Background

I come from the small city of Tokmok in northern Kyrgyzstan, a city with around 50,000 people. I am from a family of a taxi driver and a housewife, and I have three brothers and one sister. Regarding my schooling, I attended public school №3 in Tokmok, where the curriculum was taught in Russian. My most loved subjects were Russian literature, Russian language, and mathematics. Through Russian language and literature, I learned how to tell my stories and share my ideas. In math, I found logic, always feeling good when I could find the right answer. So, I studied at my school from grade 3 to grade 11, except for my 10th grade, during which I was an exchange student for a year (2021-2022) in America through the FLEX program. I was hosted in the state of North Carolina.

Why I decided to study abroad

Ever since I was a kid, I have always told my parents and everyone around me that I am going to study in America. I didn’t know exactly how. My parents would ask me, “Do you know how people go to America?” I had no idea. But I was going to be in America. I didn’t know what kind of programs would take you, how to apply, or anything. I think it came from watching too many Hollywood movies, and it became my dream to be in America. As time went by, in middle school, I heard of a program called FLEX. In my 9th grade, I applied and got in on my first attempt. That was a “dreams come true” moment. 

So, I lived in North Carolina for one year with my host family, attending a public high school for my junior year. During this year, I matured greatly, learning new things. Life there felt different and even more amazing than in movies. The schools were better, with everyone having the same chances to succeed based on how hard they tried. It was a great experience, and I really enjoyed it. After this wonderful year, I came back to my country and finished my senior year. I didn’t want to study in local universities; I wanted to go back to the US. By that time, I had learned what steps I needed to take to pursue higher education in the US. To accomplish this, I needed some time, so I took a gap year. That is how I started my preparation for American universities.

My stats

• SAT: 1540 (770 reading&writing; 770 math)

• IELTS 8.0 (L: 8.5; R:8.5; W: 6.5; S: 8.5)

• GPA: 5.0 / 5.0 

Extracurriculars

After my exchange year, I worked at a Kyrgyz journalist agency’s IT department, translating documents between Kyrgyz, English, and Russian. My English fluency, gained in America, made me a go-to translator. One time what happened was I realized the amount of translation work was too much to do manually. The problem was, that tools like Google Translate at the time had a page limit – you could only translate about 10 pages at once. So, I and the IT team created a tool that removed this limitation. You could upload any document, even a book, regardless of its length. The tool would automatically break it down into 10-page sections, translate each section, and then put the whole translated document back together for you. That was one of my main extracurricular activities.  

Next, my extracurricular activities that made me a generally good applicant included an exchange year in America where I learned to play the trumpet, became a top tennis player, traveled to Washington DC, and founded a debate club and Model UN club at my American high school, as well as being high school president in Kyrgyzstan.

Lastly, my extracurriculars that helped explain my context include home chores. I had many of them, such as collecting and selling apples and raspberries from our garden, and teaching my younger brother for a year because he was too young for school, which shows my household responsibilities as the eldest child at home while my older brothers were away for studies.

Advice on ECs

Extracurricular activities play a great role in your application. They are as essential as your essays, if not more. They show what kind of things you've been up to during your high school: whether you've made some impact on your community or not. Your specific circumstances, including the types of opportunities you’ve had access to, are also evaluated. For example, if you are applying from New York, the benchmark for your extracurricular activities might be way higher than anyone applying from Kyrgyzstan or Tajikistan. That is because we don’t have many opportunities here. For this reason, you are compared with people from your region. 

Moving on to the types of extracurricular activities, I categorize them into three groups: first, activities directly related to your intended field of study; second, activities that demonstrate general skills and qualities sought by colleges; and third, less demanding pursuits such as hobbies. 

The most important thing is to make use of every resource you have in your region and be able to show that in your application. 

How to Explain your Context in your application

When you have the opportunity to write creatively, whether describing something or not, use it to provide context about your background. Admissions officers are already aware of the general regional context. For example, when you apply from Asia, they know you may not have the same opportunities as someone from America. Therefore, use your application to share additional context about your specific household and family situation. You can do this in your extracurricular descriptions, personal statement, diversity essays, or supplemental essays. The key is to include small, specific details that will be noticed by admissions officers. You don’t need to dedicate an entire essay to your context; even a small detail can provide a helpful hint.

Honors & Awards

My honors included first place in regional and city math olympiads, first place in English olympiads, and my exchange year in America (FLEX), which was my only international achievement (compared to leading United States universities, the FLEX program accepts only 2% of submitted applications). 

Recommendation Letters

Because I aimed for an international application, I gathered recommendations from two teachers a school counselor from Kyrgyzstan, and my host mother from the US. My host mom is a teacher at school, so she knew how to write strong letters of recommendation; I provided my Kyrgyz teachers with a brag sheet, asking them to include specific information about me.

In general, when it comes to recommendation letters, you don’t want your recommendation letters to be limited to only your school because your school persona might differ from who you are outside of that environment. Therefore, you should include perspectives from outside of school as well.

Personal Statement Essay

18th of December, 2023 is a date that I will remember forever because I remember by that time I didn't have a single piece of writing: neither my personal statement nor supplementals. I was really stressed out at that time because I had only 2 weeks until submission. But I managed to write a personal statement within a week (slept only about 3 hours a day; don’t recommend it) and kept editing it until submission. 

Using a steering wheel metaphor, my essay opened with an image of me as a child on my dad’s lap, my hands shaking and unable to control the wheel, almost crashing. This was a hook. Later in the essay, I was driving, and I had my dad as a passenger, a demonstration of character development. This metaphorical journey reflected my growth through learning math, doing an exchange year, programming, and other things excel in. As I learned to drive, I also improved in those areas.

I then used a circular hook: after introducing the initial idea, I sprinkled it throughout then circled back to it at the end, tying it to the future. I ended the essay by mentioning the steering wheel again: I stated that college approaching meant I would confidently take the wheel of my studies, prepared for any road ahead.

Advice on Personal Statement

I think one thing people often do is trauma dumping. I mean everyone has their own tragic story they can mention. You can include it in the essay, but that’s not the main point. The main point is to show how you developed and how you grew as a person. That’s what personal statements are about: how you came from point A to point B. 

Also, it’s important to mention that just because I wrote my essay within one week doesn’t mean you can do that too. I was able to do that because, as Abraham Lincoln famously said, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” Therefore, I had been brainstorming and improving my writing skills, which ultimately helped me write in a short period. So since many people struggle with writing personal statements, I would still recommend starting early.

Why Duke? 

I only considered applying to Duke in late December because I initially thought of it as a school unlikely to offer a full ride. Along with Duke, I applied to multiple other top universities such as Yale, the University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth, and Colby (waitlisted). Duke was my only acceptance. Even when writing supplemental essays for Duke, I felt a connection with this university. So I focused more on Duke supplementals; I think they were strong and played a crucial role in my acceptance.

Additionally, one of the other factors that made me choose Duke is that it is located in North Carolina, a state where I spent my exchange year. Duke provides a special college experience, the kind you see in movies, with a college town, mascots, and dorms where everyone lives together. That’s one of Duke’s appeals.

Secondly, Duke is a top school, ranked around number 6 in the US, and it’s strong in my field (Computer Science), being in the top 20 for computer science.

Another key point is Duke’s resources. Duke accepts fewer students than most top schools. Despite the small class size, its campus is big, with many resources, and its endowment is higher than the GDP of my country. This means a high ratio of resources per student.

Financial aid

I was awarded a full-ride scholarship, valued at approximately $400,000, for my undergraduate studies. This scholarship covers my tuition, accommodation, living expenses, medical insurance, and round-trip travel between Kyrgyzstan and the US.

My first week at Duke

My first week went as I had imagined it. I visited the Duke Gardens, even painted the stone wall of the bridge, and met new people. But it also included a lot of other things, like the pre-orientation week. Duke’s orientation week is awesome! When you’re accepted to Duke, you get to choose your orientation program. It can be about entrepreneurship, math, computer science, engineering, building rockets, swimming, or going to forests.

My roommate, for example, chose Project Wild, where they had to go to the Appalachian Mountains for a week and survive with the food they were provided, by upperclassmen. They had a wild experience, without showering or anything like that. 

I chose entrepreneurship, where we had conferences with startup owners. We made our own startup ideas and presented them. So that was my first week: orientation week, which I spent doing everything related to entrepreneurship and having fun with like-minded people. Advice: the best advice I can give to students who got in is to talk to a lot of people. The first week of university is a great time to talk to many people, make connections, and introduce yourself to the population.

Duke Traditions

One of Duke’s well-known traditions is burning the benches. So, every Duke dorm—whether an upperclass or freshman dorm—has its own benches. And every January, when we play against the University of North Carolina in basketball, if we win, we get to burn the benches. I’m excited for that; if we win, I’m going to be one of the first people to go and start putting fuel on the bench.

Another example would be climbing the theater we have on East Campus, which is pretty tall and big. Some people climb that at night, just run around it, and take some pictures before someone notices them.

Final Advice

I recommend improving your writing skills. Strong essays are essential for top universities. Spend time writing, editing, and seeking feedback from others on LinkedIn, Instagram, or Reddit, for example.

Also, connect with me on Telegram (@sulaimanslife) for college application advice and my journey!