i feel like I need to elaborate on Duke Engage more, but I don't want it to be too long. thoughts?
"If you are applying to Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, please discuss why you consider Duke a good match for you. Is there something in particular at Duke that attracts you? Please limit your response to one or two paragraphs."
By the end of my junior year, my mailbox began to be flooded every day by stacks of postcards from various schools around the country, all claiming to have the best academic offerings. But one day, skimming through my mail, I came across a booklet with an attractive gothic-style spire on the cover, and I opened it up. What immediately caught my attention was a quote from a prospective student, discussing an encounter with another prospective student, who told him," I don't even know you, but I think if you don't come to school here you're going to be missing out."
This excerpt from my first correspondence with Duke University resonated with me, and led me to have the intense interest in the university that I do now. Just like the gothic architecture is juxtaposed by a vibrant, modern city and a diverse student body, so are the many other facets of the university. Duke maintains ties to the past, but is always looking ahead to the future in order to solve modern problems, which is what I believe to be what attracts me the most to the university. To me, a degree is unimportant in a global context unless one is able to actually apply their knowledge, and I appreciate that Duke allows its students to do this before they graduate, particularly through Duke Engage, a program that to me is unmatched anywhere else. I envision myself spending my summers traveling and creating logical solutions to real world problems, while still maintaining a personal connection that would help me develop as a person. It is Duke's commitment to being a local and a global force in everything from medicine to engineering that is so appealing and admirable. I feel like there is a large sense of ambition and initiative in the students, a community that I feel I would quickly be at home with.
I recently reread that first booklet, and I came across the same quote. If that student had been talking to me, I can definitively say that I would have emphatically agreed.
...discussing an encounter with another prospective student, who told him, "I don't even know you, but I think if you don't come to school here you're going to be missing out."
Just like the Gothic architecture is juxtaposed by a vibrant, modern city and a diverse student body, so are the many other facets of the university.
Duke maintains ties to the past, but is always looking ahead to the future in order to solve modern problems, which is what I believe to be what attracts me the most to the university.
To me, a degree is unimportant in a global context, unless one is able to actually apply their knowledge, and...
:)
which is what I believe to be what attracts me the most... sounds weird. Change it to "which is what I believe attracts me the most..."
I would not talk too much more about Duke Engage. I think it is long enough.... Unless, of course, you want to take something out that you believe is superfluous.... Anyway, great job on the essay. It sounds like you really want to go there. Good luck!
You got straight to the point and I think it worked really well. Just read it over really slowly once cause there is some awkward phrasing, But i think Duke will be hard pressed to decline your application.
Check out my cornell supplement essay :)
