<p>I’d like to respond to this portion of someone’s statement:
“That said, I don’t like Duke’s social environment at all from what I’ve seen so far- I’m not a partier, I don’t like sports, the hook-up culture is a huge turn-off, and Greek life often seems silly and vapid. So how feasible is it to avoid those aspects of social life? Can one still find an atmosphere of quirky, intellectually thirsty people at Duke? I figure you can… but where can I best seek it out?” </p>
<p>It is very possible to avoid this social aspect of Duke, which is also present at many student institutions. As a Duke student, Greek life does not appeal to me at all. Instead, I rushed a selective living group (Round Table) [Pillars</a> | Round Table](<a href=“Sites@Duke Express – sites.duke.edu”>Sites@Duke Express – sites.duke.edu) which is awesome. Even before that, I made many friends through my dorm and classes who would rather sit around talking about the individual mandate than going out and getting excessively intoxicated. Essentially, Duke has all kinds of people. It is up to YOU to decide which part of the social scene you will be a part of. The people you want to be around will not be hard to find. For someone like me, Duke is perfect because I enjoy going out on occasion (to non-Greek events generally) but it is not the focus of my time here. </p>
<p>Since the OP already has made the decision, I won’t go on with more awesome things about the AB and Duke, although I certainly could. Anyone else who has questions about the program or Duke should feel free to message me or post on the Facebook group.</p>
<p>While I’m a current student at Duke, I’d probably go to Harvard in this situation. The people you’ll meet there are unparalleled. Duke students are smart and driven, don’t get me wrong and plenty are just as smart as those at Harvard but the overall environment at Harvard is much more intellectual and driven.</p>
<p>Duke is much more social and “funner”. I recently visited Harvard and it was very restricted in the social sense. I feel that going to Duke would be much better for your social life.</p>
<p>I have to agree with cornetking222. I’m reading this forum to get an idea of what others are saying who are weighing H or P over a well funded Duke (or in my D’s case – Vanderbilt). My D got into Princeton, Duke, Carnegie, Yale, Wash u…and received distinguised merit awards for Vand and UVA. </p>
<p>Yet, the choice still remains whether to pay more to go to Princeton. She is also not into greeks, parties, and sports but prefers more intellectual choice. IF the choice is not right, no matter how much money they throw at you, if you are miserable, it will reflect in your attitude towards your education.</p>
<p>While P is giving us more money than Duke and the others except for the full rides, we are going to leave the decision up to our D – of course she will be armed with all of the financial information necessary to make a truly informed decision. Good luck.</p>
<p>I agree with cornetking to a certain extent. Duke will have the same proportion of really smart kids as harvard. The distinguishing factor is that the kids that attend harvard will probably be more driven. At the end of the day hardwork and perseverence trump raw talent, and that is why harvard grads are the best in the world because not only are they phenomenally talented, but also tremendously driven. Having said that, the OP would do well not to disregard the importance of acquiring social skills. After all, our sociability is what distinguishes us as human beings. Duke would arguably provide the OP with a better opportunity to fine tune his social skills, and that is something that should be given some consideration.</p>
<p>Having read through some of the comments, I wouldn’t agree that Duke has the same proportion of intelligent people as Harvard does. Neither do I believe that Duke would provide a better opportunity to tune your social skills; I believe someone can tune their social skills at any university by reaching out and getting to know people. With that said, I do believe that the financial benefits and to a smaller extent, the academic benefits accrued from the scholarship increase the incentive to go to Duke significantly.</p>
<p>I’ve resisted posting in the thread until now, but I can’t resist any longer. From a parent’s perspective there is no choice. Yes, I’ve saved from my income to pay for college from the day my oldest child was born. Yes, I would like to give all four of my children the gift of graduating from college with little to no student loan debt. But if anyone of them gets a scholarship offer from a college they choose to apply to as generous as the AB Duke and turns it down? Well, let’s put it this way, I will expect to be paid back the amount of the scholarship. I’ll make it a no interest loan but I’ll still expect to be paid back.</p>
<p>@secret, maybe I was being a little too cute with the social skills aspect. However, I resent the fact that you think Harvard has more intelligent students than Duke. For one thing, it is difficult to quantify intelligence, however, if you look at SAT scores which do correlate roughly to IQ scores, you notice that there isn’t much variance between the scores of Duke kids and Harvard kids. So how can we arbitrarily determine that Harvard grads are smarter than Duke grads?</p>
<p>Dukvard and others who are dismissing the value of a FREE Duke education are utterly out of touch with the real world. Depending on what they studied, there are a huge number of Harvard and other Ivy grads who are serving coffee at Starbucks, or flat out unemployed. As for thinking that $250K can be easily repaid, well…wake UP. Even the most lucrative jobs will NOT allow you to repay fully before you are middle-aged…so a life of debt looms for many if they incur a lot of it in college.
Besides, the “aura” of an Ivy education dims shockingly fast except for those who can parlay the “network” into a job amongst the Wall Street big money houses or Hedge Funds. Even that may be elusive or discredited in the future given the economy and the travesties of the last decade. The GREAT MAJORITY of Ivy grads end up in mid-pay type jobs, and if they have a lot of debt…well, tough luck.
I am an extremely highly paid MD and had zero debt from college/med. school. I do have colleagues from middle class backgrounds whe are still paying off med. school debt 20 years after graduation. And by the way, at least in Medicine, once you are an MD, NO ONE gives the remotest damn about where you went to college. In fact, there seems to be ZERO correlation between the quality of a doctor and the college attended. However, top colleges WILL help you get into med. school. Both Duke and harvard will do that. Those who think that they MUST go to Harvard just so they can savour the memory for life are unwittingly buying into a delusion when it comes to real life priorities later on.</p>
<p>I can understand the sentiment and perhaps I wouldn’t actually do that. I do have 4 college educations to pay for, if it were an only child I might feel differently. The main point I was making is that all things being equal, the student should choose a school but when a full scholarship (plus studying at Oxford) is on the table from one school, well, all things aren’t equal anymore. If the student is paying the bill - go for what will make you happiest. But if Mom and Dad are footing the bill, well, then Mom and Dad and their financial situation deserve to be factored into the choice, especially if med/law/grad school are part of the equation too. That said, I would never make my child apply to a college that they weren’t willing to attend. </p>
<p>Harvard is a great school. Go read my post in the Duke/Harvard premed thread. As wonderful as Harvard is, it’s not $250,000 better than Duke. </p>
<p>Also, tortoise, I’m probably glad you aren’t my kid. Cheers back.</p>
<p>^oliver007–it is certainly not the case that no one cares about where you went to college once you have your MD. Where you went to college, and where you go to medical school, can greatly influence networking, leadership opportunities, academic advancement, and even patient referrals–you may be right for some professional positions or jobs, and certainly being a “good doctor” does not require going to a top undergraduate school, but it is certainly misleading to say that your undergraduate college has no impact or influence when you consider all potential physician roles and occupations.</p>
<p>I repeat: Once you are an MD, NO ONE gives a damn where you went to college. At least not in the world of Medicine. You see, your standing/skills/attitudes as a PHYSICIAN are a thousand times more relevant than a relic like college credentials. The same way once you get into a top college, NO ONE gives a damn where you went to middle sachool!!! I do believe that a great college will help getting into med. school. I did all of my specialty training at MGH/Brigham, and if any credential matters to people in the real world of medicine, it is perhaps that. They do NOT give a whit about college. There is really no way for me to see it differently based upon every day realities. In fact, if any MD tried to get some cache based upon his/her college pedigree, they would be viewed with amusement or subtle scorn. We are on to far more important concerns and endeavours as MDs. College pedigrees for MDs are precious, but mostly in the world of fellow alumni.</p>
<p>oliver007, we might know each other. The only time I discuss undergraduate institutions with my doctor/researcher colleagues is in March when we’re filling out our brackets.</p>
<p>@medman, the only Georgetown grad I know is always right in the mix! We have a standing bet every year - we go out to lunch, if Georgetown goes farther in the tourney, I buy. If it’s Duke, he buys. And I go to at least one Harvard basketball game every year, best value sports ticket in Boston, I can take the whole family for $60!</p>
<p>Oliver007 is correct. Once you are in medical school, no one cares at all where you went to college. If your ultimate goal is to get a job to practice medicine and make a decent living, almost no one cares where you went to medical school. All that really matters is whether or not you are board certified. A major exception is if you intend to remain in academics and pursue research, in which case research experience in medical school and completing your residency in an academically focused program is important. medman seems to have worked hard to get into medical school at hopkins - kudos to him. Nonetheless, with a very few exceptions, it won’t matter a bit in the end whether he attended a “top 10” med school or his state university.</p>
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