Duke University. The school has an acceptance rate of 4.6% for the class of 2026. Its highly-coveted name commands respect. So, it’s no wonder the application process gives so many people anxiety. If you’re applying for Duke University, you may have already figured that grades and extracurriculars alone won’t get you through the front door.
Duke receives a plethora of very qualified candidates, many of whom get rejected. If you want to get accepted, you’ll need to apply with stellar essays. In addition, you may have already guessed that the “Why Duke” essay is perhaps one of the most important. It demonstrates to admissions officers your aspirations for Duke but is also very tricky to answer.
In this guide, we’re going to take a very deep dive into how to write the Why Duke essay. This guide is going to be centered around writing the essay in a manner that will help you stand out amongst the rest of the application pool.
Trust us. You’ll need to. No matter your grades, test scores, and published scientific papers, you’ll need an essay that will cut through the competition.
Table of Contents
- How to Write a “Why Duke” Essay That Actually Gets You Accepted
- Why EVERYONE Needs Professional Essay Help For Competitive Schools.
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How to Write a “Why Duke” Essay That Actually Gets You Accepted
“Why Duke” Essay Prompt
“Please share with us why you consider Duke a good match for you. Is there something in particular about Duke’s academic or other offerings that attracts you? (200 word limit) *”
Why Duke Essay Prompt –Common App
Crucial Research
So, let’s say that you want to apply to Duke because you want to have a career in Business and Finance. For someone of your background, you may want to look at a few resources that can help you actualize your career. Here are a few examples.
If you look at all of these programs, you’ll notice that these can help a student in one narrow dimension. The startup incubator is particularly good for students with plans to create something big with the help and guidance of other fellow peers and a supportive entrepreneurial community.
Duke Engage is great for those who want to spend the free time they have in the summer tackling social issues that they may not otherwise have access to help lend support.
Bass Connections is fantastic for students who want to work with faculty to help tackle societal issues through the power of research. The interdisciplinary nature of Bass Connections could potentially migrate to a startup mindset and perhaps even work in conjunction with those plans.
Notice how the wide depth of programs at Duke makes it very easy for someone to streamline their future dreams and aspirations? Whatsoever your plans are for Duke, make sure you do your research on HOW the programs and resources at the school will actualize your future goals.
Funnily enough, many of the clients we’ve worked with who applied and went to Duke more often than not specialized in Business and Economics. This also led to a lot of students who were actually unsure of what major they wanted to apply for.
So, that begs the question: “can I write the “Why Duke” essay admitting that I don’t know what I want to do at the university?
Here’s the answer: No, but there are exceptions. Let’s go over why.
Writing About How You Don’t Know What to Do in Your College Essay
Most people who apply for Duke as a Freshman are going to be in high school. Even for students who went to prep schools meant to funnel them into highly-specified industries, most students don’t actually know what they want to do in the future.
Let’s repeat that. Most students in high school don’t know what they want to do in the future. Regardless of academic performance, temperament, financial background, etc, most students don’t really know. Even the ones who think they do often find their interests wavering back and forth.
So, although there are advantages to showing admissions officers at Duke that you know what you want to do at Duke and what resources you’ll capitalize on, it’s also realistic to admit you’re unsure of the future. The admissions officers know this. It’s no secret. They understand that even the brightest students need to take some time to figure out what is right for them.
In fact, that’s what most undergrad is even for. It’s for discovering from the general education courses what you even want to do.
So, there CAN be advantages to writing about an ambiguous future.
However, we found that what works most is to bind this idea alongside Duke’s benefits. Even if you are unsure of what you want to do in the future, you KNOW that Duke is the right place for you to discover what you want to do because it has “x”, “y”, and “z”.
Notice how a “Why Duke” essay about not knowing what to do in the future is still centered around “Why Duke”? If you can’t decide what you want to do with your future skills and talents, then that’s why you need the help of Duke to figure out how to actualize your future.
Alright, now let’s say you know how Duke will come into play in your future academic and career aspirations. Maybe you want to bootstrap a new content marketing startup that implements artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate strategies that are normally too costly for businesses.
Great! Sounds profitable, right? Now you’ll have to think about how Duke actually comes into play. Be specific. Very specific.
Getting Very, Very Detailed About Your Future Aspirations
Now, how specific are we talking about here?
Have you ever seen “business-ey” talk in movies? Even if you haven’t, you probably already know what we’re talking about. There’s a caucasian man walking in a building with a suitcase filled with money. Sharkskin suit. Firm handshakes. Weird Jargon. Charts on a screen for… some reason?
Then, profit.
Of course, it makes zero sense. But, that’s because that’s a Hollywood representation of what “business” is like. It’s so vague and filled with archetypes that it doesn’t actually get into the details of what the business is.
This is the same problem with college admissions.
At PenningPapers, we’ve received a plethora of very vague descriptions of what students did with their extracurriculars, what their startup does, what their clubs did, and what they wanted out of Duke in their essays.
“I want to be an engineer. I want to do ‘x’ in particular.”
Sure. But, how is that different from the rest of the engineers?
Vagueness in college admissions essays typically means you don’t know what you’re talking about. So, prove to admissions officers that you know what you’re talking about. Be specific about what you want to do at Duke, what it can provide for you, and each step you’ll take in achieving those goals.
Why EVERYONE Needs Professional Essay Help For Competitive Schools.
This section is going to cover a bit more of the mindset one needs to take when writing the “Why Duke” essay.
Our team is no stranger to highly competitive students who are fully capable of attending Duke. These students are typically at the top percentile of academic performance. They have fantastic positions in sports and great extracurriculars.
However, they take this as a reason to tackle the Duke supplemental essay prompts on their own. It makes sense, though. If you’re at the top percentile in multiple dimensions of performance, you should be fully capable of tackling a few essays, right?
The only problem with this is that essays for schools in the T10s (and even T25s for that matter) are nothing like regular college essays. Because of the competitive nature of these schools, they’ll be competing against many other highly qualified students just like them. So what a talented and perfect student may consider a perfect set of essays may be similar in quality to what other talented Duke applicants write.
Imagine a professional basketball team, for instance. Although each player may be very talented, they are average among one another. Professional basketball players would be considered quite average when compared to other professional basketball players. The same applies to other dimensions. Professional heavyweight weightlifters are about equal to other professional heavyweight weightlifters.
When you consider the average Duke applicant, it’s fair to assume that they’re at the top end of the distribution. You’re competing against some of the best students in the nation.
That’s why it’s wiser for students, no matter how talented they are, to get some level of external help for their college essays. Duke has an acceptance rate of 4.6%; so, you’ll need a fantastic editor and advisor who can help edit and revise your “Why Duke” essay into something that will stand out from the crowd.
Some last few points on finding the right editor for top schools: it’s crucial that the advisor you’re working with is someone who has the right chemistry and synergy with you. The advising and consulting process demands that the consultant and student match with one another. It’s easy for a lack of chemistry to dismantle the editing process.
The best way to see if a consultant is right for you is to check if they say things that you don’t already know. It’s also crucial that, when you’re talking to them, they are listening and careful to consider what you are talking about. That means they’re not waiting to throw all their expertise at you. They need to pay attention to what you say and make careful, proper assessments of your next step.
If you have any other questions on how to write the “Why Duke” essays, consider scheduling a free 30-minute phone consultation with our professional college admissions advisors and consultants. Our expertise has helped students get into highly competitive schools including most recently Cornell, Duke, Dartmouth, and more.