I am a graduate of the University of Virginia and a resident of New Jersey...Chris Christie country...what is with the NJ comments?
CARY, NC is commonly referred to as the Containment Area for Relocated Yankees.
Still off topic, but one topic regarding the elite privates, such as Duke, with their rising tuition costs is the fact that their endowment funds are Billions of dollars. There was a study a few yrs back that Harvard could actually pay for every undergrad and grad their entire academic career just off the interest from endowments. I think that is why many are generally frustrated regarding how the rates have increased while Cost of Living has not kept up to that pace.
However, IMPO, the only people to blame are those who are willing to pay it. The minute colleges see a decrease in enrollment or quality of applicants they will address this situation.
The OP as others have stated if they are a minority, but an ORM, and not a URM this could impact the decision from admissions. Some colleges, do want diversity in the minority break down, and Duke has always been one of those schools, but with the make up of society changing, they may be looking for different minorities.
That is not to be said the male caucasian is boffed in admittance, because they are still the majority, it is just to say that it will play into the equation.
The OP should talk to their PMS, but at the same time be realistic and have a plan B for another college. Unfortunately it is not uncommon on this site for candidates to get a scholarship, but not the school, or get the school, but not the scholarship. That is why it is so important to "match" the schools list, having all reaches may be detrimental to them in the long run.
Finally regarding public universities, at least the 3 states that my kids are involved with, (MD. VA and NC), there are regulations about how many can be OOS compared to IS. They all vary, but not one accepts more than 30% from OOS, as patentesq pointed out these colleges are funded through state taxes. A couple of yrs ago VA was accepting about 30% from OOS, MD too, but when the economy hit the skids, parents started screaming how their kid couldn't get into the top IS schools, but they were accepting lower stat OOS kids. Both states changed it and now both accept no more than 25% from OOS.
I also agree with cb7893, many of the STEM classes are taught by foreign speaking TA's. These classes are difficult enough, but when you add a language barrier (accent) kids have even more issues because for some they are teaching themselves and that creates a gpa issue. For ROTC cadets this is a big deal since their OML is in part their gpa.
I can't recall which university it was, it was a large nationally known public university, but a couple of yrs ago they made news. They decided that all TA's must pass a proficiency test for language and speaking. It had mixed reactions, and I can see both sides of the debate. Students who had many TAs with thick accents were for this, but it also caused the argument of discrimination against these TA's.
The only reason I recall this is because my nephew was a TA at UIC while he was going for his doctorate and we discussed this at length about how he would feel or his peers that are TA's would feel if it occurred at his college. He was completely opposed to it, because in his eyes they earned their position from an academic level, and that should be the only thing that mattered. Ironically, my sister was totally for it and reminded him that when he was a fresh buck in college he complained how a grade in certain classes were low because he didn't understand the TA.
Like everything in life, it all depends on which side of the fence you are sitting on when it comes to the position you will take.