my computer science classes, mostly because my computer science classes are the intro level and my math classes are more advanced, so they’re smaller. I do not know if the professors have great relationships with the students because I often don’t go to class and I never go to office hours. However, from what I hear, the professors are very helpful at office hours and are very friendly if you want to ask questions right after class. It’s not difficult to achieve a very high GPA as long as you pay attention to which professor you choose for your classes

Special extracurriculars:

I did HackDuke, a 24 hour competition where your group creates an idea and proof of concept, or a prototype or first draft. I also do computer science competitions and take extra classes.

Like/dislike:

I like all the professors I have had so far; they have all been interesting people and have unique perspectives on the subject they teach. I also like the weather. I dislike that grades feel inflated; people get high grades that do not deserve them. In addition, I dislike the culture at Duke. People put a lot of emphasis on partying, going out at night, and greek life. I also dislike the general education requirements at Duke. I feel like they are too strict but almost all other schools have general education requirements too.

Greek life:

Do whatever you want, you can be happy either way

Advice to parents:

Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. You cannot force your kids to do anything regarding the college application if they do not want to; you』ll only end up with a worse result. As far as the application goes, put in a lot of time for the essay; I think that the essays plays a huge role in college admissions. Since nearly every school will see the common app essay, put a large majority of your time into working on that essay.

Q&A:

Q:Your son mentioned he often does not go to class - is there a typo?

A: No, it is not a typo. He doesn't go to class much

Q:Too easy?

A: He is one of these people, never really study. He is very very smart intellectually. Socially, he is not like his sister. BTW, he took 5 classes in each semester. Got mostly A+ and one A-.

Q:兒子提到的general education requirement,是指common core 嗎？具體是什麼？

A:I think that my son meant almost all college has general education requirement, Duke also does. He is hoping that he can take whatever classes he wants to take without any restrictions.

Q:你們孩子申請大學時用outside help，具體做了什麼事？

A:For my daughter, we just wanted to keep her college applications on time. She had so much to do at school, mainly her leadership role in Marching Band. She is alway very strong willed. So outside help minimize our conflict with her. For my son, we retained a different counselor(Asian one). She helped my son structure his essay. The story is his, but the counselor gave him a lot of good suggestion to structure the essay.

Q:據說Duke 體育很強，這是您女兒wishes that she did some sports in HS so she can participate in club sport(s) in college to enrich her college life的原因嗎？

A:Duke 體育很強。我女兒非常social，她朋友很多。她第二學期加入了rowing team，劃了一個學期。她play hard ,work hard ,and party hard. 她academically 比較challenging. 但她的social life is very rich. 因為Duke很多學生play sports, 她非常care這個。

Q:Would you please elaborate more on Greek Life?

A:很多私立學校的Greek life 都是比較prevalent. Socially是挺不錯的， 小孩子在一起有一個group. 但同時也有許多問題。 你們可能在報紙上也看到了, 有孩子喝酒喝過了或者是出事兒，其他學校有, 今年 Duke倒是沒有，但整個image不是很好，學校administration try to eliminate這方面。 就看你是什麼樣的孩子了。 我女兒一開始她也是特別想參加後來。她是rush to sorority. 我兒子從來不care Greek Life, 所以他不參加那些活動， 他有幾個好朋友學計算機， 數學的， 他們有自己的life. 我女兒說Duke有50-70%的孩子都比較social, work hard, play hard, 很多孩子都很impressive. 第一天去party，第二天早上一大早爬起來就跑到圖書館去學習了。 目前整個社會對Greek Life 沒有好的impression, 學校的administration 也相應的想emimilate parties.

Q:好像兩個孩子都不是特別喜歡Duke culture?是覺得Party太多？課程d不夠challenge?

A: 我二個小孩都喜歡duke. 女兒特別喜歡Duke的culture。課程challenge 不challenge 因人而異。女兒同室友，別人5小時，她要10小時。別人拿A 她拿C。對於我女兒來說卻是恰恰好。她GPA很高，summer 有internship 還參加了student government, Duke business society,  參加很多很多的課外extra-curriculum activities. She had great fun.  兩年都在華爾街做internship. Sophomore year 就在那裡做intern. 通過兩個孩子的經驗吧，我的感覺就是說這個大學呢不是說很大但是也不小，每個人都會找到自己的一片天地。 我女兒有自己的圈子， 她屬於非常social的, 兒子也有自己的天地， 他是typical Asian boy.

Q:兩個孩子都是magnet school 畢業的嗎？還是女兒是public school?

A:我女兒是public high school 畢業， 兒子是mangnet school. 但是他所有的課外活動都是在public high school.

Q:女兒debate是哪一種？高中畢業時達到什麼level? 到Duke已後還在debate 嗎？

A:女兒在高中參加過debate 但花的時間不多。主要時間花在學校Marching band (drum major)上。High school 要求像軍訓一樣， 一周四天。周末參加比賽。

Q:我朋友的孩子，一直喜歡體育，在初中高中都是球隊隊員。到處比賽。在眾多學校中，她對Duke情有獨鍾。現在三年級了，非常高興當初選Duke。請問對體育強的孩子，為什麼Duke會吸引他？

A:School spirit

D:

From getting into top medical school and getting a good job point of view, Duke couldn't be a better school as far as parents concerned. I am saying this because all my daughter's friends(not less than 30) have gotten to somewhere. Some are accepted to top medical schools, a large portions of her friends are going to work at Wall Street firms and some of her friends got jobs in Google and Pinterest. They all got very high paying jobs. On top of that they have a very strong alumni network. For my daughter, she is so sad to leave Duke. She has made so many friends there. And she made friends with a few processors as well.

One more thing, Duke’s career services are exceptional. Its strong alumni network gives Duke students access to top employers. Also, the faculty gives very specific guidance for internships bound students, which are not taught in textbooks.  Here I’m only talking about the Duke Econ department. I have no knowledge of other departments and I don’t know if they give their students the same help in career development. Before my daughter started her internship at a Wall Street firm at the end of her sophomore year, she took a seminar where she was given very specific instructions on how to behave during the internship so she will be invited back next year, and ultimately to get a job offer. The guidance is very specific, down to:

What should hey say when they see others in elevator

How to dress

How to walk

What to do in a business dinner

Cellphone use

Attention to detail about their work f.g. Grammar, typos, NUMBERS, decimal places..etc

Email rules

Rules about asking questions

What to do if they make a mistake at their internship

…etc.

The Duke faculty members that gave this type of seminars are all Wall Street veterans. I know that my daughter benefited enormously from type of service.

=======================================

嘉賓：

第二位：L 自我介紹:

我和老公兩個兒子住 NJ. 老大2012去Duke。 他是biology 和global health double major. Will apply for Medical school this summer. 老二在high school 9年級。我是做IT的。

My son is also typical Asian boy. His academic is very good, but not very social, but have some very good friends.

當初申請大學時是EA/ED申請、錄取的嗎？和其他被錄的學校之間是如何抉擇取捨的？

He applied Duke RD. He also likes Duke a lot. He is in a service fraternity called APO. Duke has a very strong pre-med program and it is the best school admitted him.

Duke 什麼專業比較好？

Duke BME biomedical engineering, business, econ are all good.Pre-med program is really good too. My son said for pre-med classes, the grade is not inflated. Lots of people dropped out pre-med because of the difficulty of the courses.

孩子當時有哪些特長和強項幫助了錄取？或者說您覺得孩子獨特的地方在哪裡？您兒子體育好嗎？

He was very strong academically, he got the first place in NJ biology science league in 11th grade. He attended governor's school and Columbia science honor program. He plays viola and got into all state.

您兒子申請大學的時候就是準備要學醫嗎?

Yes, he want to become a doctor when he was young, like 10 years old

從9年級開始都怎麼安排假期活動的？有值得推薦的camp麼？

9th grade summer did volunteer in library and medical center. 10th grade summer went to national youth leadership forum in medicinal and confirmed his passion. 11th grade summer went to governor's school.

您兒子從小就比較成熟嗎? 還是後來變得比較成熟的? 有什麼事件和原因促使他變成熟嗎?

他的成熟主要在於他的責任心。做事很認真負責。但好像是天生的，沒有什麼特別的事促成。

How did he apply for medical center volunteer?

Just call them and fill up a form, this is a few years ago, not sure if it is changed.

如果不參加Fraternities or Sororities，會比較難交朋友嗎？

Not really. My son just found a good one for him. They do lots of community service. If he were not join APO, he would have different friends.

我這個問題可能不合適，你兒孑的profile 我覺得應該被更好的學校錄取，其中有什麼原因嗎？

He did all his college application by himself. We didn't get any professional help and other help. It is his first time and our first time. So I think his essay may not be good enough. Addition to previously question, my son's leadership is not strong in high school, which could be a main reason not getting to the top schools.

能不能介紹一下Duke require 什麼樣的GPA 才會給推薦信去申請醫學院？

Just asked my son, he said no GPA requirement for recommendation letter. But need to be 3.5 or above GPA to be competitive.

請問孩子對Duke有特別喜歡和不喜歡的地方嗎？

He enjoys Duke and did very well in the past three years. I am happy for him

=====================================

嘉賓：

第三位：S 自我介紹:

我們住在 new jersey. 有倆個小孩。兒子九月份上大三。女兒九月上7年級。兒子在私立 杜克大學。2013年兒子上的大學。主修生物醫學工程專業。我是從事化學工作的。

申請大學方面：

當初申請大學時是EA/ED申請、錄取的嗎？和其他被錄的學校之間是如何抉擇取捨的？

通過 Regular decision,Duke offered my son a place in the class of 2017. ED 申請了Upenn，但是被 deferred了.

在申請策略上有何考量和注意事項？

我們希望選擇一所綜合性的大學，離家開車最好4個小時之內。萬一他需要我們的幫助，我們可以馬上趕到。

孩子當時有哪些特長和強項幫助了錄取？或者說您覺得孩子獨特的地方在哪裡？

我們離Princeton大學很近，他在哪和 Atomic Physics department 的老師做project，教授給他寫了推薦信，我想對他申請大學還是有幫助。

高中生涯：

從9年級開始都怎麼安排假期活動的？有值得推薦的camp麼？

從九年級開始，先後在醫院做義工，在summer camp 教奧數，通過CTY的網絡教學，學習writing 和在普大做項目（主要是編程）。兒子說camp只是開闊眼界，沒有特別推薦。

高中四年生活中最重要的是什麼？最大的收穫是什麼？這兩點上你和孩子的看法一致麼？

記得高中畢業典禮上，500人的高中生中選了倆個學霸代表畢業生致辭。聽了他們的精彩的高中經歷。兒子和我都很感慨，他也意識到人外有人，同時也看到了自己的不足。

孩子高中期間有無遺憾地方和叛逆掙扎的時候？孩子的思想是什麼時候明顯成熟起來的？有沒有什麼變化的契機？

他自己高中最大的遺憾是沒有學好中文。他屬於比較成熟的人，整個高中還算是平穩過渡。

有值得推薦的課外活動和經歷麼？

課外活動參加的越多越好，比如他參加了學校的robotics活動，對他申請去普大做課題還是有幫助的。

可以分享一下孩子的Essay 寫了什內容嗎？學校及AO反饋如何？

他申請Duke 的essay 是<basketball >

孩子申請大學時有請學校外面的consular嗎？覺得幫助大嗎？

我們請了consular 幫助他申請大學，主要是幫助他改essay。而且高中時他和普大的一群學生成立了申請大學的諮詢公司

大學生涯

孩子學的哪個方向/專業？intern機會怎樣？將來的發展機會怎樣？

他的專業是Biomedical Engineering 和 Science in Economics. 大一時在歌大 medical center 實習。今年將在一家投資銀行實習。一開始他想學醫，現在看來要向經濟方面轉移。

有沒有advisor?上課的class size是怎樣的人？講師教授對學生盡心麼？GPA難拿高嗎？

兒子選的BME專業很重，他說有的課是放錄像，好多時候得靠自己做research. GPA和選的課有很大關係。有的課只要上課，就能拿好成績，但是可能課程實用性不強。兒子還是選擇有一定難度，實用性強的課。

孩子參加了大學裡哪些有特色的課外活動？

他參加了martial arts,cube and delta sign an Pu ( vp)的 課外活動。

孩子對現在學校喜歡和不喜歡之處是哪些？

任何一所大學都會有積極和消極的一面。就像我們在美國一樣，喜歡和不喜歡總是交替著。身為非主流的亞裔男孩，兒子跟我說，他要負出比他人更多的努力，才能達到一樣的結果。

我自己的Duke感言:

Duke是由菸草大王老Duke資助創辦的。杜克大學的校園規劃的非常完美，校園規模宏大。24小時都有校車一站站來回接送學生。而且杜克醫院就在校園邊上。杜克的體育太棒了。這是她最積極和鼓勵人心的一面。整個校園因此特別有凝聚力。學校內外好多人都穿著印有杜克字樣的衣服。感謝杜克讓我們成為大家庭中的一員。

one day Duke, forever Duke!!

謝謝各位藤爸藤媽真誠分享和探討！

註：文中圖片來源於網絡。

謝謝閱讀！歡迎轉發分享讚賞，和我們一起努力助學！

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