<p>I just finished reading some of your prior posts: I quote:</p>
<p>“I think Duke is on a downhill slide. The town/gown relations suck, and the freshman are stuffed on a different part of the university. Buses run all over the place wasting fuel, while the tour guides extol the virtues of “green Duke”.
I don’t think it can hold a candle to Penn (Wharton or non-Wharton) OR Chicago unless you want good basketball (which was really over-rated this year) or lacrosse and frats. One of my friends just visited Duke with her daughter and was so unimpressed that she told the daughter that she would not pay for a Duke education.”</p>
<p>You are certainly entitled to your opinion and have had no hesitancy in expressing it; however, I don’t think I misinterpreted your post at all.</p>
<p>If money wasn’t a factor, I would suggest Duke. Since it seems to be part of your consideration, I wouldn’t think twice about going to Rice. Duke is not worth the premium especially since Rice is just as good. Plus, you seem to like it better.</p>
<p>You did misinterpret my post in THIS thread. Since I made the post, I suspect I know what I meant to say. I am not a huge Duke fan, but I was responding IN THIS THREAD to this student who has a decision to make.</p>
<p>How important is it to go to a college with students who share your academic interests? Rice was full of vivaciuous and intellectually-driven potential classmates, but few of them seemed interested in political science or policy studies.</p>
<p>Would I grow more by rooming with a chemistry major and becoming friends with future engineers, or is the experience of surrounding myself with those who share my interests worth the extra cost?</p>
<p>Thanks so much to everyone who has opined about my difficult choice. I wish the best to others who face similar predicaments.</p>
<p>“I don’t think it can hold a candle to Penn (Wharton or non-Wharton) OR Chicago unless you want good basketball (which was really over-rated this year) or lacrosse and frats.”</p>
<p>Hahahahah. MomofWildChild spends too much time reading Rolling Stones and not enough time reading US News/THES/WSJ/anything that objectively looks at colleges.</p>
<p>Don’t spend too much time fretting about department rankings. You are about to be an undergraduate–not a graduate student–and it is the Ph.D program that is reflected in the rankings. Its true that, overall, Duke has a stronger political science department than Brandeis. Duke’s department is significantly larger–and therefore covers more subfields more in depth than the relatively small Brandeis faculty could possibly do. That is an important consideration to a graduate student in one of those particular subfields. It is virtually meaningless, however, to an undergraduate. You will not have sufficient time to go very deep into any subfield.</p>
<p>Brandeis’ political science department, while small, is nonetheless excellent. And in some subfields, IR for example, it is among the top programs. Professor Art, for example, while a full-time professor at Brandeis, is also on the faculty at Harvard and MIT. but if you speak to him you’ll learn that, for a variety of reasons, he prefers to teach at Brandeis. The cross-fertilization of faculty is an advantage of being in Boston that you won’t find in either Durham or Houston.</p>
<p>I love Brandeis and, if I were in your shoes, I would definitely choose Brandeis especially given your generous scholarship. The bottom line is that Brandeis has a lot of really high-achieving serious students and a strong politics department.</p>
<p>GregOden: going back to one of your earlier posts, you should not factor the possibility of going to law school into your present thinking. It’s no longer necessary to be an attorney to enter politics and, in addition, my advice is to go to law school only if you want (or really need) to study law, i.e. mainly to become an attorney.</p>
<p>Brandeis is a fine school for what you’re seeking. I don’t know enough about those subjects at Rice to comment. Brandeis’ offer of a research stipend should stand out in your mind, as the opportunity to do research as an undergrad is not always available at many schools.</p>
<p>But in the end you need to go to a school where you will feel comfortable enough to make the experience pleasant but not so comfortable that you don’t feel like stretching your comfort zone.</p>
<p>“How important is it to go to a college with students who share your academic interests? Rice was full of vivaciuous and intellectually-driven potential classmates, but few of them seemed interested in political science or policy studies.”</p>
<p>Well, you do need a core of folks who share your interests, and I’m sure you’d find them at Rice. My bigger concern would be that, if your future career is Washington-focused, you’d likely find significantly more future colleagues at Brandeis.</p>
<p>You will get significantly more connections at Brandeis due to locations and the type of student body: very serious workers who come from very serious families. Just be aware that many students of Brandeis have stated in the past that for minorities, Brandeis might be a bit difficult socially due to the strong unity between the extremely high Jewish population of what used to be well over 50% but has hovered at 50% in more recent years.</p>
<p>Anyway, if you come to a decision, it would be nice if you let us know.</p>
<p>Hi. I happen to be a political science major at Rice. I also chose Rice over Duke. Mostly because of the vibe/ atmosphere here. Equal finaid, equal bottom line price. There are a wealth of great political science professors here who know their sh’tuff inside and out.</p>
<p>And FYI, I know several poli sci majors from my college who got summer internships in D.C. And I don’t know that many poli sci majors from my college. I personally haven’t done one, but that’s because of my ever changing career plans that you probably don’t want to hear about.</p>
<p>Bigger Duke alumni network? C’mon. The school has only twice the graduating undergrads. The Rice alumni network is very close and connected; they will really go out of their way to help you. I have already experienced hospitality from practical strangers and I haven’t even graduated yet.</p>
<p>I’m not from Texas and I’ll admit the Rice name is obviously bigger in Texas. And once in a blue moon (a total of twice this school year I suppose), some less intelligent person back home will say, “Duke? You turned down Duke?!” But let me just say, despite the occasion self-deprecation humor of the campus here (the girls, the guys, general nerdiness, hedonism), this is a great f-ing place. I’m only halfway done but it’s been a life-altering experience here - I obviously don’t know what would have been somewhere else or at Duke - but frankly I don’t care.</p>
<p>I mean only you can make the decision here… you have to go with your gut instincts and be completely honest with yourself… if you want Duke you want Duke and if you want Rice you want Rice… but 30k? Christ, go to Rice and buy yourself a new Lexus or a steak dinner every night. Go Owls.</p>
<p>P.S. … you said that being a ‘wet campus’ reduces the amount of binge drinking at Rice?</p>
<p>ha… haha… hahahahahahahahahah!! God Bless America.</p>
<p>I love both schools and think that they offer a superior undergraduate experience, in and out of the classroom, when compared with nearly any other college in the USA. I also believe that both (particularly Rice) are very underrated on CC and in the world of academia. But in the real world, Duke and Rice are both powers (Duke’s brand is better known and more broadly distributed, but Rice adherents know its quality) and students coming from either do very, very well. </p>
<p>As I read this thread, it looks like you like Rice better, it will cost you less, and there are lots of folks providing comments and examples that you can succeed in your chosen field coming from Rice. In this instance, I’m struggling to see a compelling argument for Duke. Go to Rice.</p>
<p>Since you intuitively seem to like Rice the best, go to it! (plus, its a lot cheaper than Duke). Don’t let other people try to change your opinions</p>