<p>I rarely post on CC anymore, now that I'm actually AT Duke, but I thought this was important. Not only is this guy amazingly talented, but he manages to include soooo many awesome Duke-related things. Just so you know, this is the most well-rounded, incredible school in the world. </p>
<p>Hands down. </p>
<p>I know people who party and drink 4 nights a week, yet still set the curve on their Orgo and Econ midterms.<br>
I have friends from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Egypt, England, Vietnam, France, Korea, South Africa, etc. etc. etc.<br>
I know a world-famous decathlete and numerous performance pianists.<br>
I know people who turned down Oxbridge, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and every other school imaginable for this place. </p>
<p>^ Not true, at least in my case. I’m not aware of any statistics, but the 2 friends I have in mind specifically turned down those places absolutely voluntarily, without regard to money.</p>
<p>Wow calm down he’s a freshman just meeting people. There is a lot of overlap within applicant pools and matriculation at top schools, especially HYMPS, Penn, Columbia, and Duke. Not saying that Duke pulls as many amazing people as Harvard, but still. You’d be surprised.</p>
<p>^ Duke loses cross-admit battles with all these schools you named: HYPSM, Penn, Columbia, etc. Not to mention the other non-HYP Ivies, Caltech, WASP and even Notre Dame (lol).</p>
<p>@interestingguy. Not sure what your vendetta against Duke is. You seem to be bashing Duke in all your recent posts, so something must be up. Duke is a very strong school, just as the other ones you listed are. I think we can all accept that and people choose a school largely based on fit. Also, that article is based on hypothetical matchups from students that didn’t actually necessarily get into both. Not sure how that scientific methodology passed NY Times standards.</p>
<p>According to the article here ([Duke</a> Magazine-Top of the Crop by Jacob Dagger-January/February 2006](<a href=“Duke Mag”>Duke Mag)), Duke only gets about 15% of cross-admitted students to HYPSM. Against brown, Columbia, Dartmouth, and Penn, Duke gets around 50%. And it gets about 80% of students in recruiting battles with Georgetown, Chicago, WashU, Northwestern, and Cornell.</p>
<p>Long story short - it’s hard to to know what source is right. But Duke is one of the finest institutions in the country. It’s also pretty accepted that it generally loses cross-admits to HYPSM. As does every school in the country except those 5. BTW, I know a few people who chose Duke BME over Harvard as well with no scholarships at Duke.</p>
<p>And a Duke alumni magazine article about Duke is “scientific”??? Sorry if I don’t trust a source with a self-interested agenda.</p>
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<p>Well, considering that Harvard engineering is lousy, that’s understandable. That being said, BME is a niche major. A mechanical engineering degree from Stanford, MIT or Caltech is much more valuable.</p>
<p>Update from . . . the New York Times:
“Scientific studies show that interestingguy was rejected from Duke. Not only that, but Dean Guttentag also sent him a handwritten note, explaining that ‘we prefer not to associate with anuses at Duke, especially ones who couldn’t compete here anyway.’ Interestingguy’s destination remains unknown, but it appears that he will either take a year off to sit at home alone and mope or will attend a school with other antisocial (in fact, quasi-sociopathic), uninteresting, mediocre anuses. Potential career choices include anything in which he’ll work in a cubicle. Like the Narrator from Fight Club, his lack of talent and social skills may drive him to attend group therapy sessions and/or attempt to start an international gang. Whatever he does, it’s likely he will fail.”
^ Remember, it’s “scientific,” because, of course, ANYthing and EVERYthing the New York Times prints in its miserably biased rag is the word of God himself, a modern-day Bible of journalistic truth.</p>
<p>P.S. I have yet to meet a single person who was rejected from anywhere below the top 8 or 9. Not one. Not from Cornell, not from Georgetown, nowhere. We may lose a bunch of Performance Art and Gender Studies majors to Yale, but we’re perfectly happy with our pre-meds, pre-laws, and future I-bankers.
As the rapper in my original post says, we “produce,” week in and week out.</p>
<p>P.P.S. I can personally guarantee any prospective applicant who’s interested in partying that you will have far more fun at Duke than anywhere else in the top 10. There is no other school of decent academic reputation that can match the non-exclusivity and sheer quantity of our parties. If you want, you can go out every single Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I have friends who go out on Tuesdays. I’m sure there’s SOMEthing happening on Mondays.<br>
That being said, if you think alcohol is the urine of Satan, that is absolutely fine. Out of the 100 or so freshmen in my dorm, I would say that 20-25 drink on a weekly basis. The other 70-75 are perfectly happy, and have plenty of friends, including me.</p>
<p>Michael Corleone: Just when I thought I was out…they pull me back in. (Godfather III)</p>
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<p>Nope. I rejected Duke and I liked it.</p>
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<p>I actually met the man. Guttentag came up for an informational (recruiting) session at my NYC hs. He was practically begging us to apply to Duke. Imagine trying to sell a school to kids who fully intend to use it as a backup. </p>
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<p>My destination is a school to which Duke loses 90%+ cross-admits. Care to guess which one? You have at least five or six choices.</p>
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<p>Unlike you, I’ve failed to end up at a basketball factory. You got me there.</p>
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<p>Not only is the NY Times biased against Duke, but also the Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper fabricated the collegiate matchups just to make Duke look bad. <em>rolls eyes</em></p>
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<p>Do Duke students talk about rejection all the time?</p>
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<p>I can personally guarantee any prospective applicant that Duke will be out of the US News top 10 by the time s/he graduates. Duke has already dropped seven slots in eleven years. The path of least resistance goes downward. You can ask recent graduates what it’s like to see their Duke degrees devalue. Good luck with that.</p>
<p>InterestingGuy get a life. Duke is a top 10 school, is the number 6 feeder school in the nation–meaning we send more kids to top law and med schools than most other schools in that nation, has a very, very inflated presence on Wall Street and in the top echelons of business and politics, etc.</p>
<p>In other words, its one of the top schools in the United States, just like JHU, Cornell, Penn, Georgetown, WashU, or Dartmouth (all places I and many other Duke students turned down). </p>
<p>While many Duke students turn down the schools listed above for Duke, the opposite occurs sometimes too. Moreover, many Harvard students turn down not only Duke but also many other schools that aren’t in the top 5. </p>
<p>So please, stop being such an antagonistic prick and get a life.</p>
<p>I think the kids at Duke can be put into five groups [not in order of absolute number]</p>
<p>1) ED
2) BME kids [Engineering ACT for 2012 was 32-35]
3) “HYPSM” Reject, the next best option
4) RD kids whose reach was Duke, mostly local NC kids
5) RD kids who didn’t apply to HYPSM, and chose Duke over some peer schools [ie Penn, NU. Tons of Duke students applied to Penn and NU.]</p>
<p>InterestingGuy, with all the sincerity I can offer, I’ve got to say you really sound like a *<strong><em>bag. I’m not going to get into why I disagree with you’re generic arguments or why your comments serve no useful (read: helpful to others, not your ego) purpose on this forum, but here’s some advice: I’ve never, not once, been jealous of an </em></strong>, no matter how many amazing things have been handed to them. Your desperate attempts to hold on to some misconceived self-image of intellectual superiority by bashing complete strangers are a sign of enormous insecurity, and if you’ve ever studied Freud (which I’m sure you’ll say you have), you’d understand that. If you were accepted to the most prestigious school, graduated at the top of your class, and went on to have the most successful career, I’d still pity the fact that you’re so angry and self-absorbed. And even if you shrug off everything I have to say, in the end, it doesn’t matter. If you keep acting like a wise-cracking prick, you’re going to realize one day that all the things you’ve worked for still won’t be enough to make you happy.</p>
<p>And if you were wondering, yes, I am a Duke student. Of course that means that I am “biased”, but to be perfectly honest, I don’t care about college rankings or what Duke-lovers and Duke-bashers are quibbling about at any given moment. I go to Duke because I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here, and if I hadn’t, I would transfer. That being said, I tried to base my opinion of you not on what you said but rather how you said it, so please don’t automatically assume that just because I’m a Dukie, you’re still God’s gift to us all.</p>
<p>Seriously why are we still having this argument? If “InterestingGuy” (read: ■■■■■) wants to come to the Duke boards (a school he’s not even attending) and stir up some controversy (all the while double posting) why are we even responding and encouraging him? Let him and his terrible manners be, at least we know that at Duke we have more class. Let whatever “school to which Duke loses 90%+ cross-admits” take him, it’s doing us all a favor. Just be thankful that the students at Duke don’t have to put up with his pathetic self in real life everyday.</p>
<p>mods: Can we not get rid of this guy? He’s obviously doing such great things with his life that he sits around the Duke boards ■■■■■■■■ all day.</p>
