<p>I have to make the most important decision of my life thus far in a few days, and I want to make sure all my bases are covered so I can decide and never look back.</p>
<p>My options: Duke University, with the AB Duke Scholarship, or Harvard.</p>
<p>Pros/cons of both? Disregard money for tuition, but consider the money that I'd receive for research as an AB Duke. For those of you who don't know, the AB Duke is a scholarship given to about 15 students each year at Duke and includes full tuition, funding and grants for research, one or two semesters of Study Abroad, and a six-week summer experience at Oxford the summer after my freshman year.</p>
<p>Some things to consider:
1. I haven't decided on a major yet, but I'm interested in medicine, especially with a global health/humanitarian angle.
2. I'm from Charleston, SC. Harvard would be an entirely new region of the country for me, which could either not matter or be a good thing, depending on how you look at it. I'm already at home at Duke. My sister graduated from there a few years ago, and I'm been on campus during the summers and such. I know people there, and I know the campus. Again, it could be something that either works for or against Duke.
3. This isn't a significant factor, but I need to at least acknowledge it -- name/prestige. Yes, Harvard is certainly more prestigious than Duke, but would the benefits of being an AB Duke outweigh the benefits of being a normal, undistinguished undergraduate at Harvard? Keep in mind that I'd be looking to attend medical school, potentially.</p>
<p>Any advice would greatly be appreciated! Thanks!</p>
<p>P.S. I've posted this in other sections too, so I can hopefully get as much advice as possible. Hope that's okay.</p>
<p>go to Duke
it would pretty dumb to turn down arguably the best merit scholarship availible for Harvard, when there is barely any difference between the two institutions</p>
<p>duke hands down. even if money isn't a problem it 1. is nice to not have to pay much 2. allows you to have money for professional school 3.affords you experiences (summer at Oxford) that you wouldn't have at harvard. The only "pro" for harvard is a slightly better name, which in my mind isn't worth it.</p>
<p>A friend of mind, who's from Philadelphia, got a full merit scholarship to Penn (I forget what it's called) but went to Harvard instead. She told me that if she had gone to Penn, she would've always wondered what Harvard might have been like.</p>
<p>She wasn't a superstar at Harvard, but did reasonably well, and went to Yale Medical School. She also met her husband at Harvard.</p>
<p>Obviously she would've saved quite a bit of money if she had gone to Penn, but as far as I know she's never regretted her decision.</p>
<p>
[quote]
duke hands down. even if money isn't a problem it 1. is nice to not have to pay much 2. allows you to have money for professional school 3.affords you experiences (summer at Oxford) that you wouldn't have at harvard. The only "pro" for harvard is a slightly better name, which in my mind isn't worth it.
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<p>Your points 1 and 2 relate specifically to finances, something the OP said was not a factor. As for point 3, it is extremely possible to spend a summer in Oxford as a Harvard student. Harvard even offers its own programs in Oxford. There's also funding available for summer study abroad.</p>
<p>ske293,
None of the ivy league schools have any merit scholarships because it is against their agreement. They only give out need-based aid and scholarships.</p>
<p>"None of the ivy league schools have any merit scholarships because it is against their agreement. They only give out need-based aid and scholarships."</p>
<p>Yes, that is the stated policy, but these schools do actually give out a very tiny number of merit-based scholarships to superstars, typically less than two dozen, and they are usually called Presidential Scholars or Centennial Scholars, etc. You never hear about them because such few people get them. Even Harvard gives out something called National Scholarships, which is almost never the full scholarship but usually amount to at least a couple of thousand dollars. Penn gives out full scholarships.</p>
<p>Ivy League schools are not supposed to give you admissions decisions until April, either. But some people do find out early in the form of "likely" letters. There are always exceptions to the rule.</p>
<p>For whatever it may be worth, my son passed up a tuition-free scholarship to the University of Chicago to attend Harvard. We live in the Chicago area and the main factor in his decision - by far - was his desire to live in another (and very different) part of the country while going to college. The drive to experience life in some other place can be very powerful.</p>
<p>One possible reason to consider Harvard is that - given its distance from your home, the national and international diversity of its student body, and the multitude of opportunities it affords (of which the classes are just the beginning) - it might be more likely to provide you with experiences, and to help you to grow and change in ways, that you cannot even envision at this point in your life.</p>
<p>At the risk of stating the obvious: This is not to take anything away from Duke; I'm sure that there are many very strong reasons to go there (some of which have already been noted in this thread).</p>
<p>Cornell has Presidential Research Scholars, which would reduce loans and summer earnings if you are on financial aid and/or provide a research stipend to all participants. It's far from a full scholarship though.</p>
<p>Penn doesn't give out full merit scholarships
Your friend probably recieved one of their need-based scholarships
I got the Trustee Scholarship from Penn which covered 33k, and it stated in their letter that it was a need-based scholarship</p>
<p>Barnard has Centennial Scholarships, which provides "Stipends of $4000, for travel, books, materials or technical instruction not available within the regular Barnard curriculum are provided to each Scholar."</p>
<p>Columbia has the Rabi Scholars, who get guaranteed funding for summer research (which isn't really a scholarship) and a free room for the summer (which I guess might be viewed as a scholarship if it makes the effective compensation higher than what other summer RA's get.)</p>
<p>Do a Google search for "Harvard National Scholar". People list it on their resumes, and if it were strictly a need-based aid, they wouldn't be doing that. </p>
<p>It's possible that Harvard changed the National Scholarship into a pure need-based aid in the past 2-3 years but it certainly wasn't the case five years ago.</p>