<p>I visited duke on the 24th for the blue devil day program and fell in love with it. Besides the city of durham, I found that the weather, the campus, the students, and the faculty all created an exciting, unique and stimulating environment for undergraduates. However, my dad still has problems with the 40k price tag. I want to do BME but i'm not 100% sure on it. The thing with my dad is that he is willing to pay the 40k, but he needs to know that he's getting his value. On the other hand, i received regents at UCSD, which consistently ranks in the top 3 for biomedical engineering and is fairly close to our house in CA. My dad relies a lot on rankings and statistics, and from Duke's fairly low rating as #30 overall engineering from us news, he's a little confused. What about Duke is worth the 40k that surpasses rankings and will it still be a good choice if i want to do engineering outside of BME? And what are Duke's statistics about what kind of jobs undergrad engineers get from duke and how much do they earn? Any links or responses will be helpful, thanks.</p>
<p>I personally believe that at Duke i'll be able to grow indefinitely because of the strength of the students and just how brilliant everyone truly is. Whereas at ucsd, I personally know of some not so smart kids at my school who are attending that completely throw off my perception of what college should be. So, if anyone can clear anything up, thanks in advance.</p>
<p>Search posts by DukeEgr93 - they will more than likely answer your questions. As someone who went to LJHS and knows a lot of people at UCSD, I can tell you that Duke and UCSD are two very, very different schools. The spirit at Duke is infinitely stronger, as you probably know...here is an amazing, beautiful place to both live and learn. It's the quintissential undergraduate experience at a diverse university (more diverse that UCSD, I find). You will excel at either school...but as many posters here have said, they are glad they paid the extra money for 4 years they'll never regret and with preparation for outstanding careers. And I'd check this out re: rankings - <a href="http://www.bme.duke.edu/about/brief.php%5B/url%5D">http://www.bme.duke.edu/about/brief.php</a></p>
<p>I'm a PPS major, so I'm rather useless for details...but I can answer most any Duke-UCSD environment questions...</p>
<p>I'm a Trinity kid, so I very well could be wrong - but I believe that although Duke's overall engineering program is not ranked very high, the BME program itself is #2 in the country. That's why SO MANY Engineers here are BME - they're drawn to us because we're ranked so high, and a lot of people who want to go into another field of engineering (I say a lot, NOT all, because I know a bunch of non-BME Pratties) go somewhere else.</p>
<p>The pricetag of Duke is a definite downside, but in terms of academic strength, Duke (I believe) is much stronger for BME specifically. It's also a much stronger school should you decide to leave the Engineering program (don't dismiss this possibility - I know a TON of people who came in set on Pratt and wound up transferring to Trinity by the end of their 1st or 2nd semester here).</p>
<p>I am from san diego, currently a freshman at duke. My opinion (although very biased) is for duke. I am from san diego, and one of the main reasons why i didn't choose duke is because everyday after school ever since the fifth grade, i would take the bus from my high school (very close) to ucsd and spend some time working there with friends or just by myself because my parents work there. UCSD doesn't seem to have a social life at all, and even some of the freshmen are forced to live off campus because they simply don't have enough dorm room for everyone, so it is hard to form a strong class unity there. Their sports aren't that strong, they don't even have a football team, it is on club status.
Although over the past few years, they have improved the entire university dramatically and when i went back winter break, I saw them building the extension to the price center... so that might all change.</p>
<p>In the surrounding community category, ucsd definitely has it better there, a movie theater is really close by along with a shopping mall (including chiptotle), the beach is just one free public bus ride away (public bus there is really nice) a big shopping mall (UTC) is close by too. And the temperature is nice year around. Durham can't compare with this, but it does have shopping centers and places to eat but obviously it lags far behind.</p>
<p>But you are going to college for the college experience not the community, and I think you would definitely get better interactions with the professors at Duke than at UCSD (higher price tag gets you better stuff) and there are definitely more chances to be involved with research and other opportunities here than at UCSD. But then again, you did get the regents and it is highly prestigious in the uc system. But overall i think the regents will balance out to what you would get at duke normally. And it is hard to get the regents so I am sure you will be able to use the opportunities here fully.</p>